WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.630 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.630 --> 00:00:01.130 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:01.130 --> 00:00:01.880 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Nicole. 00:00:01.880 --> 00:00:02.990 align:middle line:90% And thank you, John. 00:00:02.990 --> 00:00:04.910 align:middle line:84% I love that-- I love that poem a lot. 00:00:04.910 --> 00:00:06.650 align:middle line:90% And I love the-- 00:00:06.650 --> 00:00:10.370 align:middle line:84% I'm working on a big project that I can't talk too much 00:00:10.370 --> 00:00:13.220 align:middle line:84% about, but I'm working on a big project on Stagger Lee 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:13.970 align:middle line:90% right now. 00:00:13.970 --> 00:00:18.950 align:middle line:84% And the history of Stagger Lee toasts and just like 00:00:18.950 --> 00:00:21.640 align:middle line:84% world building around the Stagger Lee actual story. 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:24.482 align:middle line:90% And so what a great convergence. 00:00:24.482 --> 00:00:26.690 align:middle line:84% I'm going to close by reading a poem that's not mine, 00:00:26.690 --> 00:00:27.315 align:middle line:90% if that's cool. 00:00:27.315 --> 00:00:30.470 align:middle line:90% 00:00:30.470 --> 00:00:32.240 align:middle line:84% It was just Arthur Lee's birthday, 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:34.160 align:middle line:90% Arthur Lee from the band Love. 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:37.670 align:middle line:84% And he is a musician-- a black musician 00:00:37.670 --> 00:00:42.680 align:middle line:84% who lost time in his late career to incarceration. 00:00:42.680 --> 00:00:45.110 align:middle line:84% And there are many black musicians of lost time 00:00:45.110 --> 00:00:46.820 align:middle line:90% incarcerated, Billie Holiday. 00:00:46.820 --> 00:00:50.538 align:middle line:90% I mean, the list is pretty long. 00:00:50.538 --> 00:00:52.830 align:middle line:84% And in some cases, like in the case of Arthur Lee, that 00:00:52.830 --> 00:00:57.030 align:middle line:84% has altered their trajectory of living, 00:00:57.030 --> 00:00:59.647 align:middle line:84% as it did for Eddie Hazel, who I think about-- 00:00:59.647 --> 00:01:01.230 align:middle line:84% I think about Eddie Hazel all the time 00:01:01.230 --> 00:01:08.772 align:middle line:84% because I think Eddie Hazel has performed one of the-- 00:01:08.772 --> 00:01:10.230 align:middle line:84% Maggot Brain is one of the greatest 00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:13.590 align:middle line:84% pieces of music ever performed by a human playing 00:01:13.590 --> 00:01:14.430 align:middle line:90% an instrument. 00:01:14.430 --> 00:01:18.510 align:middle line:84% But shortly after that, his career 00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:21.660 align:middle line:84% never flourished in the way that it could have. 00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:23.280 align:middle line:90% He was jailed in 1973. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:25.500 align:middle line:84% He had disputes with Parliament-Funkadelic 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:28.320 align:middle line:84% over distribution of payments in the early '70s. 00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:31.020 align:middle line:90% 00:01:31.020 --> 00:01:33.120 align:middle line:84% And he never got on track in the way 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.100 align:middle line:84% that someone of his immense talent might have. 00:01:36.100 --> 00:01:36.930 align:middle line:90% And I think about-- 00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:40.440 align:middle line:84% when I didn't start writing poems 'till like 2011. 00:01:40.440 --> 00:01:44.437 align:middle line:84% And one of the first poems I ever read like in my life. 00:01:44.437 --> 00:01:46.020 align:middle line:84% When I was coming up, teachers weren't 00:01:46.020 --> 00:01:49.030 align:middle line:84% teaching living poets or much poetry at all in the school. 00:01:49.030 --> 00:01:51.210 align:middle line:84% So one of the first poems I read by a living poet 00:01:51.210 --> 00:01:54.000 align:middle line:84% was the poem, Maggot Brain by Adrian Matejka. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:57.540 align:middle line:84% And it was the first poem I read where I was like, oh, shit. 00:01:57.540 --> 00:01:59.965 align:middle line:84% I can do-- because my whole thing was like-- well, 00:01:59.965 --> 00:02:00.840 align:middle line:90% I was a music critic. 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:02.465 align:middle line:84% So I was like, why would I write poems? 00:02:02.465 --> 00:02:04.230 align:middle line:84% I just want to write about musicians. 00:02:04.230 --> 00:02:06.150 align:middle line:84% I just want to write about like music shit. 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:08.639 align:middle line:84% And I read Maggot Brain, and I was like, oh, this is it. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:11.100 align:middle line:90% I can do this. 00:02:11.100 --> 00:02:14.360 align:middle line:84% And I think he does a good job of capturing 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.017 align:middle line:84% the story behind Maggot Brain that people remember and talk 00:02:17.017 --> 00:02:18.600 align:middle line:84% about a lot, is George Clinton telling 00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:21.070 align:middle line:84% Eddie Hazel play like your mama died-- play like your mama 00:02:21.070 --> 00:02:21.570 align:middle line:90% just died. 00:02:21.570 --> 00:02:24.510 align:middle line:84% But the full quote is much-- to me, much more interesting. 00:02:24.510 --> 00:02:26.430 align:middle line:84% Because what he's actually asking to do was 00:02:26.430 --> 00:02:30.630 align:middle line:84% consider a world where someone who has loved him all his life 00:02:30.630 --> 00:02:31.663 align:middle line:90% is no longer present. 00:02:31.663 --> 00:02:33.330 align:middle line:84% And he has to take measure of everything 00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:35.610 align:middle line:84% happening in the world, and find a way to carry on. 00:02:35.610 --> 00:02:36.985 align:middle line:84% But to me, that's more thoughtful 00:02:36.985 --> 00:02:38.730 align:middle line:84% than just play like your mama had died. 00:02:38.730 --> 00:02:41.340 align:middle line:84% But I get that the soundbite has to be the soundbite. 00:02:41.340 --> 00:02:44.590 align:middle line:84% I know how music mythology has its soundbite, 00:02:44.590 --> 00:02:46.060 align:middle line:90% so it's got to be. 00:02:46.060 --> 00:02:48.810 align:middle line:84% But I wanted to read Maggot Brain by Adrian Matejka 00:02:48.810 --> 00:02:51.780 align:middle line:84% because I think it does such a good job of humanizing 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:55.530 align:middle line:84% Eddie Hazel in the full life he lived. 00:02:55.530 --> 00:02:59.610 align:middle line:84% So this is Maggot Brain for Eddie Hazel by Adrian Matejka. 00:02:59.610 --> 00:03:02.760 align:middle line:90% 00:03:02.760 --> 00:03:05.430 align:middle line:90% Jawbone used for a washboard. 00:03:05.430 --> 00:03:08.700 align:middle line:84% Scrape of knuckles, welped skin from washing bumps, 00:03:08.700 --> 00:03:12.000 align:middle line:84% from washing needles or mosquitoes or fish scale rails, 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:12.930 align:middle line:90% maggot brain. 00:03:12.930 --> 00:03:15.300 align:middle line:90% Teeth sticking along dream. 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:17.370 align:middle line:84% Click of brain, click of mouse trap 00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:19.050 align:middle line:90% on the four fingered way down. 00:03:19.050 --> 00:03:21.870 align:middle line:84% Click, that's what happens when George Clinton says, 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:23.760 align:middle line:90% play like your mama just died. 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:25.680 align:middle line:84% Everything else becomes a handful 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:27.330 align:middle line:90% of stomach aches, maggot brain. 00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:30.930 align:middle line:84% The cavity of a jail cell smells like everything a man wants 00:03:30.930 --> 00:03:33.420 align:middle line:90% gone, not funky but nasty. 00:03:33.420 --> 00:03:35.340 align:middle line:84% Not nasty because no one's trying 00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:36.630 align:middle line:90% to shake you in the shower. 00:03:36.630 --> 00:03:39.090 align:middle line:84% It's just a big timeout with baloney sandwiches 00:03:39.090 --> 00:03:40.170 align:middle line:90% and bad fruit. 00:03:40.170 --> 00:03:43.740 align:middle line:84% Jail is a mouth full of twitches and aches, maggot brain. 00:03:43.740 --> 00:03:46.050 align:middle line:84% Ain't you supposed to rise to the top of this mess 00:03:46.050 --> 00:03:47.580 align:middle line:90% like some replicated heart? 00:03:47.580 --> 00:03:49.560 align:middle line:84% Ain't that extra chamber below the frets 00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:50.980 align:middle line:90% in charge of breathing? 00:03:50.980 --> 00:03:53.610 align:middle line:84% I hear that thing wheezing like a breath still trying 00:03:53.610 --> 00:03:54.510 align:middle line:90% to breathe. 00:03:54.510 --> 00:03:57.150 align:middle line:84% Maggot brain, somebody, someplace 00:03:57.150 --> 00:03:59.310 align:middle line:90% is losing a mama right now. 00:03:59.310 --> 00:04:00.450 align:middle line:90% Go, maggot brain. 00:04:00.450 --> 00:04:01.305 align:middle line:90% Go, maggot brain. 00:04:01.305 --> 00:04:04.180 align:middle line:90% 00:04:04.180 --> 00:04:04.680 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.200 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:04:07.200 --> 00:04:11.340 align:middle line:84% Thank you, Hanif, for reading that poem by Adrian Matejka. 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:15.030 align:middle line:84% Adrian's actually going to be on our podcast-- 00:04:15.030 --> 00:04:18.390 align:middle line:84% our season three upcoming podcast that we're-- 00:04:18.390 --> 00:04:19.709 align:middle line:90% maybe season four. 00:04:19.709 --> 00:04:21.029 align:middle line:90% I think it's season four. 00:04:21.029 --> 00:04:22.915 align:middle line:90% So we're big fan of his work. 00:04:22.915 --> 00:04:24.540 align:middle line:84% And he's been at the Poetry Center too. 00:04:24.540 --> 00:04:27.160 align:middle line:84% So thank you for sharing that poem. 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:28.280 align:middle line:90% It's amazing. 00:04:28.280 --> 00:04:28.930 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:29.430 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:04:29.430 --> 00:04:30.510 align:middle line:90% I'm a big-- 00:04:30.510 --> 00:04:34.080 align:middle line:84% I mean, Adrian knows that his work is so important to me. 00:04:34.080 --> 00:04:35.820 align:middle line:90% I'm such a big fan. 00:04:35.820 --> 00:04:37.490 align:middle line:90% I'm excited for the new thing. 00:04:37.490 --> 00:04:37.990 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:04:37.990 --> 00:04:38.730 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:04:38.730 --> 00:04:40.460 align:middle line:90% For sure.