WEBVTT

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Straight No Chaser.

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The title of course
is '40s bar parlance.

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You see this on
American Movie Channel.

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Humphrey Bogart needing a shave.

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How do you want that?

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Straight, no chaser.

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You know, that kind of thing.

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Thelonious Monk wrote a tune
called Straight, No Chaser.

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It's beautiful blues.

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[SCATTING]

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It's the blues.

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What I love about the
blues is that it's

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radical, and irreducible,
and you never

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know what people are going
to do with it once they

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get a hold of it.

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They can never tame
it or academicize it.

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So Sally Swisher, who's
a poet and lyricist,

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she wrote these words to that.

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It says, (SINGING) Well
Monk set it straight.

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It's not a time when you wait.

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You got to be on,
you got to be now,

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and you got to be, you
got to be here right now.

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He knew the answer,
that time's a dancer.

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He knew you can't
back up the moment

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and take it with
you on the road.

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So now is the time.

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So that's the point of departure
for this titled poem, which

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is called Straight No Chaser.

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Sonnet.

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What wound up seeming strange
to you was me, but why?

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You bad mouth me all over
town, then turned around

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and asked me if I'd be
your lover one more time.

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So we got down.

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It felt real good, Baby,
didn't it, being real.

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Our river overflowed.

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Our tree limbs shook
the woods, a stormy sky.

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Hey, no big deal.

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I wrapped myself
around you, then

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you took your own sweet time,
and mine, coming unglued,

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pinned down that way.

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I couldn't tell you off.

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You broke our bond, but
stuck there in the mood.

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To woo, or not to woo.

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My voice went soft.

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We slept all slow, got
back to work by 10:00.

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I bet you're wondering
if I'll call again.

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