WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 align:middle line:90% Straight No Chaser. 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:07.500 align:middle line:84% The title of course is '40s bar parlance. 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:12.490 align:middle line:84% You see this on American Movie Channel. 00:00:12.490 --> 00:00:14.155 align:middle line:90% Humphrey Bogart needing a shave. 00:00:14.155 --> 00:00:16.880 align:middle line:90% 00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:18.230 align:middle line:90% How do you want that? 00:00:18.230 --> 00:00:19.960 align:middle line:90% Straight, no chaser. 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:21.500 align:middle line:90% You know, that kind of thing. 00:00:21.500 --> 00:00:23.900 align:middle line:84% Thelonious Monk wrote a tune called Straight, No Chaser. 00:00:23.900 --> 00:00:26.600 align:middle line:90% It's beautiful blues. 00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:27.740 align:middle line:90% [SCATTING] 00:00:27.740 --> 00:00:41.455 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.455 --> 00:00:42.080 align:middle line:90% It's the blues. 00:00:42.080 --> 00:00:43.747 align:middle line:84% What I love about the blues is that it's 00:00:43.747 --> 00:00:46.550 align:middle line:84% radical, and irreducible, and you never 00:00:46.550 --> 00:00:48.860 align:middle line:84% know what people are going to do with it once they 00:00:48.860 --> 00:00:50.450 align:middle line:90% get a hold of it. 00:00:50.450 --> 00:00:53.090 align:middle line:84% They can never tame it or academicize it. 00:00:53.090 --> 00:00:55.730 align:middle line:84% So Sally Swisher, who's a poet and lyricist, 00:00:55.730 --> 00:00:57.335 align:middle line:90% she wrote these words to that. 00:00:57.335 --> 00:00:59.210 align:middle line:84% It says, (SINGING) Well Monk set it straight. 00:00:59.210 --> 00:01:00.860 align:middle line:90% It's not a time when you wait. 00:01:00.860 --> 00:01:02.870 align:middle line:84% You got to be on, you got to be now, 00:01:02.870 --> 00:01:06.200 align:middle line:84% and you got to be, you got to be here right now. 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:08.360 align:middle line:84% He knew the answer, that time's a dancer. 00:01:08.360 --> 00:01:09.980 align:middle line:84% He knew you can't back up the moment 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:11.540 align:middle line:84% and take it with you on the road. 00:01:11.540 --> 00:01:13.410 align:middle line:90% So now is the time. 00:01:13.410 --> 00:01:16.910 align:middle line:84% So that's the point of departure for this titled poem, which 00:01:16.910 --> 00:01:19.700 align:middle line:90% is called Straight No Chaser. 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:22.130 align:middle line:90% Sonnet. 00:01:22.130 --> 00:01:27.470 align:middle line:84% What wound up seeming strange to you was me, but why? 00:01:27.470 --> 00:01:31.040 align:middle line:84% You bad mouth me all over town, then turned around 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.930 align:middle line:84% and asked me if I'd be your lover one more time. 00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:36.700 align:middle line:90% So we got down. 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:41.410 align:middle line:84% It felt real good, Baby, didn't it, being real. 00:01:41.410 --> 00:01:43.150 align:middle line:90% Our river overflowed. 00:01:43.150 --> 00:01:48.070 align:middle line:84% Our tree limbs shook the woods, a stormy sky. 00:01:48.070 --> 00:01:50.680 align:middle line:90% Hey, no big deal. 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:52.930 align:middle line:84% I wrapped myself around you, then 00:01:52.930 --> 00:01:58.810 align:middle line:84% you took your own sweet time, and mine, coming unglued, 00:01:58.810 --> 00:02:00.520 align:middle line:90% pinned down that way. 00:02:00.520 --> 00:02:02.970 align:middle line:90% I couldn't tell you off. 00:02:02.970 --> 00:02:08.580 align:middle line:84% You broke our bond, but stuck there in the mood. 00:02:08.580 --> 00:02:12.540 align:middle line:90% To woo, or not to woo. 00:02:12.540 --> 00:02:15.520 align:middle line:90% My voice went soft. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:21.680 align:middle line:84% We slept all slow, got back to work by 10:00. 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:25.500 align:middle line:84% I bet you're wondering if I'll call again. 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:26.000 align:middle line:90%