Deixa-me rir...

Caros audiophiles, my choice this week is maybe not everybody's "cup of tea". But I heard the song on the radio the other day, and I was transported by its exuberance and joyfulness. Sung by the fantastically talented but under-appreciated Sammy Davis Jr, one of the original Rat Pack entertainers of Las Vegas together with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

From the musical show "Sweet Charity" set in New York during the hippie 1960s, this song takes place at church leader Big Daddy's "Rhythm Of Life Church". The story concerns the bad luck in life and search for love of a cabaret dancer called Charity. Her story ends with her alone again, after a rejection of marriage, but optimistically living hopefully, if not yet happily, ever after.

Also these past days I have been discovering the American writer Kurt Vonnegut. My only previous knowledge of him was watching in my distant student days the film adaptation of his novel Slaughterhouse 5. a terrible dystopian vision of the future based on his direct personal experience and survival of the unnecessary total destruction by air bombing of Dresden in World War II.

Known for his "So it goes" nonchalant attitude towards life and death ("When you are dead, you are dead"), Vonnegut was a free-thinker who rejected conventional religious beliefs; but although he did not believe in the divinity of Jesus, he greatly admired the Beatitudes of Jesus. He was a Humanist which to him meant "that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead. His writings showed him to be both 'cynical and sentimental, a sceptic who believes that love conquers all'.

I do not expect readers of Adeus to empathise with his non-beliefs. And yet Vonnegut often spoke about God. And one quotation I have read seems quite appropriate to my text: "Music, to me, is proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic; and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference."

He might not have been thinking of this particular song, but...

The Rhythm of Life

...Spread the religion of The Rhythm Of Life."
And The Rhythm Of Life is a powerful beat,
Puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet,
Rhythm in your bedroom,
Rhythm in the street,
Yes, The Rhythm Of Life is a powerful beat,
To feel The Rhythm Of Life,
To feel the powerful beat,
To feel the tingle in your fingers,
To feel the tingle in your feet,
Daddy spread the gospel in Milwaukee,
Took his walkie talkie to Rocky Ridge,
Blew his way to Canton, then to Scranton,
Till he landed under the Manhattan Bridge.
Daddy was the new sensation, got himself a congregation,
Built up quite an operation down below.
Flip your wings and fly to Daddy,
Take a dive and swim to Daddy,
Hit the floor and crawl to Daddy,
Daddy we got The Rhythm Of Life,
Of life, of life, of life.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Man!

A proxima.

PO