Leonard's take on this nursery rhyme.

paula_hansen · Post by **paula_hansen** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:40 am

Some of you may know the following poem, it's a well regarded nursery-rhyme called "I'm a little teapot". A friend has told me that Mr Cohen performed a variation on this many years ago at a poetry jam. Do you know if there are any recordings still available of his recital?

I'm a little teapot, short and stout,
Here is my handle [one hand on hip], here is my spout [other arm out straight]
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout
Just tip me over and pour me out!
[as song ends, lean over and tip arm out like a spout]

I'm a clever teapot, yes it's true
Here's an example of what I can do
I can change my handle to my spout [switch arm positions and repeat tipping motion]
Just tip me over and pour me out.

I can readily imagine Mr Cohen performing the actions. He would have been elegant, strong and subtle.

My friend also says that it was an early working of his "Stranger Song". The lyrics originally were to be "Like any pourer he was watching for the cup filled so high and wild he'll never need to pour another. He was just some Joseph looking for a cup of tea"

I am not convinced that this last part is true (my friend is a notorious liar) but I thought I would pass it on anyway

Paula

REMEMBER, WE ARE ALL HIS CHILDREN.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:24 pm

I am not convinced that this last part is true (my friend is a notorious liar) but I thought I would pass it on anyway

... and trusting the truth of this comment, are we likewise duty-bound to question the truth of your friend's report of Leonard's recital of this at the poetry jam

?

Good to see you showing back up around here again, Paula

.

~ Lizzy

paula_hansen · Post by **paula_hansen** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:20 pm

Dear lizzytish, I don't think the fact of Leonard's performance of this charming piece is in doubt. I am simply enquiring whether a recording exists.

Yes, my friend lies, and I give her more love the more she lies, as Our Lord comands us, but her deceits are normally by way of embellishment rather than Original Sin.

Kind Regards

Paula

REMEMBER, WE ARE ALL HIS CHILDREN* **

*even the ugly ones
** and the non-Christians

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:58 pm

Ah, "embellishment vs. Original Sin" ~ good application of terms, Paula

. This account actually does ring a bell from the past... I noted your conjecture of its possibly being done as a microphone check. Good thought... testing distance from the mic and all, as he tilted sideways as the teapot. Wouldn't it be fun [though, of course, we'd dare not laugh in church on it] to see it on film? Oh, I hope someone comes to the rescue with footage

.

~ Lizzy

paula_hansen · Post by **paula_hansen** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:16 am

lizzytysh wrote: Ah, "embellishment vs. Original Sin" ~ good application of terms, Paula . This account actually does ring a bell from the past... I noted your conjecture of its possibly being done as a microphone check. Good thought... testing distance from the mic and all, as he tilted sideways as the teapot. Wouldn't it be fun [though, of course, we'd dare not laugh in church on it] to see it on film? Oh, I hope someone comes to the rescue with footage .

~ Lizzy

Our best hope is for Jarkko to speak directly to Mr Cohen. I hope Mr Cohen won't be over-grand about his past but will willingly authorise the release of the recording.

I wonder if his reluctance so far may be because he fell over as he tilted at the microphone. My friend suggets that this is exactly what happened and is the source for the line in Teachers "I walked into a hospital".

But although my friend is of course His Children, (WE ARE ALL HIS CHILDREN), she is such a liar,

Kind Regards

Paula

WE ARE ALL HIS CHILDREN

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 1:16 am

. . . because he fell over as he tilted at the microphone. My friend suggets that this is exactly what happened and is the source for the line in Teachers "I walked into a hospital".

~ Lizzy

Diane · Post by **Diane** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:52 am

Hello Paula, it's been a long time...

Clearly, Leonard is likening himself to "Russell's teapot" in that song.

Russell's teapot, sometimes called the Celestial Teapot, was an analogy first coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, to refute the idea that the onus lies somehow upon the sceptic to disprove the unfalsifiable claims of religion.

"If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes."

He is likening himself to that imaginary vessel in the sky, that celestial teapot, that we all yearn to dissolve into, like a lump of sugar.

A word of friendly advice, Paula: beware of associating yourself with liars. You have associated with immoral folk on here before, and it all went horribly wrong as I recall.

Diane

JiminyC · Post by **JiminyC** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 8:43 am

I have read these letters and been emboldened by the lovely rhetoric to put my two bob in, Tim Brooke Tailor in the Goodies, way over in the opposite direction to everything - Ingerland - did the best teapot of them all, and he also had a wastecoat with the union jack and a whole in the middle of it to show off his belly button.

I don't even think Leonard Cohen has done that one yet?

Love,
Jim.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:26 pm

Cute, Jim

... and wonderful, Diane

! That sounds like the teapot of which Leonard would already be aware and from which he would drink.
Thanks for posting that

.

~ Lizzy

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:06 pm

Oh-Oh... this one may be next, Paula

.

~ Lizzy

paula_hansen · Post by **paula_hansen** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:17 am

lizzytysh wrote:Oh-Oh... this one may be next, Paula .

~ Lizzy

Dear Mrs Lizzy
I am rather busy
I have been set a challenge by jimminyc
to write a piece of poetry
my concluded effort I will release
when to my mind it does completely please

you may follow my progress
on the members poetry section
where talent and loveliness will be detection
all the people who post their thoughts there
are true believers
and that is where
you must recall
WE ARE HISCHILDREN
YES, US ALL!!!!*

*including the horrible ones

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:45 pm

All childrens are lovely, except other peoples.

paula_hansen · Post by **paula_hansen** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:52 pm

Byron wrote:All childrens are lovely, except other peoples.

Dear Brian, a very wise man once said that children are our future! In a profound way he was right

Kind Regards

Paula

REMEMBER, WE ARE ALL HIS CHILDREN*

including the children

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:01 pm

paula_hansen wrote:
Byron wrote:All childrens are lovely, except other peoples.
Dear Brian, a very wise man once said that children are our future! In a profound way he was right

Kind Regards

Paula

REMEMBER, WE ARE ALL HIS CHILDREN*

including the children

Surely Paula, "children are their own future" cos you, me, us and the rest of our cohort ilk will be pushing up the daiseys, daffs, tulips, rhododendrons, grass and bloody weeds?

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:05 pm

Sartres, "He thought, therefore and henceforth, he was."

Are we not all 'star dust' ?

Wending our eternal way through times and space, to appear from time to time as a collection of carbon thingies, with our newly, environmentally important 'footprints'.' <------where does the semi-colon go? I'm too tired to check with me Oxford grammar.