Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. (...) Typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise.
Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style
As we all know, da Devil had a daughter. She was a Black gal, very beautiful and ready to satisfy a man’s soul. But she usta drink moonshine and whiskey all nite lon’, while lissenin’ to da Devil’s music. By en by, she got lonely, cause all da friends-girls she had had had da notion she wuz very mean en meant no good.
En she wuz alwayz sad en lonesome en she would alwayz be on her faddah’s trail (well, i mean tail), cause the only satisfaction she could git wuz his music.
En one day, when da Devil felt he couldn’t stan’ no mo’ his daughta on his tail, he thought to himself he wuz bound to git her married. En da Devil married his daughta to Peetie Wheatstraw.
Well, I’ll tell you ’bout Peetie Wheatstraw in the next post, cause one will git unlucky ef he writes dis kinna sumffins by daytime.
But until then, maybe you care listening to a few Peetie Weatstraw’s songs on Soundpedia. (PS: free registration).
Now heah’s a good friend of the Devil; hope you’ll enjoy.
“I copied Johnson’s words down on scraps of paper so I could more closely examine the lyrics and patterns, the construction of his old-style lines and the free association that he used, the sparkling allegories, big-ass truths wrapped in the hard shell of nonsensical abstraction . . .” It is easy to see how that description leads to “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Dylan, “Chronicles I”
“I copied Johnson’s words down on scraps of paper so I could more closely examine the lyrics and patterns, the construction of his old-style lines and the free association that he used, the sparkling allegories, big-ass truths wrapped in the hard shell of nonsensical abstraction . . .” It is easy to see how that description leads to “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Dylan, “Chronicles I”
brilliant!
Petey Wheatstraw is one of the funniest movies ever made, just for the pure insanity of it.