EPISODE 42: A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A GERTRUDE STEIN

Spindleverse Episode 42: A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A GERTRUDE STEIN

Among the most accessible works in popular music that reference the great Gertrude Stein, modernist poet and soiree-meister of 1920s Paris, are two songs ABOUT Stein and one using the words from one of her abstruse language poems.
Stein was an American author and poet best known for her modernist writings, extensive art collecting and literary salon in 1920s Paris, and her story touches on the lives of many a Lost Generation artist, from Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald to Charles Henri Ford and Djuna Barnes. She provided vital patronage for Matisse and Picasso at a time when few others had any appreciation for their work, and the Saturday evening gatherings where she played hostess to those in the know have become legendary. After World War One, she became a major draw for the legion of British and American writers who flocked to the French capital seeking a freedom of expression frequently denied them in their more puritanical homelands. 

Here are three songs, one in French and composed by American classical composer Virgil Thomson; the second sung hauntingly by Joni Mitchell; and the third a West Coast lesbian punk rock wave at the expatriate American who was the cultural heart of Paris in the 20s.

Le Berceau de Gertrude Stein ou Le Myeter de la Rue de Fleuris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYmUv9TbM4s

This French song, written by Virgil Thomson, was adapted from a poem by Georges Hugnet (1906-1944) a Dada/Surreal poet and graphic artist. Also active as a writer, art historian, bookbinding designer, critic and film director. Hugnet was the author of the collage Le septième face du dé (cover by Marcel Duchamps). He had a. short intense relationship with Gertrude Stein, to whom he was introduced by Virgil Thomson, and collaborated with her on poems, but they had a falling out.

27 rue de Fleuris was the home of the American writer Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice B. Toklas from 1903 to 1938. It is in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the Left Bank.. 

Open the door and Gertrude Stein appears 

Flanked by angels and silence 

But behind her shoulders 

Lace threads In satin reams 

Under the rosehips 

And dances with nasturtium 

In the evening before going to bed 

I Am Rose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyh_7N_jQwk

Originally featured on the Disney Channel, this son is sung by Judy Collins from Lightyear’s “Singing Time” series.

I am Rose my eyes are blue.
I am Rose who are you?
I am Rose and when I sing
I am Rose like anything.

.

Phranc = Gertrude Stein 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-6mJAgB5bg

Phranc an American singer-songwriter whose career began playing in several bands in the late 1970s Los Angeles punk rock scene. Her musical style later shifted during the 1980s as a solo artist, into a self-proclaimed “All-American Jewish lesbian folksinger.”

This song is taken from her album “Positively Phranc”, released in 1991

when she cruised down street and girls could not resist her stare

so Gertrude Stein was never called an asshole

except by Alice