Mystery train / David Wojahn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wojahn, David, 1953- author.

Series:

Pitt poetry series.

Pitt poetry series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century.

American poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (85 pages)

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [1990]

Summary:

David Wojahn deftly mixes personal history and recollections with a wide range of character studies and monologues, but the center of this book is a sequence of thirty-five poems, mainly sonnets, in which rock and roll music is a strange, kaleidoscopic mirror of recent American history. Combining rhapsodic homage, grim humor, human folly, and tragedy, these poems are like nothing else in contemporary poetry.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

I

No Gesture: Ceremony

Shroud

Futures

Double Exposures

A Fifteenth Anniversary: John Berryman

The Recent Work

Students

II. Mystery Train

1. Homage: Light from the Hall

2. Buddy Holly Watching Rebel Without a Cause, Lubbock, Texas, 1956

3. W.C.W. Watching Presley's Second Appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Mercy Hospital, Newark, 1956

4. Matins: James Brown and His Famous Flames Tour the South, 1958

5. Custom Job: Hank Williams, Jr., and the Death Car, 1958

6. Jerry Lee Lewis's Secret Marriage to Thirteen-Year-Old First Cousin Revealed During British Isles Tour, 1959. His Manager Speaks

7. Tattoo, Corazon: Ritchie Valens, 1959

8. Fab Four Tour Deutschland: Hamburg, 1959

9. Woody Guthrie Visited by Bob Dylan: Brooklyn State Hospital, New York, 1961

10. The Trashmen Shaking Hands with Hubert Humphrey at the Opening of Apache Plaza Shopping Center, Suburban Minneapolis, August 1962

11. "Mystery Train": Janis Joplin Leaves Port Arthur for Points West, 1964

12. "American Bandstand" Dance Contest, Semi-Finals, 1966

13. Delmore Schwartz at the First Performance of the Velvet Underground, New York, 1966

14. C Train Home: Lou Reed After the Wake of Delmore Schwartz, July 1966

15. The Assassination of Robert Goulet as Performed by Elvis Presley: Memphis, 1968

16. History Being Made: Melcher Production Studios, Los Angeles, 1968

17. Necromancy: The Last Days of Brian Jones, 1968

18. Photographer at Altamont: The Morning After, 1969

19. Fragging: Armed Forces Radio, Credence on the Mekong, 1969

20. John Berryman Listening to Robert Johnson's "King of the Delta Blues," January 1972

21. Turbulence: "Exile on Main Street" Tour, 1972

22. Nixon Names Elvis Honorary Federal Narcotics Agent at Oval Office Ceremony, 1973.

23. "It's Only Rock and Roll But I Like It": The Fall of Saigon, 1975

24. Malcolm McLaren Signs the Sex Pistols, London, 1976

25. Elvis Moving a Small Cloud: The Desert Near Las Vegas, 1976

26. Francis Ford Coppola and Anthropologist Interpreter Teaching Gartewienna Tribesmen to Sing "Light My Fire," Philippine Jungle, 1978

27. Air Guitar: Happy Hour at the Blacklight Lounge, Tucson, Arizona, 1979

28. Backstage Passes: Bob Marley's Final American Tour, 1980

29. Sandbox, Manchu Nails: Brian Wilson in His Living Room, 1984

30. At Graceland With a Six Year Old, 1985

31. Bo Diddley at Rick's Café Americain: Long Beach Island, New Jersey, 1985

32. Roy Orbison: Comeback Tour, Tipitania's, New Orleans, 1986

33. Colorizing: Turner Broadcasting Enterprises, Computer Graphics Division, Burbank, California, 1987

34. The Assassination of John Lennon as Depicted by the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 1987

35. Pharaoh's Palace (Memphis, 1988)

III

Posthumous Life

Azimuth

Armageddon: Private Gabriel Calvin Wojahn, 1900-18

Garry Owen

For Charles Bovary

Signs and Wonders

Diary Pages: Amsterdam

In Hiding

The Resurrection of the Dead: Port Glasgow, 1950

Notes.

Notes:

Preliminaries omitted.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 85).

Other Format:

Print version: Wojahn, David, 1953- Mystery train.

ISBN:

9780822979326

0822979322

OCLC:

889247863