Saturday, November 12, 2011

from "The Coming Home" - this December's Goatsinger Show

3. Come On In My Kitchen – Robert Johnson (arranged by Moran)

LIGHTS UP on "Deisel" – a coffeeshop just off the corner of Highway and Main in Mount Revere, IA.

(ANNA MAE enters from House Left in scarf, hat, and mittens.   

She mimes unlocking and opening the door to Deisel on the ramp Stage Right.   

She starts a pot of coffee onstage.  Maybe turns a radio on.  

 After a moment, the STRANGER can be heard playing something on his guitar from House Left.  It's the opening riff to "Come On In My Kitchen" by Robert Johnson.  

 The Stranger, wearing wintry clothes, playing his guitar, enters House Left, follows the ramp down to Diesel.  ANNA MAE has come out to hang the OPEN sign up on the wall and sees him)


ANNA MAE
You better come on in my kitchen
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

(Stranger enters the space, still playing.  Anna Mae helps him off with his hat and cloak -- if he has one.   
He sits.  

 She brings him a cup of coffee.  He maybe stops playing.  Has a sip.  

 The two banter.  He's a stranger in town.  She works here on the weekends.)


STRANGER
You know where Bethelhem (PRONOUNCED: BETHEL-HEM – and I know that's wrong.  Shut up) is from here?

ANNA MAE
Are you fucking kidding?

(They continue to banter while she works.  He picks up his guitar.  She might dance a little with what he's playing.  

 THE PLAYERS – perhaps singing their lines as they enter – enter.  They fetch or take out their instruments and settle in with the song)


1st PLAYER
The woman I love – I took from my best friend
The joker got lucky, stole her back again

CHORUS
You better come on in my kitchen, 
It's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

2nd and 3rd PLAYER
Oh, she's gone, I know she won't come back
I've taken the last nickel out of her gnashing sack

CHORUS
You better come on in my kitchen,
Babe, it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

STRANGER
When a body gets in trouble – everybody puts you down
You looking for a good friend and none can be found

ALL BUT STRANGER
You better come on in my kitchen,
Babe, it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

(Free verses – any player or actor who wants to make something up, should do it at this point in the song – only rule is that the content needs to make sense with the chorus – and the chorus can't be re-written)

ANNA MAE
Winter time's comin', it's goin' to be slow
You can't make the winter, babe, that long dry, so


CHORUS
You better come on in my kitchen,
'Cause it's goin' to be rainin' outdoors

(All the players are settled into place)

A PLAYER
Or whatever it's doing out there.....

Thursday, November 10, 2011

He's Twittering

The following are Facebook statuses and tweets -- if you're interested in getting these bits from the mythical town Mount Revere, Iowa then check out The Iowa Goatsinger on Facebook or The Iowa Goatsinger on Twitter.


THE IOWA GOATSINGER
10/29/11
-- this morning before the dawn --
he put on his white hoodie and his running shoes,
and he went outside to play the rabbit
down the streets of Mount Revere.


10/30/11
-- was that Hendrix whispering in my ear just now?  Tempting me down the hole with the promise to teach me a new song?


10/31/11
-- his hood this morning flapped against his skull as he ran, and he wondered: Is this what it's like to run with long ears?


And Rabbit? He twitched at the sound of the man running at him, still some fifty yards off; then heard it for what it was, held himself still until the man ran by, and relit his pipe.

11/1/11
-- he wonders, as he runs up and down the streets in the darkness this morning: Why is the rabbit not afraid? --and answers back: Because he's smarter than the cat.


11/2/11
He ran up and down Mount Revere this morning --
In the hours before the dawn --
Hopping nimbly between sidewalk and street --
Following the goat path.


11/3/11
Down by the quarry, running --
He heard Greg Brown mutter --
From behind shutters of oak and maple --
"I'm living in a prayer."


11/6/11
Who was that glimpsed through a window while running this morning?
Were those horns over his ears? -- or headphones?
Was he dancing like Fagin in his own kitchen?  Or am I mistaken?


11/7/11
Fathered by a trickster god -- weaned on Iowa corn.