Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Words: 03-21-1989 with Theresa Copell
Music: 03-21-1989
What’s It All About?
Theresa Copell was my girlfriend for three or four years (depending on whether you count sequentially or comprehensively) in the late eighties. First girl I lived with, and my partner in a lot of, as they say, DIY independent creative endeavors, including my first actively gigging band, psychopathway.
She wrote a lot of poetry, some of which became songs. I saw a fragment in one of her notebooks, expanded it, and wrote the music. It became “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” a kind of word-picture of an elderly person — perhaps one with a difficult, colorful past — easing into death. Theresa was a little miffed at my interpretation and the final product, since it apparently didn’t match where she was going with the original.
Still, I think it’s a nice song, and it was a staple at nearly every one of my acoustic gigs for many years. By the way, it has nothing in common with the James Agee / Walker Evans book
The first version here was recorded live at a coffee house in Long Beach, California in the early nineties. No effects or overdubs.
Lyrics:
Laughter comes easy now
Not so hard to be alone
Not so bad, this empty room
Let us now praise famous men
Disappointed faces
That fall into my heavy gaze
They’ve been haunting me for days
The crimson summer room
Edge me slowly into night
Where I slip into ten high
Twilight had one had a name
Right or wrong, I’ve forgotten
Loud inside this empty room
Let us now praise famous men
I, I’m going traveling
I won’t be going far
Paradise waits behind closed eyes
Friends I haven’t seen in a long time
Resting patiently for me to find
Let us now praise famous men
For I can say I knew them when
Now I’m certain that I will again
Lying in this summer room
It’s so calm to be alone
Never thought I’d feel this way
Let us now praise famous men
Worried eyes keep the vigil
I hear their voices in a haze
But soon they will wash away
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Matthew Wayne Selznick (live) [4:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (146)