Marie Osmond Does Hugo Ball
MP3: Marie Osmond Performing Hugo Ball's "Karawane" (written in 1916)
Taken from a Ripley's Believe It Or Not segment on sound poetry from the mid-80s. According to producer Jed Rasula, "Marie Osmond became co-host with Jack Palance. In the format of the show, little topic clusters (like "weird language") were introduced by one of the hosts. In this case, the frame was Cabaret Voltaire. Marie was required to read Hugo Ball's sound poem "Karawane" and a few script lines. Much to everybody's astonishment, when they started filming she abruptly looked away from the cue cards directly into the camera and recited, by memory, "Karawane." It blew everybody away, and I think they only needed that one take. A year or so after it was broadcast, Greil Marcus approached me, wanting to use Marie Osmond's rendition of Hugo Ball for a cd produced in England as sonic companion to his book Lipstick Traces; so I was delighted to be able to arrange that."
She really does nail it!
Posted by: holaka holala | November 17, 2006 at 08:00 PM
Wonderful, thank you! :) :)
Posted by: Aunt Sue | November 18, 2006 at 07:09 AM
This was released about 15 years ago on a companion CD Rough Trade put out based on Greil Marcus's book 'Lipstick Traces.' It sounds as weird then as it does now!
Posted by: Dan Heilman | November 21, 2006 at 02:49 PM
You have posted a badly edited and incomplete version of Marie's recitation (compare with the text below). A complete, intact version of her reading can be found here...
http://deuceofclubs.com/tunes/EBOR/Lipstick_Traces-Marie_Osmond-Karawane.mp3
Karawane
jolifanto bambla o falli bambla
großiga m'pfa habla horem
egiga goramen
higo bloiko russula huju
hollaka hollala
anlogo bung
blago bung blago bung
bosso fataka
ü üü ü
schampa wulla wussa olobo
hej tatta gorem
eschige zunbada
wulubu ssubudu uluwu ssubudu
tumba ba-umf
kusa gauma
ba - umf
Posted by: Roarshock | February 25, 2007 at 03:39 AM
Great to have this - but does anyone know of a source for the video? (I've tried YouTube - no luck.) Jed Rasula was a prof. of mine at Pomona College in the late '80s, and showed the clip to a poetry class. Marie O.'s eyes take on a strange, trance-like glaze that adds a great deal to the otherworldiness of the whole affair. I'd love to see it again.
Posted by: Franklin Bruno | March 27, 2007 at 12:47 PM
A few years ago, I was at a family reunion in Utah and, after the hayride, pitching horseshoes and a delightful barbecue, a Mormon cowboy recited Jabberwocky from memory. The next day we saw Maureen McGovern in the musical, "Dear World." She was terrific!
I'm not fibbing.
Sincerely,
Yr Host
PS: Greil Marcus is right up there at the top of the prententious ass heap. (Put that in your peep stone and smoke it!)
Posted by: Yr Host | May 15, 2007 at 10:46 PM