Twang twang, untuned. Cheap, acoustic and discarded behind the minimart the instrument is in Banana Man’s hands.
He’s thinking of a country song and he thinks it goes like this:
The patron saints of wine and lust
have long drove us mad
but here I am with the memory of you
in a photo by the pool
whiskey and cigarettes have ruined our lives
but we’re old and strong
and we can sing out long
so you can’t count us out yet
raise a glass of box wine
to the future of yesterday’s past
I’m coming for you baby
you don’t even have to ask
Dr. Tomorrow barges in un-announced.
“Hey boy! Let’s bust a groove!” He mimes a DJ scratching a record kind of, then he starts up:
“You did it like that with a baseball bat behind Jonathan Winters
Dr. Tomorrow
You hit the machine like Ben Vereen making love to the Tropic of Cancer
A man of your talent can swing it like a mallet
and the girlies just hafta scream! Dig it!”
Doc is grabbing his crotch and swaying around in a provocative fashion, making record scratching noises.
“That’s not country” thinks Banana Man.
Author’s Note:
Some readers have commented that they had trouble reading the character’s performance as music. That’s understandable as it can barely be categorized as “music” in the first place. However, I dug around in a few boxes and I found demo cassette tape. After I pulled off the sticky bits of burnt-umber shag carpeting (where has this tape been?) I digitized these two tracks:
Lonesome Lullaby by… Blind Jimmy Whiskey(?)
Baseball Bat (?) rapped by Dr. Tomorrow
Jonathan Winters – Comedian
Ben Vereen – Actor
Tropic of Cancer – Novel by Henry Miller, and/or geographic location
Talent – Dr. Tomorrow doesn’t let it stop him
