My Summer Lair Chapter #217: What Was The Last Song You Listened To On A Walkman?
This episode is oddly dedicated to Peter Quill who you know as Star-Lord in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Played charmingly well by Chris Pratt; Quill until recently was always armed with a Walkman (brimming with outstanding 80s hits.).
For this episode welcome poet Michael Robbins to My Summer Lair. His 2021 poetry collection Walkman does indeed have a poem called Walkman with this passage.
Walkman ends with the following passage…
“Today I want to write about
how it’s been almost twenty years
since I owned a Walkman.
Just think: there was a song
that I didn’t know
would be the last song
I would ever play on a Walkman.
I listened to it like it was just
any old song,
because it was.”
Oh, yo.
For an 80s kid like me that loss is sharp; right in my gut like when I eat Taco Bell. Watching Guardians of the Galaxy I instantly understood why the Sony Walkman mattered so much to Peter Quill.
Music is a connective tissue for our lives. We live through music and music lives through us.
And you’ll hear me and Michael talk about music and talk about poets.
William Butler Yates to Bob Dylan to Lil Wayne to Chuck D to Arthur Rimbaud to the Rolling Stones to the Smashing Pumpkins and like all the best K-Tel records…so much more.
Considering Michael Robbins’ poetry book collection is called Walkman that totally tracks. I mean what else do you listen to on a walkman? (Perhaps this podcast? Technology and magic are the same thing, right?)
Our conversation begins not in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but rather in Star Trek‘s Universe and Captain Picard’s favourite hot beverage.
Michael Robbins @ W • T • F
Host & Photography Sammy Younan
Recorded: Wednesday October 19, 2022 at 3:00 pm
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