[Moosehead]

Well, there's a web site for it: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.flamenconotflamingo.com/">http://www.flamenconotflamingo.com/</a><!-- m -->

[Zephyr5]

"Don't be chicken-shit/And turn breezes in to rivulets"

Only Gord can combine those 2 lines.

I have the CD in the car, and my kids always giggle when that line is sung.

[Moosehead]

If you remember, Alanis Morissette has a song (Hand In My Pocket, came out the year before Henhouse) with a lyric "I'm sad but I'm laughing, I'm brave but I'm chicken shit" - that was a small/big deal at the time. I think she sang it on TV or something and it was in the news.
Anyway fast forward to 2001 and the Toronto benefit concert after 9/11. Alanis played her set (can't remember if it included that song), she got the "Hip hip hip" chant then The Hip come out and play a set including... Flamenco. Kind of wondered if they threw that in for the "chicken shit" lyric. It was probably more the "go to New York" lyric but still.

Thanks for your time on this random thought !

[Moof_Milker]

Moosehead, from day one, I have just assumed that the "chicken shit" line was inspired by Hand in My Pocket. I'm convinced of it.

Speaking of Flamenco, I remember in an album release interview for TATH, Gord said Flamenco was one of his favourites and that it was recorded live off the floor and you could really "feel the air in the room" on the recording. Now whenever I heard it, I can't help but feel the air in the room too.

[potsie]

Moosehead, from day one, I have just assumed that the "chicken shit" line was inspired by Hand in My Pocket. I'm convinced of it.

Speaking of Flamenco, I remember in an album release interview for TATH, Gord said Flamenco was one of his favourites and that it was recorded live off the floor and you could really "feel the air in the room" on the recording. Now whenever I heard it, I can't help but feel the air in the room too.

The timing of the release of "Hand in My Pocket" would give credence to this interesting theory. "Hand in My Pocket" was released as a single in the fall of 1995, and as I can recall it was everywhere at that time... Much, radio, the mall. Gord almost certainly would have heard it, even if he didn't own Jagged Little Pill. This would have been at the time that the Hip had just come off the road from their 1995 tour and Gord would have been getting down to the writing of TATH.

The lyrics "I'm brave, but I'm chickenshit", along with some of the other lyrics in "Hand in My Pocket", seem to reference the capacity for human mind to hold incongruous views of ourselves, at times struggling with self-identity. Gord's line of "Walk like a matador, don't be chickenshit" could be encouragement that is saying "Be brave (like a matador would be) and don't be chickenshit", giving some tough love. "And turn breezes into rivulets" is a follow-up that again references remaining calm (a nice breeze) and brave and not panicking (a rivulet/droplet of sweat running running down the face). As I'm writing this I'm listening to a live version of Small Town Bringdown played at the CNE where Gord introduces the song by saying "This is about...ah, This is about a guy.... no, It's more about.... no, It's more about..." That seems apropos for the "no-idea bullshit" I'm writing about the meaning of "Flamenco"!

[potsie]

Speaking of Flamenco, I remember in an album release interview for TATH, Gord said Flamenco was one of his favourites and that it was recorded live off the floor and you could really "feel the air in the room" on the recording. Now whenever I heard it, I can't help but feel the air in the room too.

I love that description. For me, I would say the same thing about the quieter parts of "Yawning or Snarling". I can "feel the air" on that one as well (and it feels warm).

[fingernailsonhull]

Flamenco sweep the air, and weave the sun, and stamp your feet for everyone.

Always loved that line.

[spasticreelin]

IN MY TOP TEN, FOR SURE...

[johno]

I thought it was an anti-fascist song. In one bootleg I hear Gord introducing the song and saying something like "this is for Leni Riefenstahl". After that I heard the song differently ("does it diminish your super-capacity to hate?"). I think it's for all those female fascists out there that get overlooked.

[Moof_Milker]

I thought it was an anti-fascist song. In one bootleg I hear Gord introducing the song and saying something like "this is for Leni Riefenstahl". After that I heard the song differently ("does it diminish your super-capacity to hate?"). I think it's for all those female fascists out there that get overlooked.

I think you're onto something here. Riefenstahl starred in a movie called Tiefland, where she played, you guessed it, a flamenco dancer.
Definitely an inspiration, at least in part.

[swm]

Anybody remember Kate Fenner's beautiful contribution to this song during the "evening with" tour? She sang lead on a couple of verses during the Ottawa show and I remember the crowd just going nuts. That woman can belt out a tune like nobody's business.

YES!!! Hearing her for the 1st time gave me goosebumps & sent chills up my spine, all in a good way.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://youtu.be/xW68VFKh-iU">https://youtu.be/xW68VFKh-iU</a><!-- m -->

[sean.bonner]

Feist covers Flamenco beautifully.
[youtube]DGDra08GfV8[/youtube]
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGDra08GfV8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGDra08GfV8</a><!-- m -->

[johno]

I thought it was an anti-fascist song. In one bootleg I hear Gord introducing the song and saying something like "this is for Leni Riefenstahl". After that I heard the song differently ("does it diminish your super-capacity to hate?"). I think it's for all those female fascists out there that get overlooked.

I think you're onto something here. Riefenstahl starred in a movie called Tiefland, where she played, you guessed it, a flamenco dancer.
Definitely an inspiration, at least in part.

Cool. Gord really knows his classic cinema, eh? I feel a new thread coming on with discussions of Dire Wolf and Day for Night and other movie references. BTW "Gord" got spell-checked to "Good" when I typed it. So cool

[andrew sharpe]

Cool. Gord really knows his classic cinema, eh?

Yep he was a film major at Queens.

[johno]

Forgot that. Gord is good.