Lit Bits-1/21/2015 Wonderwall, Harvey Pekar

Aleathia says:

I was thinking about what passes for literature and writing the other day.  I think about it everyday since I stopped being very productive in the writing arena.  I think about how we group and separate different types of writing based on whether or not it is literature or non-fiction or poetry.  In the end, it is all a manipulation of words.  Writing is writing.

Each day I try to do a little reading and a little sewing.  During my sewing time I listen to music. Over the last few years I have let Michael be the DJ.  I listen to what he listens to because it is easier. I love some of his music, he has taken over some of mine, and there is music we both agree on. There is something wonderful about being home alone and listening to music and moving around in my own time.  I'm not sure why I stopped doing that.  Yesterday I was listening to Ryan Adams (which I get picked on for listening to) and heard his version of Oasis's "Wonderwall" written by Noel Gallagher.  I owned the Oasis recording, but never really understood or felt the song until Ryan Adams sang it.  It makes my heart clench, sometimes, I cry.

Wonderwall

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you

By now you should've somehow realized what you gotta do

I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do

About you now

Backbeat the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out

I'm sure you've heard it all before but you never really had a doubt

I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do

About you now

And all the roads we have to walk are winding

And all the lights that lead us there are blinding

There are many things that I would like to say to you

But I don't know how

Because maybe

You're gonna be the one that saves me

And after all

You're my wonderwall

Today was gonna be the day but they'll never throw it back to you

By now you should've somehow realized what you're not to do

I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do

About you now

And all the roads that lead you there were winding

And all the lights that light the way are blinding

There are many things that I would like to say to you

But I don't know how

I said maybe

You're gonna be the one that saves me

And after all

You're my wonderwall

I said maybe

You're gonna be the one that saves me

And after all

You're my wonderwall

I said maybe

You're gonna be the one that saves me

You're gonna be the one that saves me

You're gonna be the one that saves me


The Oasis Version:

The Ryan Adams Version:

John Says:

I miss Harvey Pekar. Harvey died in 2010 but sometimes I sit back and think about how much the world sucks without Harvey Pekar in it. I’ve been accused of wearing my influences on my sleeve. Editors and other writers like to tag me a lot with the Bukowski, Fante, Kerouac, Ginsberg thing, but if I’ve been influenced more than any of them it's been by the work of Harvey Pekar. The man’s ability to make art out of the mundane has fascinated me from the very first moment that I opened up my first collected edition of American Splendor. Pekar’s work still fascinates me when I come across it today. Also…the man gave me the writing of Italo Svevo.

For those who don’t know Harvey Pekar he was an underground comic book writer best known for his autobiographical comic American Splendor, which began in 1976 and ran until around 2008. American Splendor’s primary source material was Harvey and his life as a file clerk at Cleveland’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital.

 Sprung from the underground comic movement in the 1960s and 1970s, American Splendor was pretty much unlike anything else in its time. I mean here was straight autobiography, about a file clerk of all things, trying to squeeze onto comic book store space with the Batman and Superman comics. Suffice it say American Splendor wasn’t a best-selling comic and Pekar ultimately ended up retiring from his job. But it did garner quite the cult following, enough that in 2003 a film version of American Splendor was released starring Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar. The film even featured Harvey in it as himself.

Though not a graphic artist, what Harvey Pekar did was to draw American Splendor using stick figures and most importantly, dialog bubbles to get down his words. These crude drawings were then turned into comic book art by the many collaborators he’s worked with over the years. Some illustrators of note who worked on American Splendor are: Robert Crumb, Joe Sacco, Gary Dumm, Frank Stack, and Dean Haspiel.

The American Splendors have been collected into several comic editions. Aside from them Harvey Pekar published a number of graphic novels including: Our Cancer Year (done in collaboration with his wife, Joyce Brabner), American Splendor: Our Movie Year, The Quitter, Ego & Hubris, Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History, The Beats, and Studs Terkel’s Working: A Graphic Adaptation.

Harvey was also a pretty keen jazz music critic