The Ballad of Henry K. Lee featured on KQED news blog

Jon Brooks posted our Henry K. Lee song on the KQED news blog this morning, and added further mythologizing to the legendary Lee:

A Musical Homage to the Chronicle Crime Reporter: The Ballad of Henry K. Lee

June 30, 2011, 10:29 am • Posted by Jon Brooks

I don't think you have to do exactly what I do every morning to fully appreciate the video below, but it would probably help.

See, it's my 6:30 a.m. pleasure each day to sift through a hundred or so articles from Bay Area media, culling the most important news for inclusion in our Morning Splash feature. Among the municipal affairs of state -- the budgets, court decisions, and political goings-on -- inevitably, included in the pool of potentially newsworthy items, is the crime reporting of the Chronicle's Henry K. Lee.

• Man found shot to death in downtown Santa Rosa - Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer (Jun 30)
  
• Fairfield, CA, market owner killed in robbery - Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer (Jun 29)
  
• Mom, daughter guilty of murdering Dublin woman, 91 - Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer (Jun 28)
  

During those groggy 6:30 a.m. sessions, it's been my indulgence to picture Mr. Lee as a Weegee-like figure, working late into the night to chronicle the region's noiresque underbelly. Haunted, perhaps, by the things he's seen, the places he's been, the dark corners of minds touched by just enough madness to murder. Yet driven by duty, professionalism -- hey, it's a job -- he carries on, carries on, cigarettes and flask at the ready for the rare moments it all becomes just a little too much...

And then I'm moving on to read about the Twitter tax break or the redevelopment fight...

Silly, I know. But someone else has also engaged in projections about the man-of-a-thousand-crime-scenes, the Berkeley-based rock duo The Manna Tease. Pretty awesome song, I think:

Lyrics and more about the song here.

And he linked to The Manna Tease facebook page and to this blog! most excellent. Thank you Mr Brooks. The "real" Henry K. Lee posted it on his facebook page and added "Thanks to KQED's Jon Brooks for this post -- and his comparison to me as a 'Weegee-like' figure! (I had to look that up on Wikipedia!)."

There were also some positive reactions from other Bay Area journalists on Twitter:

@JulieStrack: Which former @dailycal writer has contributed more to popular music -- Jann Wenner or @henryklee ?http://t.co/UCQti7T

@matthai: @MannaTease We loved it. Your song was just hilarious. Those of us who work with @henryklee have been singing the lyrics to him.

@katieworth: Amazing ballad about Chron reporter @henryklee: http://t.co/5vUmbUG. Hey @hankschulman, how come you don't have one?

@SovernNation: @Josh_Richman @HenryKLee I want one about Melrose! A guy on the street sang me a song he wrote about me once called "The Lonely Newsman"

@Josh_Richman: My career will not be complete until someone writes a song about me, as this man has done for @HenryKLeehttp://t.co/HZM35QH via @youtube

@jpanzar: A truly amazing ballad: "If it's crime and it's grimy, it's written by @henryklee."http://t.co/E36YeQ8 ... via @WgKANE

Most of those twitterers were reporters who work for the SF Chronicle, SF Examiner, Daily Cal, and others. The biggest fans of that song seem to be journalists who actually know the man himself. I wonder if I can cull some promotional quotes from those. All I've got so far is "croons... for seemingly no reason at all." -SF Weekly.

Here's the demon mp3 of the song, available for a dollar if you desire:

Young Manasseh's Stains & On the Trail of Young Manasseh - The Manna Sustains

And now! We are excited to announce that we are beginning to put songs from our new EPIC MURDER BALLAD SONG CYCLE, The Manna Sustains, on youtubes. It is narrative collection of folk songs, with many characters weaving thru the story, a bit of mystery and INTRIGUE, plenty of sex, drinking and drugs. We would like to perform the whole thing some time this summer, but in the meantime, for lack of anything better to do with this project, here are videos of The Manna Tease singing the first two songs: "Young Manasseh's Stains" and "On the Trail of Young Manasseh."
Update: I think the live version from our Adobe books gig is better than the one originally posted (below):

Young Manasseh's Stains

...wherein Young Manasseh comes to Arkansas City to find romance, goes on a Bender, and elopes with the Sheriff's Deputy.

Young Manasseh came to Arkansas City for to find romance.
The lights were bright & the girls were pretty, but Manny was too drunk to dance.
He laid on the steps of City Hall to take a nap.
He dreamt of alligators & an apple as round as the equator,
And his feet went tappity-tap-tap-tappity-tap.
Then descendin' the steps of City Hall came a deputy sheriff named Maple Seraph,
And said, Manny, you smell like poop.

Young Manasseh woke up in the drunk tank hungover as Colonel Qaddafi.
Sheriff Maple said you have only yourself to thank. Would you like a cup of coffee?
Manny & Maple went to get some cappuccino next door at the casino owned by Donald Trump.
They talked about the economy & the rising of the sea,
And his heart went thumputy thump-thump-thumpity thump-thump-thumpity-thump.
They switched to margaritas & shots of tequilas & bet on the Kenos,
And they put all their money on red.

Young Manesseh woke up in a nasty motel where Elvis once stayed.
Next to Manny was the Sheriff Maple & her rifle on the bed where they laid.
She said, Manny, oh, Man, we need to make a plan, 'cause I think we killed a man, but first where's my clothes?
Then he kissed her on the nose & on her roast beef toes,
And she moaned out whoa-whoa who's-your-do-see-dodo-doze whoa-whoa-whoa-whoze.
They hopped in his '90's Toyota & drove to the border of Louisiana,
Where they ditched the rifle.

Young Manasseh ran out of gas in the Mississippi swamp.
He & Sheriff Maple set up a muddy igloo & made love in the muddy damp.
He said, you don't have to decide, but if you'd like to be my bride, I've got nothing to provide, & she said Ja!
So they killed an alligator & they baked an apple fritter, & danced till later,
And they sang la la la la la la la la la la la.
The moral of the tale's if you want to kill a whale, you don't always need a harpoon,
But it helps get the Sheriff drunk.

©2011 The Manna Tease

Here's a free downloadable mp3 of the above live version if you wish to have it:


UPDATE: Introducing new illuminated sheet music! "Young Manasseh's Stains" with illustrations by Grainne Proinseas:
Young Manassehs Stains, from The Manna Sustains - Illuminated Sheet Music

On the Trail of Young Manasseh

...wherein we find our hero, Special Agent Francis, searching for the fugitive Young Manasseh up in Alaska.

Special Agent Francis on the trail of Young Manasseh,
Hitched a lift with a hang-glider from Ketchikan, Alaska:
Her name's Amanda, from Ketchikan, Alaska!

Special Agent Francis on the trail of Young Manasseh,
Hitched a lift with a hang-glider from Ketchikan, Alaska:
Her name's Amanda, from Ketchikan, Alaska!

As they soared above the glacier,
Fantastic as fallacier,
On the trail of Young Manasseh,
Swarms of clouds unfold to form a boreal castle,
Swarms of clouds unfold to form a boreal....

Amanda sang,
Where does the ice go when it melts into my glass of Scotch?
Francis said,
Should you be drinking while you're hang-gliding, miss?
Amanda sang,
When we die in the Arctic, do the glaciers weep & watch?
Francis replied,
Please pay attention where you're guiding us.

Special Agent Francis, airsick, & sick of her song,
Ditched his hippie hang-glider & hitchhiked to Saskatchewan,
Goodbye Amanda! see you never!

Special Agent Francis on the trail of Young Manasseh,
Hitched a lift with a hang-glider from Ketchikan, Alaska:
Her name's Amanda, from Ketchikan, Alaska!

Special Agent Francis, airsick, & sick of her song,
Ditched his hippie hang-glider & hitchhiked to Saskatchewan,
Goodbye Amanda! see you never!

©2011 The Manna Tease
"On the Trail of Young Manasseh" incorporates the traditional American folk tune "Boll Weevil" (public domain.)

Next: Song no. III: What Mary Noticed.

The Manna Sustains
An Epic Murder-Ballad Song-Cycle
by the Manna Tease

And the Lord said, I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.
-Exodus 16.37

Prelude. The Wind & the Rain
Song no. I. Young Manasseh's Stains
Song no. II. On the Trail of Young Manasseh
Song no. III. What Mary Noticed
Song no. IV. First Vision of St Olaf
First Interlude. The Wind & Snow
Song no. V. Wha' Happened in Oaxaca
Song no. VIa. Who are you, Elle Mary?
Song no. VIb. Second Vision of St Olaf
Song no. VII. Pink Mary's Stains
Song no. VIIIa. Banks of Pontchartrain
Song no. VIIIb. Young Manasseh Complains
Second Interlude. The Wind & Mud
Song no. IXa. Arkansas City
Song no. IXb. On the Trail of Pink Mary
Song no. X. Pink Mary's Marriage
Song no. XIa. Chase Scene / The Spatula / Pink Mary's Death
Song no. XIb. The Manna Sustains
Song no. XIc. Pink Mary's Resurrection / Wha' Happened in Oklahoma / Who Are You, Elle Mary? (Reprise)
Song no. XII. Young Manasseh Remains
Hymn. Sacred Throne
Palinode. And I Will No Longer Smoke My Hubbly-Bubbly Solitarily

Please follow / "like" our band The Manna Tease on facebooks!

Quotes: Louis C.K. Analyzes Why Fart Humor is Funny

We apologize, once again, for a reduced quantity of blogging over the past few months, and general decrease since the golden years of itwaslost. (It's been a bit busy over here, & other contributors have many other exciting projects going on.) However, to ease back into more regular serious bloggifying, I wanted to start with Louis C.K.'s amazing analysis about fart humor from last night's Daily Show with Jon Stewart: "Let's break down a fart for a second," he said, and then listed on his finger:

1. It comes out of your ass.
2. It smells like poop because it's been hanging out next to it for a long time.
3. And it makes a little trumpet noise when it comes out.

He then summed up, "You don't have to be smart to laugh at farts, but you have to be stupid not to." Stewart made some comment that most explanations of jokes strip the joke of its comedy, but this one only enhanced and deepened the understanding of the phenomenon. I propose that this should be published as an appendix to Sigmund Freud's "Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious" (Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten, 1905), which I've been told contains many unfunny jokes.

The real Henry K. Lee responds to the song: "The white guy in the video is not me!"

The SF Weekly blog The Snitch posted the video of my new song "Henry K. Lee," and got a quote from Mr Lee himself. The whole post, written by Erin Sherbert, is worth repeating here:

WTF?
Too Much Free Time: Guy Writes a Song for Chron Reporter Henry K. Lee on YouTube

We know Henry K. Lee best as the veteran Chronicle reporter who has been chasing crime stories across the Bay Area since 1994. And while we'd expect him to have a strong following at this point in his career, it seems a complete stranger has taken an unusual liking (or disliking) to Lee's dark and bleak prose about the "grit and grime" of San Francisco streets.

In a roughly-five-minute song on YouTube, this fan croons a ballad detailing stories written by the local news reporter for seemingly no reason at all.

"The white guy in the video is not me! In fact, I don't know who he is, never met the guy, and I didn't commission the song," Lee told SF Weekly. "That being said, I'm strangely honored and shocked at the same time that my work would go recognized in such an unusual -- if not macabre -- way."

We'll tell you the chorus, but do check out the full song: "Henry K. Lee, Henry K. Lee ... if it's crime and it's grimy, it's covered by Henry K. Lee."

Thank you so much for the endorsement. And thank you Mr Lee for feeling honored and shocked by the "macabre" song inspired by your writings. I do not dislike your "bleak" prose!

However.... I have a small complaint about some of Sherbert's "WTF?" prose. "...for seemingly no reason at all..."? I feel like Phillipe Petit and his dumbfounded reaction when reporters asked him "why did you do this?" after he illegally tight-roped between the Twin Towers in 1974. It's strange that you've filed my song under "Too Much Free Time." As if my job as an economist / neurosurgeon did not consume all of my hours, and I had to resort to art.

KALW had a nicer plug on their blog The Informant:

It’s not every day that a crime reporter is memorialized in song.

Henry K. Lee, the San Francisco Chronicle‘s long-time East Bay Crime reporter, was bestowed with that honor two days ago, when The Manna Tease, a Berkeley-based folk rock duo, posted their five-minute song, “The Ballad of Henry K. Lee,” to Youtube.

In short, this song goes a long way to make up for those reams of police blotter copy that have undoubtedly stolen hours of sleep away from Henry. Enjoy!

Anyway, I want to emphasize that the song was a rough draft, and I'll sing a different version with The Manna Tease when we perform in July. In the meantime, I just recorded a sample demo of that solo version (including the rape verse), and it can be bought & downloaded for one thin dollar here, if you'd like to own a copy &/or support my free-time-wasting pursuits.

Song: Henry K. Lee

Hot off the presses: the Ballad of Henry K. Lee, The San Francisco Chronicle's staff crime reporter. This song is sort of in the style of early Dylan-esque straight-from-the-news folk ballads, inspired by the Bay Area section of the newspaper. Every time I open it, I notice there's like five articles about depressing crime (usually in the East Bay), "2 Teens Shot in Hayward," "2 More Beheaded in Piedmont," et cetera. And those articles are always written by one man: Henry K. Lee. (Look, the top article today written by him is called "Putting baby in oven an inexplicable horror." You can't make this up.) So he began to achieve almost mythological status in my imagination: I picture him chain-smoking cigars in a grey office somewhere downtown Oakland, reporting the grisliest crime is a day job for him. This song was written for the Manna Tease to sing (please "like" us on Facebooks!) However, we deemed some of the verses too heavy for our shows, so I recorded this more intense version now for the youtubes, and when we redo it with Minnie Molly Mary, we'll replace the "raped her at school" verse with the lighter additional verses below.

Henry K. Lee

amin G F emin
Henry Harrison, (unrelated to the president),
amin G F emin
Arrested in Oakland, driving while intoxicated.
amin G F emin
In prison he acted up, flooded his toilet,
amin G F emin
And Harrison was restrained by an over-zealous deputy.
dmim amin
They tased him to death!
dmin amin
They tased him to death!
dmin emin
And the article in the Chronicle
F G C

Was written by Henry K Lee.

amin G F emin

Henry K. Lee, Henry K. Lee,

dmin amin dmin amin
The newspaper’s gritty as this naughty city.
dmin emin
If it’s crime & it’s grimy,
F G C
It’s covered by Henry K. Lee.

April in Alameda, at the animal prison,
A canine jailbreak, Max the Pit Bull’s gone missin’!
They hunted the hound to a motel in Reno,
And his owner Melissa Perry, booked for stolen property.
And they put him to sleep!
They put Max to sleep!
And the article in the Chronicle was written by Henry K. Lee.
Henry K. Lee, &c...

A grade school in Vallejo has secrets in its classrooms.
56-year-old Jerry Johnson taught Special Educations,
His young teenage aide had a developmental disability,
Incapable of consenting, with a child’s mental capacity.

He raped her at school!

He raped her at school!

And the article in the Chronicle was written by Henry K. Lee.

Henry K. Lee, &c...

Over-caffeinated at a coffee shop, I pick up the news,
The Bay Area section has its own special blues,
If I had a dime for each sad crime told daily
By Henry K. Lee, I’d buy me a ukulele.
How do you sleep, Henry?
What are your dreams, Henry?
I worry for you, Henry, & pray you’ll never write about me.

Additional verses:

Kathleen Millikin visited a holistic clinic:
There Edward Feng sold her, quote, “Six God Tablets.”
She suffered an earache and blisters and lesions:
These “Spirit Pills” had arsenic derived from toad poisons.
The doc was a quack,
The doc was a quack.
And the article in the Chronicle was written by Henry K. Lee.

©2011 The Manna Tease

UPDATE: Here's an mp3 of it, available for a dollar if you desire:

3 quick ink sketches from photos in a book about Romania

Delicious Deserts (for A.Ball)

Delicious Deserts