A Quote
Tristan Tzara, dada's papa,
Wrote that, if one can understand a piece
Of art, it is nothing but the product
Of journalism. I agree in ways piling up,
Wanting art to look good, sound good,
Or fly well; not necessairily be understandable.
I fell into a wishing-well when I was twelve,
And never got rescued.
So I did not marry and become a philosopher
Like Socrates - I am not enamored by young boys, either.
But to become a poet is not
A challenge, but a deep pit of cold mud.
poem by Stan Petrovich
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Any work of art that can be understood is the product of journalism.
quote by Tristan Tzara
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
We (Dadaists) are often told that we are incoherent, but into this word people try to put an insult that it is rather hard for me to fathom. Everything is incoherent... There is no logic... The acts of life have no beginning and no end. Everything happens in a completely idiotic way. That is why everything is alike. Simplicity is called Dada. Any attempt to conciliate an inexplicable momentary state with logic strikes me as a boring kind of game... Like everything in life, Dada is useless... Perhaps you will understand me better when I tell you that Dada is a virgin microbe that penetrates with the insistence of air into all of the spaces that reason has not been able to fill with words or conventions.
Tristan Tzara in The Dada Painters and Poets
Submitted by Simona Enache
Vote! | Copy!
Papa-Omm-Mow-Mow
Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
The Beach Boys
Frazier/White/Wilson, Jr./Harris
The last time we were up here
We did a song by another group of guys
We like very much
A real friendly group of guys
Called the Rivingtons
Their song is called "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"
A papa-oom-mow-mow
A papa-oom-mow-mow
A papa-oom-mow-mow
A papa-oom-mow-mow
Funniest sound I ever heard
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
But I can't understand a single word
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Well if he's serious or if he's playin'
Woo my my it's all he's sayin
Papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Well say there pop, say what's your name?
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Well don't you come around and show your face
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
But hearing the sound I can't figure it out
Oo-wee this sound makes me stop and shout
Papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
Doot doot doot
Doot doot doot
A papa-papa-papa-papa-oom-mow-mow
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
Well I hear this sound everywhere I go
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
From the record, TV, or the radio
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
But now it's spreadin' all through the land
I still can't seem to understand
Papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-hoooo
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-papa-hoooo
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-hoooo
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-papa-hoooo
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Ah, papa-oom-muh-muh-muh-muh
Ah, papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
The funniest sound i ever heard
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
But i can't understand a single word
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
But if he's serious or if he's playin'
Whoo, my my is all he's sayin'
Papa, whooo
Baba-baba-baba-whoooooooo!
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Well i said there, pop, say what's your name
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Why don't you come around and show your face?
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
The weirdest sound--i can't figure it out--
I can't believe this sound makes me slap and shout
Papa, whooo
Baba-baba-baba-whoooooooo! yeah!
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
Dit-dit-dit
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-papa-papa-oom-muh-muh-muh-muh
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
I can't seem to remember all the words
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Dit-dit-dit
Well, i hear this sound everywhere i go
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
On the rockin' tv or the radio
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
But now it's spreadin' all through the land
I still can't seem to haha ha
Understand
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Papa-oom-mow-mow
Baba-baba-baba-whoooooooo!
Baba-whoo
Dit dit dit
Baba-baba-baba-whooooo!
Baba-baba-baba-whoooooooo!
Oooo-oooo-ooo-wooooo
(how how oom mow oom mow. oh.)
(party [...], right?)
(i hope so.)
(this is [...])
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Art has not the celestial and universal value that people like to attribute to it. Life is far more interesting... Dada introduces it into daily life. And vice versa.
quote by Tristan Tzara
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy!
Pap-Oom-Mow-Mow
The last time we were up here
We did a song by another group of guys
We like very much
A real friendly group of guys
Called the Rivingtons
Their song is called "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow"
A papa-oom-mow-mow
Funniest sound I ever heard
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
But I can't understand a single word
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Well if he's serious or if he's playin'
Woo my my it's all he's sayin
~CHORUS~
Papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Papa-papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Doot doot doot
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Well say there pop, say what's your name?
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
Well don't you come around and show your face
A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
But hearing the sound I can't figure it out
Oo-wee this sound makes me stop and shout
Doot doot doot
Doot doot doot
Doot doot doot
A papa-papa-papa-papa-oom-mow-mow
~CHORUS~
Well I hear this sound everywhere I go
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
From the record, TV, or the radio
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
But now it's spreadin' all through the land
I still can't seem to understand
Papa-papa-hoooo
(A papa-oom-mow-mow a papa-oom-mow-mow)
~CHORUS
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
quote by Socrates
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
Papa Dont Preach
Papa I know youre going to be upset
cause I was always your little girl
But you should know by now
Im not a baby
You always taught me right from wrong
I need your help, daddy please be strong
I may be young at heart
But I know what Im saying
The one you warned me all about
The one you said I could do without
Were in an awful mess, and I dont mean maybe - please
[chorus:]
Papa dont preach, Im in trouble deep
Papa dont preach, Ive been losing sleep
But I made up my mind, Im keeping my baby, oh
Im gonna keep my baby, mmm...
He says that hes going to marry me
We can raise a little family
Maybe well be all right
Its a sacrifice
But my friends keep telling me to give it up
Saying Im too young, I ought to live it up
What I need right now is some good advice, please
[chorus]
Daddy, daddy if you could only see
Just how good hes been treating me
Youd give us your blessing right now
cause we are in love, we are in love, so please
[chorus]
Papa dont preach, Im in trouble deep
Papa dont preach, Ive been losing sleep
[repeat]
Oh, Im gonna keep my baby, ooh
Dont you stop loving me daddy
I know, Im keeping my baby
I know, Im keeping my baby
I know, Im keeping my baby
song performed by by Kelly Osbourne
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
If I shout: Ideal, Ideal, Ideal; Knowledge, Knowledge, Knowledge; Boomboom, Boomboom, Boomboom; I have recorded fairly accurately Progress, Law, Morals, and all the other magnificent qualities that various very intelligent people have discussed in so many books.
Tristan Tzara in The Dada Almanac (1920)
Submitted by Simona Enache
Vote! | Copy!
Im So Young
I have a girlfriend
She says Im her only one
We wanna get married
But were so young
So young
Cant marry no one
They say our love is
Just a teenage affection
But no one knows
Our hearts direction
So young
Cant marry no one
Im Im Im so young
Im Im Im so young
Im Im Im so young
Cant marry no one, no one
Pretty soon now
Ill go to sea
Their mothers baby
Will have seen the last of me
So young
Cant marry no one, no one
Cant marry no one
Cant marry no one
Cant marry no one
Cant marry no one
Cant marry no one
Cant marry no one
song performed by by Beach Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Thought is made in the mouth.
quote by Tristan Tzara
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Old Gold Diggin' Geezer
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
You just wanna ride in my car.
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
And take you to places to feed your greedness.
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
You just wanna have an easy life.
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
And you think I'm the one gon' give it!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
You ain't got a mortgage or a lease on me.
None that we've agreed upon.
And none that you can see.
You ain't got a ring or a title to keep me leashed up tight.
And what you think I've got,
You're not gonna get that close to take a bite!
With or without your teeth behind your 'grill'...
You old gold diggin' geezer!
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
You just wanna ride in my car.
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
And take you to places to feed your greedness.
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
You old gold diggin' geezer!
Poppa dada poppa.
Poppa dada poppa.
You old gold diggin' geezer!
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
'I thought you said you were a friend to ALL people?
YOU are a fraud.
You ain't even a friend to some! '
Peek a boo doo peek a boo doo,
Peek a boo doo boo!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.
The rest, called literature, is a dossier of human imbecility for the guidance of future professors.
quote by Tristan Tzara
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Porpoise Song {Theme From 'Head'}
My, my the clock in the sky is pounding away
There's so much to say
A face, a voice, an overdub has no choice
And it cannot rejoice
Wanting to be, to hear and to see
Crying to the sky
But the porpoise is laughing good-bye, good-bye
good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
Clicks, clacks
Riding the backs of giraffes for laughs is alright for a while
The ego sings of castles and kings and things
That go with a life of style
Wanting to feel, to know what is real
Living is a lie
But the porpoise is waiting good-bye, good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
song performed by by Monkees
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Porpoise Song
My, my the clock in the sky is pounding away
Theres so much to say
A face, a voice, an overdub has no choice
And it cannot rejoice
Wanting to be, to hear and to see
Crying to the sky
But the porpoise is laughing good-bye, good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
Clicks, clacks
Riding the backs of giraffes for laughs is alright for a while
The ego sings of castles and kings and things
That go with a life of style
Wanting to feel, to know what is real
Living is a lie
But the porpoise is waiting good-bye, good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye
song performed by by Monkees
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
On Reading Blake's 'Little Black Boy
Two centuries or even more gone by
Since William Blake wrote 'The little black boy'
He told in verse how black skin equalled white
And in what he wrote of course the poet was right.
He wrote the famous verses at a time
When to be black was looked on as a crime
A lesson in human love perhaps one day
That others might learn from what he had to say.
His verses put him in a higher place
When he wrote of the equality of race
And in history the great poet made his mark
When he preached that white was no greater than dark.
But even in the twenty first century
Some with the Poet's views still do not agree
Some still say black is not as good as white
But of course these people live in darker light.
A lesson here for all humanity
From bard who lived in eighteenth century
That racial discrimination is unwise
As all different races equal in God's eyes.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Dadaism is a characteristic symptom of the disordered modern world. It was first inspired by the chaos and collapse of Europe during the war.
Tristan Tzara in Vanity Fair, Some Memoirs of Dadaism (July 1922)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
Vote! | Copy! | In Spanish | In Romanian
I Found A Reason
(reed)
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
I found a reason to keep living
Oh and the reason, dear, is you
I found a reason to keep singing
Oh and the reason, dear, is you
Oh I do believe
If you dont like things you live
For some place you never gone before
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
Honey, I found a reason to keep living
And you know the reason, dear its you
And Ive walked down lifes lonely highways
Hand in hand with myself
And I realized how many paths have crossed between us
Oh I do believe
Youre all what you perceive
What come is better that what came before
Oh I do believe
Youre all what you perceive
What come is better that what came before
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
Pa papa papa papa
And youd better come, come come, come to me
Come come, come to me
Pa papa papa pa
song performed by by Velvet Underground
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Kitchen Poem
An Elegy for Tristan Tzara
In the hungry kitchen
The dog sings for its dinner.
The housewife is writing her poem
On top of the frigidaire
Something like this:
'Hear in the kitchen
The crows fly home
Into the red-robed trees
That walk across the sky.
Hear under the floor
The three fountains rising and
Trickling through the bridge
Into the sea of poems.'
In the kitchen the housemother
Pours soup for her thousand children
As her man eats his silence
And the dog swallows its poem.
In all. the kitchens of Europe
The radio shouts good news:
'Millions have had no accident today
All wars have come to an end
An honest politician
In another country
Wants to become a plumber
All men will be equal, next year
Volcano vomits ice-cream
A silent poem has been invented.'
In my holy kitchen
I draw the blinds of night
On the homes of sleep.
I hold the world in my palms.
Now that I am old
I can measure life with words.
There's a nightingale in my coffee.
My bread is buttered with memories.
Since the old woman died
I have two souls.
When I was small we had a lucky black cat.
We had a magic horse-shoe on the wall,
It was rusty and brought no luck
But fetched the fields into the kitchen
And made us not forget horses.
When you are old you make your own magic.
You speak oftener for the dead.
You move free in the wonderland of the past.
You invent a future on the other shore of death.
You must speak for the dead,
You are their rusty horse-shoe
In all the kitchens of the world,
Not the mug on the radio
But a thought rescued from the past.
(There was love in the thin soup
A bone some lentils and great love.
My mother's hands were clouds.
There was a bluebird in the gasjet
When she bathed us by the kitchen fire.
There will be no such soup again
Nor such transcendent poverty.
I have lost the treasure of poverty.
The old woman is dead and buried
In her wonderland of oblivion,
But lives in my kitchen poem
In this 'sentimental' aside.)
Now that I am an old man, I think in bed.
I think nothing. I think poems -
The metronome of sleeplessness and death,
The art of being deliberately alone and yet
A centre in the vortex of the world,
Feelings stretched drum-tight on the grid of thought
As your decaying flesh taut on its bones,
Sensations phantom ideas dreams, pinned bugs
On the living conveyor-belt of experience,
While in the poem you are everybody else,
Each poem merging into another construct,
All poems rationally absurd impermanent
------------------DADA------------ ------
There being no poem ever, no poet ever.
An old man in a kitchen, cooking words.
I am no poet I am
Lived by unfinishable poems,
The horse-shoe hammered
On the anvil of my brain.
I think nothing. The poems think me.
I do not often write them down,
Being a structuration of the unknowable
That dies upon the page,
My inward poems whispered for the dead
While the living bury the living
With foul political slogans.
An owl is hooting in my poem
Which sleep will end.
Good night, poet of life,
Be with me always.
I give you my kitchen poem,
Immortal TRISTAN.
poem by Francis Scarfe
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!