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Plays: 214[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
“BOOTS” poem by Rudyard Kipling, music and narration by Todd Mauldin
I got the strangest email a few weeks ago. A gentelman said he was searching the Internet for a spoken-word version of “Boots”, a poem by Rudyard Kipling, and my name came up on Google as having once produced a version. He went on to say that the file couldn’t be downloaded, and asked if I had another copy.
I did indeed have a copy, after a little looking. I did this “Boots” around 1999 or so, again back in the mp3.com days. It tuned out pretty good, I can’t remember if I ever released it on CD. But I must have posted it somwhere… so I went ahead and emailed him the file with my compliments. It was kind of flattering, after all.
He wrote back and said, while my verson was good, it wasn’t the one he was looking for. He said they used a spoken version of it, looped over and over, as psychological “torture” in a military training program he went through, and that’s what he was looking for.
So I guess we can infer from this that Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Boots (Infantry Columns)” is regarded as a form of torture, and that my version is a slight improvement on torture. Click the black box above, and see what you think.
Posted on May 17, 2009 ()
Todd Mauldin is a blues philosopher living in Reno, Nevada, who performs solo, as well as with his partner Jack Doyle as The Hellbusters.
The Hellbusters debut CD "Guilty" is available and fairly popular worldwide among those who like their blues hard, immediate, intimate and lightly cooked.
Todd Mauldin's solo show, featuring spoken word and hard country blues, is being performed to positive reviews.
For more information about the Hellbusters or Todd's solo show, contact tavo@hellbusters.net.
Hope you find something interesting among the bric-a-brac here. There's information about Todd's blues, art and spoken word, as well as screeds and rants, video clips and music samples, bulls and scripture, and a large range of invective and hyperbole, both sacred and profane.
