Reader Reviews for Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Bukowski's Poetry in the Dark
Comment: This volume of Bukowski's poems truly lives up to its title, Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit. Like his other compilations, the title and his little short preface gives valuable insight to the collection. In this collection, Bukowski gives his wisdom before you hit the actual poems--" waiting/ in a life full of little stories/ for a death to come". This, coupled with the title, reveals that the poems will show how to live a hard, full life, pounding on the piano, until all the little emotions, encounters, and stories make you bleed. Bukowski doesn't disappoint, and his poems in this collection show the bleakness of the unrelenting force of life. Two poems stand out in this collection that really embraces Bukowski's theme and tone, "the apple" and "hug the dark". In "the apple", Bukowski plays off the archetypal view of an apple as the wisdom of life. He enforces that knowledge comes through living, not just books, when he points out the apple "is an experience" (59). Experience and living contain "underlying pits of white" (59), which represent a deeper understanding of emotions and truth. While Bukowski describes eating the apple, he daydreams about "choking to death on the apple skin" (59), emulating the fear of understanding, as well as oppressive nature that comes inherently with knowing too much. The poem ends with "depressive feelings" (59) and an "ending" (59), as the apples gets thrown away, leaving the poet staring at an ashtray. Likewise, in "hug the dark", Bukowski reveals how the cruel touch of life leaves a person jaded. The poem describes how "turmoil is the god" (113) of the modern world. It continues describing how pain can kill or help people survive, but "peace is the worst thing" (113) because it's fake. Peace covers up "the whores/ betrayal/ the worm in the apple" (113). Bukowski offers ominous advice to avoid theses modern gods, but, even if you do, you're still disturbed like anyone else. This collection shows Bukowski artfully peeling off the veneer of America, exposing the hopelessness of fighting against a life that beats you like a percussion instrument.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome.
Comment: I'm going to make this quick. If you like Bukowski, you'd love it. If you've never heard of him... What the phreak is wrong with you? Buy it already.
Customer Rating:
Summary: All my friends are married, every Tom and Dick and....
Comment: ...Harry,
You must be strong if you're to go it alone
Here's to the bachelors and the Bowery bums
Those who feel that they're the ones
That are better off without a wife
Cause I like to sleep until the crack of noon
Midnight howling at the moon
Going out when I want to and I'm coming home when I please
Don't have to ask permission, wanna to go out fishing
Never have to ask for the key
Well I've never been no Valentino
But I had a girl who lived in Reno
Left me for a trumpet player who didn't get me down
He was wanted for assault
Though he said it weren't his fault
You know the coppers rode him right out of town
I've been sleeping until the crack of noon
Midnight howling at the moon
And I've been Going out when I wanna coming home when I please
Don't have to ask permission, wanna to go out fishing
Never have to ask for the key
Kinda selfish about my privacy
Now as long as I can be with me
We get along so well I can't believe
I love to chew the fat with folks
I've been listening to all your dirty jokes
I'm so thankful for these friends I do receive
I've been sleeping until the crack of noon
Midnight howling at the moon
And I've been Going out when I wanna coming home when I please
Don't have to ask permission, I wanna to go out fishing
Never have to ask for the keys, no
Yeah, I've got this girl I know, man and I just...she's been married several times. I don't wanna end up like her, I mean she's been married so many times she's got rice marks all over her face. Yeah you know the kind.
-I wrote a review for "THE LAST NIGHT OF THE EARTH POEMS" wherein I quoted "THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING" by T. Waits. A buddy of mine said I shoulda put that one here, and I think, of course that woulda been way too obvious. But, maybe he was right. But, to h*ll with that and what's right. I always did know what the right path or choice was, but never took it anyway. It was just too damn hard. Except when it came to Buk. Buk and Waits. Buk and Waits and boxing. But here, you gotta know it's right to snatch this book up right away, because with Buk, you simply can't pick a bad one. Each one is as good, if not better, than the next and this one is no exception. Get it, get it, get it. You will not regret it.
Enjoy kiddies. Now I gotta make like a hockey player and get the puck outta here...
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to Bukowski's poetry
Comment: This book is like a 'greatest hits' from the 1970s for Bukowski. Ranging from 1970 to 1979, these poems show him working on familiar themes, but he's getting better at expressing himself. His chaotic life is drawing to a close as he settles into married life in the 1980s. These poems are more focused than his earlier efforts, but also a little looser --- he's able to sum up a mood, a day, or an old friend in half a page of non-rhyming verse. These poems are full of wry humor and romance, a far cry from his reputation for booze and sullen moods. If you haven't read his poetry, try this book. You'll find out what kind of writer Bukowski was. It's sure to inspire you to read more of his great work.
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Summary: confessions of a first class maniac
Comment: This is the first Bukowski book that i read. All you have to do is take a look at both of my books, STONE HOTEL and RUSTY STRING QUARTET to see the obvious influence. Bukowski's importance as an American writer will only grow in the 21st century. The man is already a Hemingway-like figure in Europe;the cultural snobs of academia in America have tried to ignore his work, but that will change. This collection is a grab-bag of previously uncollected poems that Bukowski regularly submitted to small press rags during the late sixties and all the way up til his death. These are from the 70's and there are some great poems here dealing with a number of themes: alienation, lonliness, the emptiness of fame, the awkwardness of love triangles, and on and on. There is more truth and beauty in Bukowski's poems than in 500 yrs of philosophy and ersatz religions. A grand overstatement? Of course, but to heck with it; I am a poet too!
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