So I'm listening to Ry Cooder's "Chicken Skin Music" CD in the truck this
morning,
zipping along the viaduct (why not?) when his version of Leadbelly's "Goodnight
Irene" comes on, replete with lovely
conjunto
accordian (which is alternatively spelled "accordion", go figure).
And part of the lyrics go like this:
Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in town
Sometimes I take a great notion
To jump in the river and drown
And it hits me-this is where Ken Kesey got the title for
"Sometimes a Great Notion", which clicks even louder in my head when I
remember that there is a big drowning scene. I'd always assumed Kesey had got it
from Shakespeare, whenever I thought about it at all. Figuring things out is
cool.














