The Texas Swing Boys’ Dadaist Manifesto

(“I just want to hear some Dadaist country songs”
Tex Schwitters, Abilene, March 1924)

black horse bat six
gun two fifty stranger

ON THUNDERING STAGECOACH WHEELS OF DADA!

take the brothers. grant meadows
chester meadows

two fifty stranger
still hands

HOT DURN! CRASHING SIX SHOT PISTOL SHOTS OF DADA!

it’s high two fifty on the broken clock
the menu don’t change

TEA, HONEY! GREAT CREAKING TABLE TOPS OF DADA!

nothing changes and the clock don’t

TAKE A HANGING ROPE TO YOUR DOBRO POETICS

DOBRODADA!

hands up, clock

HONEY, THE DADA SUNSET WILL WALK INTO US!

(“Rupert Brooke was/the greatest Dadaist of us all”
from Collected Letters of Zane Gray, Knopf, 1982)

Recorded by The Texas Swing Boys, July 1924, at The Gospel Studios, Austin

Copyright: from How the Hornpipe Failed (Rivelin Grapheme, 1984), copyright © Ian McMillan 1984, used by permission of the author

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Ian McMillan (b. 1956) is one of the UK's best known contemporary poets. Aside from many books (for adults and children), sometimes ...

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About The Texas Swing Boys’ Dadaist Manifesto

I've always been a fan of the Dadaist Manifesto, and country music, and I thought I'd put a couple of them together.

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