{"id":3434,"date":"2018-03-17T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T05:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=3434"},"modified":"2018-03-17T17:05:51","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T21:05:51","slug":"please-dont-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/please-dont-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Don&#8217;t Talk About Me When I&#8217;m Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Please Don&#039;t Talk About Me When I&#039;m Gone\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dbmP0Ok45xU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This was my regular post-bottling song when I was busking terraces in Antwerp &#8212; &#8220;bottling&#8221; being the technical term for going around asking for money. I would typically play three songs, make a circuit of all the tables requesting tips, and then, if they&#8217;d been generous enough to deserve another song, I&#8217;d do this as a farewell number.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3436 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Playing-a-terrace-in-Antwerp.jpg?resize=250%2C389\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Playing-a-terrace-in-Antwerp.jpg?w=250&amp;ssl=1 250w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Playing-a-terrace-in-Antwerp.jpg?resize=193%2C300&amp;ssl=1 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/>People have often asked if I was really able to make a living that way, and the honest answer is I&#8217;ve never lived better than during that period in Antwerp. I was staying in my girlfriend Miet&#8217;s apartment, paying some utilities and buying food, but I think she covered most if not all of the rent, which in any case was low. I could make the equivalent of about ten dollars per terrace, which took about fifteen minutes, and on a sunny weekend I could go across the Schelde to the cluster of cafes on the other side and often made two or three hundred dollars. If I felt like working some more, I could do the restaurants and bars in the evening, but after I came up with a regular terrace circuit I usually took the evenings off.<\/p>\n<p>There was a good library within walking distance, and I spent my voluminous free time reading through the history of English literature. My friend Robin Gillespie had sent me off with a complete Shakespeare, and I read that and then worked my way through the other Elizabethans in the British Council Library in Seville, and by the time I got settled back in Antwerp I was ready to dive into Chaucer and the other Middle English writers &#8212; not because I felt an overwhelming need, but because I had lots of time and it was fun.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3437\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Please-Dont-Talk-About-Me-sheet-music-227x300.jpg?resize=227%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Please-Dont-Talk-About-Me-sheet-music.jpg?resize=227%2C300&amp;ssl=1 227w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Please-Dont-Talk-About-Me-sheet-music.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 227px) 100vw, 227px\" \/>I was doing a lot of traveling as well, because it was easy &#8212; wherever I went, I could make food money with my guitar, there were always people ready to provide a bed or couch, and the Antwerp earnings provided a cushion. I hitched up to the north of Scotland and caught a ferry to Orkney, hitched down through Italy and caught a ferry to Tunisia (I remember reading <em>Tom Jones<\/em> on that trip), and rambled through Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey with my buddy Jasper (I was reading <em>Piers Plowman<\/em>, or rather not reading it, because that one was unreadable &#8212; and also impossible to trade away once I gave up).<\/p>\n<p>Then I decided I wanted the experience of traveling at the speed of the books I was reading, so walked the thousand kilometers from Antwerp to Brittany. (The literary high point of that trip was finding myself at nightfall near the battlefield of Agincourt and realizing I had a copy of <em>Henry V<\/em> in my pack. I camped out in the middle of the battlefield and memorized Henry&#8217;s exhortation to his troops by flashlight &#8212; I&#8217;ve forgotten most of it by now, but had it in my head for a few years.)<\/p>\n<p>All those literary references probably sound pretentious, but the point is that I was young and eager and enjoying myself &#8212; I memorized lots of poetry and never recited any of it for anybody; it was just a way to pass the time as I walked or camped or waited for rides. And yes, I&#8217;m nostalgic for those times and overdue to get out again and see how it feels &#8212; but more than that, I&#8217;d urge anybody who has some free time to go out and give it a shot. There are always people who&#8217;ll give you a ride, a couch, or a meal, especially if you have music to trade. As the poet said, &#8220;world enough, and time&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was my regular post-bottling song when I was busking terraces in Antwerp &#8212; &#8220;bottling&#8221; being the technical term for going around asking for money. I would typically play three songs, make a circuit of all the tables requesting tips, and then, if they&#8217;d been generous enough to deserve another song, I&#8217;d do this as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/please-dont-talk\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Please Don&#8217;t Talk About Me When I&#8217;m Gone<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Please Don&#039;t Talk About Me When I&#039;m Gone - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/please-dont-talk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Please Don&#039;t Talk About Me When I&#039;m Gone - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This was my regular post-bottling song when I was busking terraces in Antwerp &#8212; &#8220;bottling&#8221; being the technical term for going around asking for money. I would typically play three songs, make a circuit of all the tables requesting tips, and then, if they&#8217;d been generous enough to deserve another song, I&#8217;d do this as &hellip; Continue reading Please Don&#8217;t Talk About Me When I&#8217;m Gone &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/please-dont-talk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-17T05:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-17T21:05:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Playing-a-terrace-in-Antwerp.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/please-dont-talk\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/please-dont-talk\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Please Don&#8217;t Talk About Me When I&#8217;m Gone\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-17T05:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-17T21:05:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/please-dont-talk\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":645,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/please-dont-talk\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/12\\\/Playing-a-terrace-in-Antwerp.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/please-dont-talk\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/please-dont-talk\\\/\",\"name\":\"Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone - 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I've already paid tribute to Jordan in my post for \"Jack, You're Dead,\" and he's one of my longtime favorites, as well as one of the most fundamental artists of the R&B era. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/louis-jordan-e1730935077310.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3429,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/aint-you-sorry\/","url_meta":{"origin":3434,"position":1},"title":"Ain&#8217;t You Sorry (Mance Lipscomb)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a favorite from Mance Lipscomb which I learned in Antwerp after that winter fronting a trio in Sevilla. Within the first week or so of getting back to Belgium I got together with a very nice woman named Miet and over the next month or so gradually moved\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Mance-Lipscomb-4-295x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3354,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/some-of-these-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":3434,"position":2},"title":"Some of These Days (Antwerp\/busking\/Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I first visited Antwerp in the late 1970s, found it was a great town for busking, and in the 1980s I made it my base of operations for several years. That was largely thanks to Vera Singelyn, whom I met when she was running a sort of flophouse and soup\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Billekletser-285x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3367,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/goodnight-loving-trail\/","url_meta":{"origin":3434,"position":3},"title":"Goodnight Loving Trail (Utah Phillips)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I started singing this regularly for a very small audience of one, and before getting to the song and its composer, a few words about that... In the mid 1980s Vera Singelyn was running a place in Antwerp that provided cheap rooms and dinners for street people and buskers, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/vera-et-al-1986-e1515451599962.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1934,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/the-boxer\/","url_meta":{"origin":3434,"position":4},"title":"The Boxer (pleasures of busking)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Public performance is always a reciprocal process-- the performer does something, the audience reacts, the performer reacts, and so on, in a comodius vicus of recirculation. So when every so often someone says, \"Play your favorite song,\" my reaction -- though I sometimes try to be polite and not express\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"simon and garfunkel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/simon-and-garfunkel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5499,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cold-cold-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":3434,"position":5},"title":"Cold, Cold Heart (Hank Williams)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I have no idea when or where I learned \"Cold, Cold Heart\" -- it must have been sometime after the 1970s, because I didn't grow up with classic country, aside from a couple of Johnny Cash records and the cheapo anthology where I learned \"Lonesome 7-7203.\" That changed in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Hank-Williams-Portrait-e1732315103762.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3434"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3615,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions\/3615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}