Sunday, March 2, 1958
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
Page Three
Sunday, March 2, 1958 THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE Poac Three
A Philosophy Instructor Turned Disc Jockey
Comes to Terms with George Berkely,
Orval Faubus and Miss Monroe
togetherness in the business ence and I don't want to convert
world. anybody to anything."
"In the 30's," Winter said, "they
"I am a team man, without a protested to gain adherence. To-
problem I can name, day's protestor can't do this be-
I am a team man, cooperation cause we can't really protest
is my game ... things which are not concrete or
Togetherness, the life we bless, immediate dangera." Winter feels
Mom and me and Sis an mass advertising, organization
Brother . ' ' . men and togetherness are not
What difference does it make dangerous in the ordinary sense.
that we can't stand each oth- "These exist in a different con-
er? text, and must be criticized in
I am a team man and will be other ways."
until the day I die. Thus the explanation for his
Astride my beam man, I'll greet songs. He sings them himself
the great coach in the sky. which is his closest resemblance
For Him I'll have one question, to Tom Lehrer, he can carry a
to me He wouldn't lie. tune. While a few of his album
When S humbly ask Him, dear selections are trivial and barely
Father, who am I?" funny, others have a humorous,
.o c biting punch which convey a
Such a sonig, forces th e inquir ti ouht provokin' signifteance,.
er to question Winter, "Whyt
didn't you stay in philosophy IN A dialogue between Boris Ish-
where you could criticize the tot , nosed Hollywood producer.
team man, the disc jockey, or the and his big ste , lock Quarry, we
show business personality fism hear the producer berating his
safer groud?" star for not breaking into the
GUESS what you wt to scandal magazine, Hotstuff.
You are not hot stuff, you are
know," he hnsweied "is shy not even cold stuff. You are no
does a guy spt himself up like stuff at all," wails Ishtoff. "You
NOT ALL his songs express a '
bitterness toward expressions
of our contemporary culture.
"Fallout," a lilting waltz about
the courtship of two grotesque
mutations "is simply an expres-
sion of my own anxiety over the
testing and possible destructive
use of nuclear energy."3
His tunes sometimes get quite
obscure. "Tired Blood," for ex-
ample, is a -satire on the miracle
remedy which blames the woes of ,
mankind on tired blood. His ref- 6
erences go back to Abelard and
Adam and Eve.
"They could have prevented
mankind's fall,
Simply by sipping some ..."
Paul Winter's life is fascinating
for he does exactly what he
wants to do. It's refreshing for
the college student to know of at
least one person who, instead of
just going to the Bell when he got
sick of an assignment, dropped
the whole business and took up an
entirely new occupation.
T IS ALSO good to know there
is at least one person in the
commercial world who is keenly
aware of what is going on about
him and will speak out in protest,
even if in an offbeat manner.
Nothing escapes his dislike,
even the Actors Studio. "'Tm com-
pelled to turn a critical ear to-
ward my environment'."
He cited the plays of Tennessee
Williams as an example. "I con- THE DJ-"With his happy radio and TV personality ... peddles
sider the man insignificant so I juke box reality," a line from Paul Winter's satire on his own
write a funny song about him and profession.
the institution,"
are existing problems. His object announcer saying, "and now the
"They even put profundity in in recording the songs is to enter- number one hit all across the
Miss Monroe's brassiere," tain and make money on the deal, country." Two panels of shock
Winter believes that even the waves later, he says to Charlie
HIS SONGS characterize his Madison Avenue boys can laugh Brown, "The nation is in sad
need to perform and protest, at themselves. He pointed to an shape."
not in the hope of effecting re- enlarged "Peanuts" cartoon on "And that in a studio," laughed
form, rather to show that he is the wall of the broadcasting stu- Winter, "from which the top 50
aware of what to him and others dio. Linus is listening to the radio comes every day."
z..
-Daily-Normnau Jacobs
HE SPECIALIZES,.
in satire
this? It's not an easy question to
answer because it is a vital one.
"In the first place," he began,
"I am a performer, and the per-
former is not necessarily a dis-
criminating person. I enjoy the
work I do - delivering commer-
cials, playing records."
"On the other hand," he con-
tinued, "because of my back-
ground I'm compelled to turn a
critical ear toward my environ-
ment."
He gave as an example his mo-
tivation for writing "Team Man."
"There is too much suspicion of
the lonely man thinking for him-
self. The emphasis is on group
thinking." Winter finds this a ba-
sic violation of "what you might
call the democratic spirit, the
notion of self respect and indi-
vidualism." Winter differentiates
his kind of protest from the so-
cial protest of the '30's. "I'm pro-
testing points of view and not ide-
ologies. The protestor 20 years
ago fought against unemployment
and bread lines. I protest for the
entertainment of my limited audi-
WITIe SONGS . .
to make you thimk.
donate thousands to cerebral pal-
sy, buy station wagons for Girl
Scout troops, send money month-
ly to your aged mother. But not
one cent for scandal."
"But chief, I can't do it,'
whines his anguished star.
"Rock Quarry, you are sick,
sick, ill, and you are through. Now
you'll never know what it's liks
to be really loved."
"It occurred to me," Wintei
commented, "that there is a kind
of confusion between love and
publicity. There is an under-
ground invitation to reveal your-
self and you will be loved. It
doesn't matter what you reveal aQ
long as it brings revelation."
There is in all of us the inclin-
ation to give ourselves up an
bare ourselves to gain approval
to deny private needs and pri.
vate lives."
So, he writes a clever piece
about it. Sometimes, Winter says
"I feel like an itinerant preache:
and want to shout my feeling:
from a soapbox." Instead he per
forms.
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