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The Butterball and her Husband


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“The Butterball and her Husband” is an epic, erotic resetting of the Grimm Fairy Tale: “The Fisherman and his Wife.” This Fairy tale Inspired Günter Grass to write his great novel “The Flounder.” Being a student of Folk Tales such as the ones collected by the Grimm Brothers, and “The Fisherman and his Wife” in particular I found “The Flounder” by Günter Grass to be one the greatest things I didn’t know I needed. This passage exists nested in my opera Flounder in an Arabian Nights-type story-within-a-story-within-a-story segment of the Third Act. All through the opera, the Man, appears to be an incarnation of all the men in all the histories related as the various female characters appear to be incarnations of the Women. Until here—where the gender roles explode resulting in a context that is unfamiliar if not unrecognizable: Stacey Black, Lisa Robertson, Domenique Persi, and Carla Kihlstedt perform the lead vocals. Their estrogen-infused channeling of my vocal-style is a matter of great pride.

 

The Butterball and her Husband – Lyrics
I’ll tell you a story to put you to sleep
There once was a butterball
Her name was–
Hey what was her name?
Illsebill

She had a man and his name was Max
She sat home all the time
painting her nails with green polish
He always went fishing on weekends
And while Max fished and fished
his butterball wife painted her fingernails green.
Then she’d lie all-alone in her piss pot
wishing this
that
and some other guy into her bed

So one afternoon
while Max was fishing
a flounder bit
That’s a flatfish
His pop-eyes are out of line
with his blubbery mouth
He happens in a fairy tale
so naturally he could talk
and he sez to Max
“Set me free and you can make a wish.”
So Max took the flounder off the hook.
Threw him back into the sea with a splash
and said “O, flounder
My Illsebill is a cuddly little wife
all she wants to do is kiss and cuddle
Fuck and be fucked.
By this one and that one
and that one and this one
With me she’s never satisfied
She always wants to be boned by some guy that’s not me
She thinks my stinkhorn stinks
What should I do? O- o- o- what should I do?”

“So what kind of guy does she want to do it with?”
asked the flounder giving him a crooked look from the water
“Well a fire chief in uniform for instance
said the fisherman looking over the smooth sea
“You’re a fire chief already
with braid and buttons
said the flounder
and dove under

So Max in uniform climbed into bed
with his Illsebill and fucked her so hard
that his buttons popped
And he kept it up until Illsebill had enough
of the fire chief
and her legs went stiff
and she started to fidget and moan
“O if only I could have a judge in there”

So then Max called the flounder out of the slightly ruffled sea
and the flounder turned Max into a judge
with robes and horn-rimmed glasses
And when Illsebill was fed up with his stinkhorn
and wanted an extra neurotic anarchist
between the sheets
The flounder put Max the terrorist into her bed
stocking mask, ticking bomb, and all
By that time the sea was making little short-winded waves
That was a success for an entire week
because Illsebill found this character “terribly interesting”
But when she finally realized
that even anarchists have only two balls she said
“What’s so remarkable about him?
(I’d like to know.)
Right in the middle he starts talking
shooting his mouth off about politics

What I want now
is a stinking rich bank president
Just to tide me over
while I’m shaking off the habit”

So with the wind blowing at gale force five
Max called the flounder
And the flounder made him a bank president
And he pulled up in a silver blue Mercedes
The bank president’s hair was graying all over
even around his cock

So when Illsebill in her cuddlesome way
had finished off capitalism
She wanted after only a brief interval
to be screwed by a wiry rock star
and she wanted all the video cameras shooting–
and bright lights
“Looks to me like your Illsebill will never get her hole full.
It’s always more and more”

While the cameras hummed
he performed
terrific disrobe-bite-fuck scenes
with fade-ins of similar scenes
from other films
But when Illsebill had milked him so dry
“he was really comical”
She wanted still more and cried out
“Now I want an orchestra conductor with his baton in there!
O-o-o-
Oh!
O-o-o-
Oh!
O-o-o-
Oh!
O-o-o-
Oh!”

So leaning against the hurricane
Max called the flounder
who heaved a sigh
but turned him one two three
into a top flight maestro
who could conduct anything under the a sun with out a score.
But after three encores
Illsebill had finished him off, too

“Always interpreters
Never an original creator
Everything second hand
Now I want old Beethoven to fiddle me– –
front and back!”

“Enough is enough!
Now she’s going too far!
Hands off our classics!
From now on and forever more
like it or not
she’ll have to do with her Max
every Saturday after fishing

“Awww! Look at the butterball
She’s a-sleep”

 

Credits
from Broken Glass Promenade, track released 15 June 2012

Track Credits
Composed and Produced by The StiKman
Lyrics inspired by The Flounder By Günter Grass
Engineered and Mixed by The StiKman

Stacey Barton, Lisa Robertson, Domenique Persi, Carla Kihlstedt, and Amy X Neuberg: Vocals
The StiKman: flute, percussion, Tuba, and sound design
That One Guy: Bass Guitar, Double Bass, “cello”
Will Bernard: Guitar
Jim Bogois: Trap Drums and invoking the threat of Charlie Hunter
Carla Kihlstedt: Violins, Violas
John Weeks: Gongs, Tympani, Orchestral Crash Cymbals, Orchestral Bass Drums

Special thanks to Jenya Chernoff for the use of her Tympani and to David Immerglück “Thanks for listening!”

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Stacie Barton

carla kihlstedt3

Carla Kihlstedt 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy X Neuberg_3

Amy X Neuberg is Brunhilda