“Aint´got no/ I got life” is a song, written by Nina Simone, released in 1968 and best known from the musical “Hair”,
I never really knew, if I like the song or not.
On one hand, it´s telling you, that no matter how miserable, lonely or poor your life is, its still worth living and the song gives some of the 60´s vibes, when the young generation was hoping and fighting for a better world.
But on the other hand, the song also gave me some questions.
Is it really enough, just to be alive without love, friends, family, knowledge or a home?
Without a sense, work, a function?
There are some people, who can easily survive without perfumes, sweaters or shoes.
Some without any possessions at all.
But it´s not easy to live without some of the most important human needs like social contacts, a sense in life and a safe place to stay.
At this times, in the middle of the world wide COVID-crisis, we need save homes, a function and social contacts- even if they´re only virtual for the moment- more than ever.
And one of my self-chosen functions is, to make humble little doll-plays…Could have gone worst…
So I started working on the analysis of this song a few days ago.
Some of the lines in the song weren´t easy to bring into a picture…Mostly because I didn´t have any matching props or possibilities. (How to show a liver or a tongue at a doll without making a real big mess? And what about “ticket and token”? )
So I had to work with symbols a few times and I´m not really completely satisfied with the result, but I did my best, as always.
Some other parts of the song´s lyrics literally “screamed” for a satire. And others, I wasn´t convinced with. So I had to bring in my own thoughts about it.
This time, I worked a lot with nude dolls…My consequence of the parts, where we are told, that the person in the song got no clothes, leads to the fact, that she simply must be nude….But don´t be afraid, I won´t show anything disturbing.
Another reason why, was that I wanted to focuse on the songs content in some parts and skip everything, that could distract.
The “liver” is actually a plastic steak and as you can see “made in Thailand”.
Some of the scenes are very simple, others made with more effort.
That makes sense, because some parts show the poverty of the woman, others are about the many parts or her (and in my version also his) body. I wanted to show that as good as possible. But also with a hint of irony sometimes.
Another question was about freedom.
Freedom is one of the most important things for a human being.
But is freedom everything, if you got nothing else?
I wanted to show, that freedom in itself might not be enough for most of us, that´s why I made the scene with the free, but homeless man. Maybe a bit hard to chew, I know.
Another point was “Nobody can take away” and “I´m going to keep it”.
It´s not our choice alone, if we can stay alive. There are illnesses, accidents or natural disasters. And far too often, other people make the decision, to take away another humans life.
So I couldn´t agree with that and made the “gun scene”. I wanted to be “drastic”, but didn´t go into a splatter, don´t worry.
When I had to do the parts with “arms” and “legs”, I had some pictures from showgirls in 1930´s chorus-line movies in my head. I tried, but it turned out to be a chaos instead of a straight line….The reason was the different articulation of some of my dolls. Not every doll is MTM!
Curtain´s up!
Ain´t Got No/ I Got Life
I ain´t got no home….
Ain´t got no shoes….
Ain´t got no money…
Ain´t got no class…
Ain´t got no skirts….
Ain´t got no sweater…
Ain´t got no perfume…
Ain´t got no bed….
Ain´t got no man…
Ain´t got no mother…
Ain´t got no culture…
Ain´t got no friends…
Ain´t got no schoolin´…
Ain´t got no love…
Ain´t got no name…
Ain´t got not ticket, ain´t got no token…
Ain´t got no god…
Hey, what have I got?
Why am I alive, anyway?
Yeah, what have I got
Nobody can take away?
Got my hair…
Got my head…
Got my brains…
Got my ears…
Got my eyes…
Got my nose…
Got my mouth…
I got my smile…
I got my tongue…
Got my chin…
Got my neck…
Got my boobies…
Got my heart…
Got my soul…
Got my back…
I got my sex…
I got my arms…
Got my hands…
Got my fingers…
Got my legs…
Got my feet…
Got my toes…
Got my liver…
Got my blood…
I´ve got life!
I´ve got my freedom!
I´ve got life!
I´ve got the life! And I´m going to keep it!
I´ve got the life!!!! Life!!!! Liiiiihhhhhiiiiiffffeeee!
It took 6 tries to make the “Hippie orgia-scene” at the end of the play.
Whenever I had all dolls standing in the right possition, one of them decided to fall and cause a big domino-effect. Finally I gave up trying to work completely without stands and other little helpers and tied 3 of the dolls to the bench in the middle. So they could hold the other dolls. That worked!
And now I could add on the “medias” with their cameras…