"I still ask myself if I did the right thing when I abandoned his floating city" "And I don't mean only for the work fact is, a friend like that a real friend you won't meet one again" "If you just decide to hang up your sea legs if you just want to feel something more solid beneath your feet" "and if then you no loner hear the music of the gods around you" "But, like he used to say" "You're never really done for as long as you got a good story and someone to tell it to" "Trouble is nobody'd believe a single word of my story" "It happened every time" "Someone would look up and see her" "It's difficult to understand" "There'd be more than a thousand of us on that ship" "Traveling rich folks, immigrants and strange people, and us" "Yet there was always one" "One guy alone who would see her first" "Maybe he was just sitting there eating or walking on the deck" "Maybe he was just fixing his pants" "He'd look up for a second." "A quick glance out to sea and he'd see her" "Then he'd just stand there rooted to the spot, his heart racing" "And every time every damn time, I swear he'd turn to us, towards the ship towards everybody and scream" "America" "The Legend of 1900" "New York" "The one who sees America first" "There's one on every ship" "And don't be thinking it's an accident" "Or some optical illusion It's destiny" "Those are people who always have that precise instant stamped on their life" "And when they were kids you could look into their eyes and if you looked carefully enough you'd already see her" "America" "And I've seen a few Americas" "Six years on that ship five crossings a year" "Europe, America and back always soaking in the ocean" "When you stepped on land you couldn't even piss straight in the john" "It was teady." "The john, I mean" "But you'd keep bobbing like an idiot" "You can get off a ship all right But off the ocean" "I was just closing" "What can I do for you?" "When I boarded, I was 24 years old" "And I only cared about one thing in life" "Playing the trumpet" "I'm selling it" "Conn" "Not bad" "Best brass money can buy" "Six pounds, ten shillings Best I can do" "That horn's my whole life, mister" "Even being a nobody has got to be worth more than twenty lousy bucks" "It that's how things are, I suppose it's barely worth half a crown" "Shut the door when you leave please" "Okay, pops you win" "You just bought yourself a piece of musical history" "Now if you want my advice got out, treat yourself to a decent meal" "At least let me play it one last time" "Young man I don't have time to waste" "All right" "Hurry up, then" "I'm closing" "Thank you" "Two peas in a pod, wouldn't you say" "It's the music you were just playing" "What is it?" "It doesn't have a name" "Just a handful of people have had the privilege of hearing it" "That style." "I was wondering since this morning, but..." "I can't work out who this amazing piano player is" "I don't think you ever heard of him" "Who is he?" "If I told you this pianist never existed" "I wouldn't be lying" "I don't like secrets" "Come on now, Yank who the devil is playing?" "That's my secret" "It was the first year of this frigging century as defined by an unknown colored coal stoker on the Virginian" "Fucking rich-ass bastards Can't lose nothing but cigarette butts and dirty-ass handkerchiefs" "Can't lose no watch not even a beat-up Elgin or a sorry-ass cufflink" "What am I talking about?" "Not even a fake fucking ring" "Look here" "A whole cigar" "Must've been somebody poor at the party" "Look at this shit" "Nasty fucker" "Damn rich." "Don't forget nothing unless they owe you some money" "What in the scuts you doing here?" ""T.D. Lemons"" "Howdy do there, Lemon" "Immigrant bastard" "You said it That's the way the immigrants do it" "Have a baby on the ship and then leave on board another mouth to feed" "And, like that, avoid trouble with the immigration office" "What's a boy like him going to be when he grows up?" "Another immigrant" "Don't pay those bastards no mind Lemon" "Go on, lap it up, boy" "This one they left in first class on top the piano" "They are hoping some rich guy will come and stick a silver spoon in his mouth" "And who does the little ape get instead?" "A poor coal stoker" "Someoe is taking you for a sucker, Danny" "They have the fun You have the misery" "Fuck poverty" "You stinking sewer rats" "T.D. was wrote on that box." "Any of you shitheads know what that means?" "I forgot." "You all can't read" "It means, "Thanks, Danny." "Thanks, Danny"" "They left him for me and I'm gonna keep him" "Rest of you all can go fuck yourselves" "Danny, what are you going to call the nino?" "Hell, I ain't think about that" "To start off I'm going to name him after me" "Danny Boodman" "Then I'll put "T.D." in the middle" "like rich folks puts that in the middle, don't you think?" "That give it class, to put that in the middle, don't you think?" "All fucking lawyers gots initials in the middle of their names" "Well, my lawyer was Jonathan PTK Wonder" "My son grow up to be a lawyer I swear I'll kikk him myself" "But the boy's name is still going to be Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon" "He ain't the son of no fucking duke, Danny" "You found him on a Tuesday Call him "Tuesday"" "You ain't as dumb as you look colored boy" "I found him the first month of the first year of this frigging new century" "So I calls him:" "Nineteen Hundred" "Nineteen Hundred?" "But that's a number" "It was a number, now it's a name" "Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred" "Danny, your little bambino is not so happy" "Come on, hurry." "Hurry up Don't worry, your mama's here" "Damn." "How can something that small shit so much?" "And that's how little Nineteen Hundred grew up" "Inside that cradle as big as a ship" "But since Danny was afraid they'd take him away on account of some business concerning documents and visas the boy lived his early years always hiding in the belly of the Virginian" "Okay, now try one for yourself" "Put your finder up here against these words so the letters can't run off on you" ""Man"" "All right, keep going" ""Go"" "Go on" ""Ma"" "Just a little bit more" ""Ma"" "Boy, you read like a god, Lemon" "Now go on, put them all together kind of like them boiler valves Come on" ""Man... go..." "Mama"" "Mango Mama." "All right." "Deep going" "Yank..." "My..." "Chain" "Danny, why are you laughing so much" "Because these are names of horses Don't that make you laugh?" "I"m just crazy about these horses' names." "Look at this one here" ""Happy Hoofers"" "Listen to this" ""Sassy Lassy"" "And this one" ""Red Hot Mama"" "What's a mama, Danny?" "A mama?" "A mama's a horse" "A horse?" "Racehorse" "Matter of fact, you know what I say Mama's the best horse in the world?" "Thoroughbred You bet on a mama, you always win" ""Tano D'Amato" "The King of Lemons"" "Dad, put your finger here and read" "T.D. doesn't mean "Thanks, Danny"" "Who's this pansy ass?" "That's enough reading for tonight" "Too much reading is bad for you" "What else is bad, Danny?" "Everything off the Virginian is bad" "Everything" "They got sharks on the land they eat you alive" "You keep away from they, you hear?" "Danny, what's an orphanage?" "Well, a orphanage is like a great big prison where they lock up folks that ain't got kids" "So if I wasn't with you they would put you in an orphanage?" "You got that right, little Lemon" "Night-night" "Watch out, Danny" "Roll over." "Roll him over" "My God." "Doctor" "Call the doctor." "Get the doctor" "Danny, you bloody cow." "Talk to me" "Ain't nothing but a pat on the back, boys" ""Holy Shoot... and Times Were Good was disqualified" ""Saucy Bossy"" "It took him three days to go toes up, old Danny" "He let go on the sixth race in Chicago" "Drinkable Water by two lengths over Vegetable Soup and five over Blue Foudation" ""Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" "I will fear no evil for Thou art with me" "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me"" ""Thanks Danny"" "In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" "Amen" "Music" "Nineteen Hundred was eight years old then" "He'd made the trip between Europe and America about fifty times, I imagine" "The ocean was his home" "He never set foot on dry land Never" "Though he'd seen it from the ports a hundred times" "But he never got off the boat" "Problem was as far as the world was concerned he didn't even exist" "There wasn't a city, a parish a hospital, jail or baseball team that had his name any place" "He didn't have a country, he didn't even have a birth date." "No family" "He was eight years old but officially he had never even been born" ""No Entry"" "Captain." "Captain, wake up" "What's his name?" "Nineteen Hundred" "Not the song, the boy" "Nineteen Hundred" "Like the song" "Nineteen Hundred, all of this is entirely against the regulations" "Fuck the regulations" "But I don't understand what the record has to do with any of this" "This record shouldn't exist" "The only existing matrix was destroyed right after it was cut" "This is a matrix" "Quite handy for on-the-spot recordings, that sort of business" "How did you get your hands on this?" "I spend the better part of the day putting the bits and pieces together" "I found them by accident." "Hidden inside one of those two pianos" "I bought them from a second-hand dealer" "They've emptied out an old hospital ship down at Plymouth" "It's over there, mate" "Slow down not so fast with that pulley" "Easy up there, easy" "Watch that!" "These aren't bananas, you know" "Where are you from?" "Liverpool" "What do you do?" "I'm a barber" "Sign him on Thanks very much" "Next." "What's your trade?" "I'm a carpenter." "A good mechanic" "Get out" "What do you do?" "I play the trumpet" "We've already got musicians on board." "Next" "Where the hell is he going?" "What's that?" "I don't know" "When you don't know what it is it's jazz" "It was the happiest day of my life" "All those people hope in their eyes" "The goodbyes, the sirens" "And that big floating world starting to move" "It felt like one big party A huge bash, just for me" "But just three days later, the ocean got tired of the festivities" "Hey, Conn?" "What's the matter?" "Lose your sea legs?" "YOu're the new trumpet man aren't you?" "And you blow a Conn" "Come with me I have a cure for your misery" "Follow me" "Take the brakes off, please" "That's crazy" "Trust me." "Just take the brakes off" "Hop on next to me" "What are you, some kind of nut case" "You better get on now or you never will" "Tell me something do you have children?" "They'll lock you up in the orphanage one of these days" "He's nuts" "Oh, mama" "I see you know your horses" "Just a litte" "Good man" "Good evening, Captain" "Care for a ride?" "Tell me again how big the fucking window was" "It was a big fucking window" "We're going to be shoveling coal on this ship till eternity" "No shit" "Least you know what you'll be doing when you grow up" "Conn" "You're from New Orleans, right?" "How'd you know that?" "I love that town" "Really?" "I haven't been there in a while?" "In winter, it's beautiful" "And in March you can always count on one afternoon when you least expect it the fog slides in a milky barrier hangs just below the street lamps" "It cuts everything off" "like a white blade." "And it's magic" "Houses lose their top floors trees lose their branches" "St. Louis Cathedral loses its spires" "People passing by they lose their heads" "So from the neck up everything disappears" "All you can see in Jackson Square is decapitated bodies stumbling around bumping into each other saying "How's your mama and them?"" "That's it Too bad it doesn't last long" "How do you know all these things?" "You know ever since I came on board" "I been hearing a lot of talk about a guy" "He's supposed to have been born on this ship and never been off it since" "Crazy story" "Twenty years without ever setting foot on land?" "Twenty seven" "They say this guy makes music that's never been heard before" "I've heard of him too" "First off I thought you were the guy" "But then something didn't add up" "I figured: if he's Nineteen Hundred how could he know New Orleans so well?" "Because you've been to New Orleans" "If I told you I'd never set foot in that town, would you believe me?" "Whoever you are" "Max Tooney" "Gald to meet you" "How we doing?" "We're supposed to blow it up not wait for it to be eaten by the fishes" "You're not going to blow up a goddamn thing because my best friend is on this ship" "You'll all be responsible for murder" "Get him out of here!" "Do whatever you want, but get him off my case" "I'm not making this up and I'm not crazy" "If I tell you there's a man aboard the Virginian" "Jesus Christ, it means there's a man aboard the Virginian" "We cleaned that scuttle from stem to stern" "Not even doorknobs were left Only dynamite." "Dynamite" "How can you be so sure that's a man on board?" "If you've any proof, out with it" "Because I'm the horse's arse who has to throw that switch" "I'm sure he's there" "I spent the best years of my life on the Virginian" "End of line" "All right!" "Run it down" "What the hell do you think about when you're playing?" "Where does your mind go when you hit the keys?" "Last night I was in a beautiful country" "Women had perfume in their hair Everything glowed" "And it was full of tigers" "He traveled." "And each time he ended up someplace different" "In the heart of London, on a train in the middle of the country on the edge of a giant volcano in the biggest church in the world counting the columns and staring up at the crucifixes" "He traveled" "Hey, Kid, give us a good tarantella" "And you show me how a tarantella goes paisa" "America" "Why the hell don't you get off?" "Just once?" "One time?" "See the world for yourself with your own eyes?" "You ever think about it?" "You could do anything you wanted to" "People would go crazy for you" "You could make beaucoup bucks, man" "Get yourself the finest house" "Get yourself a wife" "Why not?" "God knows you can't spend the rest of your life traveling back and forth like some yo-yo" "The world is out there" "Nothing but a gangplank to cross" "And what's a gangplank?" "A few stupid steps" "Christ, everything is waiting at the bottom of those steps" "Why don't you just do it one time?" "Why don't you just get off?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "I think land people waste a lot of time wondering why" "Winter comes and you can't wait for summer" "Summer comes and you live in dread of winter" "That's way you never tire of traveling" "Always chasing someplace far away where it's always summer" "Doesn't sound like a good bet to me" "Hold it!" "Stop everything" "Forgive me for allowing myself to your music was so strong" "You don't look too happy to be going to America" "It's not America" "It's everything I leave behind" "Until a few years ago I know only my field" "The world for me started and ended there in that little piece of the land" "I never walked down the main street of a city" "Maybe you can't understand but" "I understand perfectly" "I know someone who went through something very similar" "And one fine day did his field go dry too?" "And did his wife also run off with a priest?" "And did the fever take his five children?" "No." "But he ended up alone too" "Then he is more lucky than me" "I still have a daughter The young one" "She survived" "And it's for her that I decide one day to fight against my bad luck and travel all over without a destination" "And then one day when I go through one of the many towns I never see before" "I come to a hill" "And then I see the most beautiful thing in my life" "The sea" "I never see it before" "It was liek lightning hit me Because I hear the voice" "The voice of the sea?" "Yeah, the voice of the sea" "I never heard it" "The voice of the sea it is like a shout" "A shout big and strong screaming and screaming" "And the thing it was screaming was:" "You with shit instead brains" "life is immense can you understand that?" "Immense" "I never think of it that way" "A revolution was in my head" "That's how I suddenly decide to change my life to start fresh" "Change life." "Start fresh" "Tell that to your friend" "Nineteen Hundred" "Nineteen Hundred" "It's Max Tooney, your friend" "Come on out, Nineteen Hundred!" "I'm your friend too" "Even if we never met" "Don't worry, no cops" "You said something about a piano Where was it exactly?" "We found it over there" "Nineteen Hundred" "On the violin yours truly, Bill Douglas" "Tuba and bass, Freddie Loycano" "Max Tooney on trumpet" "And finally, on piano" "Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred the greatest" "For the last time Nineteen Hundred, just... just the normal notes" "End of the line" "Where do yu get it?" "What?" "The music" "I don't know." "You see that woman over there, for example?" "She looks like someone who's killed her husband with the help of her lover" "And now she's running off with the family jewels" "Don't you think this music's her?" "Damn, it's true" "You see that guy over there?" "He can't forget a thing" "Listen to his music" "His nead bursts with memories and there's nothing he can do about it" "And look at that one there" "She looks like a prostitute who's thinking of becoming a nun" "That's incredible" "Now, look at this one" "See how he walks?" "I'd say he's in someone else's suit judging by the way he wears it" "I'd say he's a stowaway slipped into first class" "looking for an amorous adventure" "This one's got America stamped on his eyes" "I can already hear him screaming" "America!" "I'm going to get my money back" "That'll be the day" "Singleton, Lee Claire" "You don't know me" "But I was wondering if we could have a little chat" "A little chat?" "What about?" "About anything you like Weather conditions?" "Anything You pick or chuck the subject" "Is this an obscene phone call?" "Christ" "You the fish with the twenty-dollar name?" "Man, where you going?" "We got to talk" "That way" "Wait, we just want to talk to you" "Where the hell are we, man?" "Hold still you little son of a bitch" "Come on out!" "We don't want to hurt you" "We're players, man!" "Sidemen" "Bon appetie" "You can say that again, brother You can say that again" "You the one that plays ten kinds ofjazz rolled into one?" "I've never counted them I'm just a piano player" "Better start counting, buddy." "The man who invented jazz sent us here" "Really?" "What does he want with me?" "He challenges you to a piano duel" "Jello Roll, what's the reason for a trip to Europe on a steamer when you've never been on anything bigger than a Mississippi riverboat?" "I don't give a damn about Europe" "The only reason I'm hopping this crappy tub is because there's a gentleman I want to meet" "They say he plays a hot piano" "But I hear he has a little thing about setting foot on land" "Is he talking about me?" "You bet he's talking about you" "He say, Hey, Jelly" "Someone plays better piano than you" "So I say to myself, Self how can this cat play so well when he don't even have the balls to get off the goddamn ship" "Hey, hot damn, Jelly" "You invented jazz" "I said, Goddamn you can afford a first-class ticket to Europe and the boat that's going to take you just by lifting a finger Get a shot of it, boys, get a shot" "Tell the truth." "Are you scared?" "I don't know" "Why a duel?" "What happens when you have a duel?" "I hope this Jelly Roll Morton guy is as good as they say" "Heard a lot about him back in the States" "He's a Negro" "I believe you're sitting in my seat" "You're the one who invented jazz, right?" "That's what they say" "And you're the one who can't play unless you have the ocean under your ass?" "That's what I say" "(Franch)" "Jelly Roll Morton did not play" "He caressed those notes" "It sounded like a silk slip sliding down a woman's body" "His hands were butterflies so light" "He got his start in the famed tenderloin districts of New Orleans" "And did he learn to stroke the keyboard in those whorehouses" "People doing the deed upstairs didn't want any uproar" "They wanted music to slip behind the curtains and under the beds without disturbing the passion" "That's the kind of music he played" "And in that he truly was the best" "Bravo!" "Your turn, sailor" "Come on" "What's he doing?" ""Silent Night"?" "Isn't that a Christmas carol?" "Does he understand it's a contest?" ""Silenet Night" is jazz?" "Is it Christmas already?" "Come on, Jelly Roll show us what jazz is all about" "What is wrong with you?" "I can't help it." "Music makes me cry" "The whole crew bet on you I put a year's pay on the line" "Now you cut that out and start thinking your music" "Can I bet too?" "No!" "It's bad luck to bet on yourself" "I don't want to bet on me." "I want to bet on him." "He's the greatest" "You are crazy, you know taht?" "That way, if you lose you'll get your money back" "It's exactly the same piece of music, darling" "This is really the end of the line" "Unbelievable" "Come on you can do better than that" "Jelly, show them how to sink a ship" "You stick this up your ass" "Hey, Max" "Give me a cigarette, will you?" "You're not handling this well" "Just give me a cigarette" "You don't smoke" "What is the matter with you?" "You could lick this guy with one hand" "Come on" "Are you going to give me a cigarette?" "We'll be chucking coal a couple hundred years and all you can say is..." "Give me a fucking cigarette will you?" "You asked for it, asshole" "You smoke it" "I don't know how" "Jelly Roll Morton spend the rest of that trip locked in his cabin" "When we got to Southampton he got off the Virginian and went back to America" "I remember Nineteen Hundred watched him as he walked off down the dock and all he said was" "Fuck jazz too" "And that's just what he said "Fuck jazz too"" "This is an incredible story" "Did I miss anything important?" "You couldn say that" "Damn" "Don't worry, our friend will fill you in later." "Won't you?" "You can count on it" "Thanks He's so good at telling tales" "This is no tale, sir" "There's nobody here" "Because there's too many of us We scared him" "You leave this ship or I'll have to have you arrested" "Get back to work." "Quickly" "Give me another chance" "Piss off, friend." "Noon tomorrow this ship is history" "Stop or I'll shoot" "Gotcha" "Pops, easy, it's me" "You again?" "Yes, lower that cannon, will you?" "See your instrument and then steal it back again" "That's an old trick." "I should have guessed that you were a thief" "I was looking for this" "And what do you need that for?" "It's a matter of life and death And I need a phonograph too" "A thief and a liar" "Pops I don't have a whole lot of time" "Well, I do!" "Seeing as I have a gun" "And now that I think of it since when were records made on board steamships" "If that music was played by your friend it means that at some time in his life he got off that ship!" "Correct?" "Not a chance, pops" "He cut this passionate recording personally" "I think it's his best work" "But he didn't jump ship to do it not even for a second" "The sky's the limit Mr. Nineteen Hundred" "If this record sells like hotcakes and we think it will you'll go far, Mr. Nineteen" "Do you mind if I call you Nineteen?" "This is going to hurt, isn't it?" "Ready now, gentelmen" "On the count." "And one, two, three" "Nineteen" "That is one amazing piece of music What is it called?" "It's going to have people crying buckets" "It's got to have the right title though, something catchy like" ""Swinging in the Breeze" or..." "Great, as usual" ""Sweet Nineteen," that's it" "You are going to be bigtime" "And all you got to do is take that big step" "What big step?" "Getting off." "Getting off these lousy planks of wood and going after... going after your fame and fortune" "I don't mean to butt in fellas, but with this you can have anything you want and never have to set foot off this boat" "We'll print millions of copies so that people all over the world can hear your wonderful music Nineteen" "Mr. Nineteen?" "I won't let my music go anywhere without me" "No!" "Don't touch" "What are you doing?" "You can't do that" "We have a contract You can't go back now" "I always go back" "Darling what are you going to America for?" "Miss" "I'd be pleased if..." "Miss" "I'd be thrilled if yu'd accept this... small token" "Miss Padoan, what are you doing here all alone?" "Counting the waves?" "The captain said we'd be passing the Tropic of Cancer soon" "Great!" "At least we'll have something to look at" "You ever notice how the sea changes colors?" "Ten times a day" "Even more" "I could look at the sea all day long" "You know farmers don't ever look at the sea" "It scares them At least that's what I heard" "That's not true" "Once, my father told me he heard the ocean's voice" "Really?" "What did it say?" "I can't tell you." "It's a secret And secrets should be kept" "Gosh, it's really coming down now Let's get back inside" "Let me take your arm" "Women's dormitory 3 class" "Next" "Next" "Excuse me" "Excuse me" "Excuse me" "Please, miss" "I have to talk to you" "You're meeting your father aren't you?" "Yes" "How did you know?" "I think I've met him" "On this ship quite a few years ago" "I don't know if he took this same ship" "I'm sure of it" "He has a musette" "I think we played together" "I don't know if he'd remember, but say hello to him" "I will" "But how did you know who I was?" "It's very strange, no?" "It's a secret" "And secrets should be kept" "Although I think your father felt differently back then" "Please accept this... small musical token" "I'm sorry, but I can't hear you" "I want you to... accept this small token" "I can't hear you" "Good luck" "Thank you." "Good luck to you too" "Why don't you come and visit us some day?" "We live on Mott Street." "Number 27" "My father has a fish shop" "Maybe" "Padoan, okay." "Next" "Next" "He never mentioned her to me again And I never asked" "At least not for the next twelve crossings" "Besides, he was happy just like always" "His popularity was its peak" "Then, one evening in spring halfway between Genoa and New York right it the middle of the ocean" "In three days when we get to New York" "I'm getting off this ship" "Cat got your tongue?" "I'm glad" "But all of a sudden?" "My man..." "That's aces" "I've got to see something down there" "What?" "The ocean" "You're pulling my leg" "You've seen nothing but the ocean since the day you were born" "But from here" "I want to see it from there It's not the same thing at all" "Wait till we dock lean over the side take a good look It's the same thing" "No, it's not" "From land, you can hear its voice You don't hear that from a ship" "What do you mean, its voice?" "Its voice" "It's like... a big scream... telling you that life is immense" "Once you've heard it, then you know what you have to do to go on living" "I could stay here forever" "But the ocean would never tell me a thing" "But if I get off live on land for a couple of years then I'll be normal just like the others" "Then maybe one day, I'll make it to the coast look up, see the ocean and hear it scream" "I don't know who's been telling you this bullshit or if you're just making it up" "But you want to know what I think?" "I think... the real reason you want off this ship is the girl" "It's always the girl" "But even if it's not the reason that suits me just fine" "Because I've always wanted you to leave this ship and play for the people on land and marry a nice woman and have children and all those things in life which are not immense but are worth the effort" "You'll come visit me won't you, Max?" "On land?" "Of course" "That way, you'll introduce me to the mother of your children" "And invite me for Sunday dinner" "I'll bring the dessert and a bottle of wine and you'll tell me I shouldn't have and while you're showing me around your house shaped like a ship your wife will be cooking a turkey" "And then we'll sit at the table and I'll tell her she's an excellent cook and she'll say how you talk about me all the time" "You know I'm going to give you my camel coat" "You'll cut a fine figure when you get down there" "How many people I have seen saying goodbye on the docks without giving a damn" "But when I said goodbye to Nineteen Hundred, it was a real blow" "We laughed and kept saying "See you soon"" "But inside we both knew we'd never see each other again" "Goodbye, Nineteen Hundred!" "Take care" "Good luck Have a good time" "Take care Nineteen Hundred, take care" "Write us a letter sometimes" "Give my regards to Broadway" "What'd he do, step in shit?" "Maybe he just forgot something" "Maybe he's forgotten why he's getting off" "What do you want?" "He was strange for a long time after that" "He wouldn't talk to anyone" "He preferred keeping to himself for days and days" "He seemed taken by very personal matters" "Then one day while I was sitting at the bar" "Thanks for the coat, Max Fit like a glove" "It was a real shame" "I'm much better now I'm done with all that" "Just like old times" "I left the Virginian on August 21st, 1933 with my leave papers and back pay everything in order" "I knew that sooner or later I'd have been through with the ocean" "So that's what I did" "I heard no more about Nineteen Hundred or the Virginian" "Not that I ever forgot them" "On the contrary" "During the war I'd always ask myself" "Who knows what Nineteen Hundred would do if he were here?" "Who knows what he'd say?" "Fuck war, he'd say" "But said by me it wasn't the same thing" "A lot of time's gone by, you know who's to say he really didn't leave" "Maybe he actually went to the fish shop and asked for that woman" "Maybe" "Conn" "What's the matter?" "You lose your sea legs?" "Where the hell did you find that record?" "What have you been up to all these years" "Making music" "Even during the war?" "Even when no one was dancing anymore" "Even when the bombs were falling" "And I kept playing till the ship got here" "Call this a ship?" "It's more like a mountain of dynamite about to explode" "A bit dangerous, don't you think?" "And you, Max?" "Where's your trumpet?" "I gave it up as well, as while back" "But, you know, now I'm in the mood for starting again" "I'm busting with new ideas" "Let's start a duo." "You and me" "Or our own band" "The Danny Boodman" "T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred Big Band" "It's gets the blood going" "We'd be a smash" "Come on, Nineteen Hundred Come with me." "Let's get off" "We'll watch the fireworks from the pier and then we'll start from scratch" "Sometimes that's the way you have to do it" "You go right back to the beginning" "You're never really done for... as long as you've got a good story and someone to tell it to" "Remember?" "You told me that" "Well, what a stack of stories you got now" "The world would be hanging on your every word crazy for your music" "Believe me" "All that city" "You just couldn't see an end to it" "The end... please?" "You please just show me where it ends?" "It was all very fine on that gangway." "And I was grand too in my overcoat" "I cut quite a figure" "And I was getting off" "Guaranteed" "That's wasn't the problem" "It wasn't what I saw that stopped me, Max" "It was what I didn't see" "Understand?" "What I didnt' see" "In all that srawling city there was everything except an end" "There was no end" "What I did not see was where the whole thing came to an end" "The end of the world" "You take a piano" "Keys begin" "The keys end" "You know there are 88 of them Nobody can tell you any different" "They are not infinite" "You are infinite" "And on those keys, the music that you can make is infinite" "I like that" "That I can live by" "You get me up on that gangway and you roll out in front of me a keyboard of millions and billions of keys that never end and that's the truth Max, that they never end" "That keyboard is infinite" "And if that keyboard is infinite then there is no music you can play" "You're sitting on the wrong bench" "That's God's piano" "Christ, did you see the streets?" "Just the streets." "There were thousands of them" "How do you do it down there?" "How do you choose just one?" "One woman" "One house" "One piece of land to call your own one landscape to look at one way to die?" "All that world just weighing down on you" "You don't even know where it comes to an end" "I mean, aren't you ever just scared of breaking apart at the thought of it?" "At the enormity of living it?" "I was born on this ship" "And the world passed my by" "But two thousand people at a time" "And there were wishes here" "But never more than fit between prow and stern" "You played out your happiness, but on a piano that was not infinite" "I learned to live that way" "Land?" "Land is a ship too big for me" "It's a woman too beautiful" "It's a voyage too long perfume too strong" "It's music I don't know how to make" "I could never get off this ship" "At best" "I can step off my life" "After all" "I don't exist for anyone" "You're the exception, Max" "You're the only one who knows I'm here" "You're a minority" "And you'd better get used to it" "Forgive me, my friend but I'm not getting off" "Hey, Max" "Picture the scene at the Golden Gates" "Some guy searching a list trying to find my name, not finding it" "What did you say your name was again?" "Nineteen Hundred" "Niemann, Nightingale, Ninestock..." "Nittledeen?" "Well, you see, sir I was born on a ship" "Beg your pardon?" "Born, raised, and died on a ship Maybe I'm not registered there" "Shipwreck?" "Six and a half tons of dynamite Boom" "Feeling better now?" "Yeah, I'm fine except I lost an arm" "An arm?" "Yes, in the explosion" "Well, you should be able to find one over there" "Which one did you say you were missing?" "Left, sir" "I'm dreadfully sorry we only seem to have two rights" "Two right arms?" "Afraid so" "Would you mind awfully if..." "If I want?" "Well, if you take a right arm instead of a left?" "Well, all things considered better a right arm than nothing, I suppose" "Couldn't agree more" "No laughing matter, Max" "What a cock-up" "Spend eternity with two right arms?" "I mean, how would you make the sign of the cross?" "Hey, Max" "Imagine the music I could play with two right arms" "Hope I can find a piano up there" "What would you have done in my shoes?" "I don't know" "I wouldn't probably have felt quite useless" "Sooner or later, all stories end and there's nothing left to add" "Anyhow, thanks, pops" "Conn" "There's just one thing I don't get" "Who hid the broken record inside the piano?" "You're looking at him" "So you weren't so useless after all" "Conn" "Here" "Take your trumpet" "Well, you'll be needing it" "Never mind the money" "A good story's worth more than an old trumpet" "Okay, pops" "I still ask myself if I did the right thing when I abandoned his floating city" "And I don't mean only for the work fact is, a friend like that a real friend you won't meet one again" "If you just decide to hang up your sea legs if you just want to feel something more solid beneath your feet" "and if then you no loner hear the music of the gods around you" "But, like he used to say" "You're never really done for as long as you got a good story and someone to tell it to" "Trouble is nobody'd believe a single word of my story" "It happened every time" "Someone would look up and see her" "It's difficult to understand" "There'd be more than a thousand of us on that ship" "Traveling rich folks, immigrants and strange people, and us" "Yet there was always one" "One guy alone who would see her first" "Maybe he was just sitting there eating or walking on the deck" "Maybe he was just fixing his pants" "He'd look up for a second." "A quick glance out to sea and he'd see her" "Then he'd just stand there rooted to the spot, his heart racing" "And every time every damn time, I swear he'd turn to us, towards the ship towards everybody and scream" "America" "The Legend of 1900" "New York" "The one who sees America first" "There's one on every ship" "And don't be thinking it's an accident" "Or some optical illusion It's destiny" "Those are people who always have that precise instant stamped on their life" "And when they were kids you could look into their eyes and if you looked carefully enough you'd already see her" "America" "And I've seen a few Americas" "Six years on that ship five crossings a year" "Europe, America and back always soaking in the ocean" "When you stepped on land you couldn't even piss straight in the john" "It was teady." "The john, I mean" "But you'd keep bobbing like an idiot" "You can get off a ship all right But off the ocean" "I was just closing" "What can I do for you?" "When I boarded, I was 24 years old" "And I only cared about one thing in life" "Playing the trumpet" "I'm selling it" "Conn" "Not bad" "Best brass money can buy" "Six pounds, ten shillings Best I can do" "That horn's my whole life, mister" "Even being a nobody has got to be worth more than twenty lousy bucks" "It that's how things are, I suppose it's barely worth half a crown" "Shut the door when you leave please" "Okay, pops you win" "You just bought yourself a piece of musical history" "Now if you want my advice got out, treat yourself to a decent meal" "At least let me play it one last time" "Young man I don't have time to waste" "All right" "Hurry up, then" "I'm closing" "Thank you" "Two peas in a pod, wouldn't you say" "It's the music you were just playing" "What is it?" "It doesn't have a name" "Just a handful of people have had the privilege of hearing it" "That style." "I was wondering since this morning, but..." "I can't work out who this amazing piano player is" "I don't think you ever heard of him" "Who is he?" "If I told you this pianist never existed" "I wouldn't be lying" "I don't like secrets" "Come on now, Yank who the devil is playing?" "That's my secret" "It was the first year of this frigging century as defined by an unknown colored coal stoker on the Virginian" "Fucking rich-ass bastards Can't lose nothing but cigarette butts and dirty-ass handkerchiefs" "Can't lose no watch not even a beat-up Elgin or a sorry-ass cufflink" "What am I talking about?" "Not even a fake fucking ring" "Look here" "A whole cigar" "Must've been somebody poor at the party" "Look at this shit" "Nasty fucker" "Damn rich." "Don't forget nothing unless they owe you some money" "What in the scuts you doing here?" ""T.D. Lemons"" "Howdy do there, Lemon" "Immigrant bastard" "You said it That's the way the immigrants do it" "Have a baby on the ship and then leave on board another mouth to feed" "And, like that, avoid trouble with the immigration office" "What's a boy like him going to be when he grows up?" "Another immigrant" "Don't pay those bastards no mind Lemon" "Go on, lap it up, boy" "This one they left in first class on top the piano" "They are hoping some rich guy will come and stick a silver spoon in his mouth" "And who does the little ape get instead?" "A poor coal stoker" "Someoe is taking you for a sucker, Danny" "They have the fun You have the misery" "Fuck poverty" "You stinking sewer rats" "T.D. was wrote on that box." "Any of you shitheads know what that means?" "I forgot." "You all can't read" "It means, "Thanks, Danny." "Thanks, Danny"" "They left him for me and I'm gonna keep him" "Rest of you all can go fuck yourselves" "Danny, what are you going to call the nino?" "Hell, I ain't think about that" "To start off I'm going to name him after me" "Danny Boodman" "Then I'll put "T.D." in the middle" "like rich folks puts that in the middle, don't you think?" "That give it class, to put that in the middle, don't you think?" "All fucking lawyers gots initials in the middle of their names" "Well, my lawyer was Jonathan PTK Wonder" "My son grow up to be a lawyer I swear I'll kikk him myself" "But the boy's name is still going to be Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon" "He ain't the son of no fucking duke, Danny" "You found him on a Tuesday Call him "Tuesday"" "You ain't as dumb as you look colored boy" "I found him the first month of the first year of this frigging new century" "So I calls him:" "Nineteen Hundred" "Nineteen Hundred?" "But that's a number" "It was a number, now it's a name" "Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred" "Danny, your little bambino is not so happy" "Come on, hurry." "Hurry up Don't worry, your mama's here" "Damn." "How can something that small shit so much?" "And that's how little Nineteen Hundred grew up" "Inside that cradle as big as a ship" "But since Danny was afraid they'd take him away on account of some business concerning documents and visas the boy lived his early years always hiding in the belly of the Virginian" "Okay, now try one for yourself" "Put your finder up here against these words so the letters can't run off on you" ""Man"" "All right, keep going" ""Go"" "Go on" ""Ma"" "Just a little bit more" ""Ma"" "Boy, you read like a god, Lemon" "Now go on, put them all together kind of like them boiler valves Come on" ""Man... go..." "Mama"" "Mango Mama." "All right." "Deep going" "Yank..." "My..." "Chain" "Danny, why are you laughing so much" "Because these are names of horses Don't that make you laugh?" "I"m just crazy about these horses' names." "Look at this one here" ""Happy Hoofers"" "Listen to this" ""Sassy Lassy"" "And this one" ""Red Hot Mama"" "What's a mama, Danny?" "A mama?" "A mama's a horse" "A horse?" "Racehorse" "Matter of fact, you know what I say Mama's the best horse in the world?" "Thoroughbred You bet on a mama, you always win" ""Tano D'Amato" "The King of Lemons"" "Dad, put your finger here and read" "T.D. doesn't mean "Thanks, Danny"" "Who's this pansy ass?" "That's enough reading for tonight" "Too much reading is bad for you" "What else is bad, Danny?" "Everything off the Virginian is bad" "Everything" "They got sharks on the land they eat you alive" "You keep away from they, you hear?" "Danny, what's an orphanage?" "Well, a orphanage is like a great big prison where they lock up folks that ain't got kids" "So if I wasn't with you they would put you in an orphanage?" "You got that right, little Lemon" "Night-night" "Watch out, Danny" "Roll over." "Roll him over" "My God." "Doctor" "Call the doctor." "Get the doctor" "Danny, you bloody cow." "Talk to me" "Ain't nothing but a pat on the back, boys" ""Holy Shoot... and Times Were Good was disqualified" ""Saucy Bossy"" "It took him three days to go toes up, old Danny" "He let go on the sixth race in Chicago" "Drinkable Water by two lengths over Vegetable Soup and five over Blue Foudation" ""Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" "I will fear no evil for Thou art with me" "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me"" ""Thanks Danny"" "In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" "Amen" "Music" "Nineteen Hundred was eight years old then" "He'd made the trip between Europe and America about fifty times, I imagine" "The ocean was his home" "He never set foot on dry land Never" "Though he'd seen it from the ports a hundred times" "But he never got off the boat" "Problem was as far as the world was concerned he didn't even exist" "There wasn't a city, a parish a hospital, jail or baseball team that had his name any place" "He didn't have a country, he didn't even have a birth date." "No family" "He was eight years old but officially he had never even been born" ""No Entry"" "Captain." "Captain, wake up" "What's his name?" "Nineteen Hundred" "Not the song, the boy" "Nineteen Hundred" "Like the song" "Nineteen Hundred, all of this is entirely against the regulations" "Fuck the regulations" "But I don't understand what the record has to do with any of this" "This record shouldn't exist" "The only existing matrix was destroyed right after it was cut" "This is a matrix" "Quite handy for on-the-spot recordings, that sort of business" "How did you get your hands on this?" "I spend the better part of the day putting the bits and pieces together" "I found them by accident." "Hidden inside one of those two pianos" "I bought them from a second-hand dealer" "They've emptied out an old hospital ship down at Plymouth" "It's over there, mate" "Slow down not so fast with that pulley" "Easy up there, easy" "Watch that!" "These aren't bananas, you know" "Where are you from?" "Liverpool" "What do you do?" "I'm a barber" "Sign him on Thanks very much" "Next." "What's your trade?" "I'm a carpenter." "A good mechanic" "Get out" "What do you do?" "I play the trumpet" "We've already got musicians on board." "Next" "Where the hell is he going?" "What's that?" "I don't know" "When you don't know what it is it's jazz" "It was the happiest day of my life" "All those people hope in their eyes" "The goodbyes, the sirens" "And that big floating world starting to move" "It felt like one big party A huge bash, just for me" "But just three days later, the ocean got tired of the festivities" "Hey, Conn?" "What's the matter?" "Lose your sea legs?" "YOu're the new trumpet man aren't you?" "And you blow a Conn" "Come with me I have a cure for your misery" "Follow me" "Take the brakes off, please" "That's crazy" "Trust me." "Just take the brakes off" "Hop on next to me" "What are you, some kind of nut case" "You better get on now or you never will" "Tell me something do you have children?" "They'll lock you up in the orphanage one of these days" "He's nuts" "Oh, mama" "I see you know your horses" "Just a litte" "Good man" "Good evening, Captain" "Care for a ride?" "Tell me again how big the fucking window was" "It was a big fucking window" "We're going to be shoveling coal on this ship till eternity" "No shit" "Least you know what you'll be doing when you grow up" "Conn" "You're from New Orleans, right?" "How'd you know that?" "I love that town" "Really?" "I haven't been there in a while?" "In winter, it's beautiful" "And in March you can always count on one afternoon when you least expect it the fog slides in a milky barrier hangs just below the street lamps" "It cuts everything off" "like a white blade." "And it's magic" "Houses lose their top floors trees lose their branches" "St. Louis Cathedral loses its spires" "People passing by they lose their heads" "So from the neck up everything disappears" "All you can see in Jackson Square is decapitated bodies stumbling around bumping into each other saying "How's your mama and them?"" "That's it Too bad it doesn't last long" "How do you know all these things?" "You know ever since I came on board" "I been hearing a lot of talk about a guy" "He's supposed to have been born on this ship and never been off it since" "Crazy story" "Twenty years without ever setting foot on land?" "Twenty seven" "They say this guy makes music that's never been heard before" "I've heard of him too" "First off I thought you were the guy" "But then something didn't add up" "I figured: if he's Nineteen Hundred how could he know New Orleans so well?" "Because you've been to New Orleans" "If I told you I'd never set foot in that town, would you believe me?" "Whoever you are" "Max Tooney" "Gald to meet you" "How we doing?" "We're supposed to blow it up not wait for it to be eaten by the fishes" "You're not going to blow up a goddamn thing because my best friend is on this ship" "You'll all be responsible for murder" "Get him out of here!" "Do whatever you want, but get him off my case" "I'm not making this up and I'm not crazy" "If I tell you there's a man aboard the Virginian" "Jesus Christ, it means there's a man aboard the Virginian" "We cleaned that scuttle from stem to stern" "Not even doorknobs were left Only dynamite." "Dynamite" "How can you be so sure that's a man on board?" "If you've any proof, out with it" "Because I'm the horse's arse who has to throw that switch" "I'm sure he's there" "I spent the best years of my life on the Virginian" "End of line" "All right!" "Run it down" "What the hell do you think about when you're playing?" "Where does your mind go when you hit the keys?" "Last night I was in a beautiful country" "Women had perfume in their hair Everything glowed" "And it was full of tigers" "He traveled." "And each time he ended up someplace different" "In the heart of London, on a train in the middle of the country on the edge of a giant volcano in the biggest church in the world counting the columns and staring up at the crucifixes" "He traveled" "Hey, Kid, give us a good tarantella" "And you show me how a tarantella goes paisa" "America" "Why the hell don't you get off?" "Just once?" "One time?" "See the world for yourself with your own eyes?" "You ever think about it?" "You could do anything you wanted to" "People would go crazy for you" "You could make beaucoup bucks, man" "Get yourself the finest house" "Get yourself a wife" "Why not?" "God knows you can't spend the rest of your life traveling back and forth like some yo-yo" "The world is out there" "Nothing but a gangplank to cross" "And what's a gangplank?" "A few stupid steps" "Christ, everything is waiting at the bottom of those steps" "Why don't you just do it one time?" "Why don't you just get off?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "Why?" "I think land people waste a lot of time wondering why" "Winter comes and you can't wait for summer" "Summer comes and you live in dread of winter" "That's way you never tire of traveling" "Always chasing someplace far away where it's always summer" "Doesn't sound like a good bet to me" "Hold it!" "Stop everything" "Forgive me for allowing myself to your music was so strong" "You don't look too happy to be going to America" "It's not America" "It's everything I leave behind" "Until a few years ago I know only my field" "The world for me started and ended there in that little piece of the land" "I never walked down the main street of a city" "Maybe you can't understand but" "I understand perfectly" "I know someone who went through something very similar" "And one fine day did his field go dry too?" "And did his wife also run off with a priest?" "And did the fever take his five children?" "No." "But he ended up alone too" "Then he is more lucky than me" "I still have a daughter The young one" "She survived" "And it's for her that I decide one day to fight against my bad luck and travel all over without a destination" "And then one day when I go through one of the many towns I never see before" "I come to a hill" "And then I see the most beautiful thing in my life" "The sea" "I never see it before" "It was liek lightning hit me Because I hear the voice" "The voice of the sea?" "Yeah, the voice of the sea" "I never heard it" "The voice of the sea it is like a shout" "A shout big and strong screaming and screaming" "And the thing it was screaming was:" "You with shit instead brains" "life is immense can you understand that?" "Immense" "I never think of it that way" "A revolution was in my head" "That's how I suddenly decide to change my life to start fresh" "Change life." "Start fresh" "Tell that to your friend" "Nineteen Hundred" "Nineteen Hundred" "It's Max Tooney, your friend" "Come on out, Nineteen Hundred!" "I'm your friend too" "Even if we never met" "Don't worry, no cops" "You said something about a piano Where was it exactly?" "We found it over there" "Nineteen Hundred" "On the violin yours truly, Bill Douglas" "Tuba and bass, Freddie Loycano" "Max Tooney on trumpet" "And finally, on piano" "Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred the greatest" "For the last time Nineteen Hundred, just... just the normal notes" "End of the line" "Where do yu get it?" "What?" "The music" "I don't know." "You see that woman over there, for example?" "She looks like someone who's killed her husband with the help of her lover" "And now she's running off with the family jewels" "Don't you think this music's her?" "Damn, it's true" "You see that guy over there?" "He can't forget a thing" "Listen to his music" "His nead bursts with memories and there's nothing he can do about it" "And look at that one there" "She looks like a prostitute who's thinking of becoming a nun" "That's incredible" "Now, look at this one" "See how he walks?" "I'd say he's in someone else's suit judging by the way he wears it" "I'd say he's a stowaway slipped into first class" "looking for an amorous adventure" "This one's got America stamped on his eyes" "I can already hear him screaming" "America!" "I'm going to get my money back" "That'll be the day" "Singleton, Lee Claire" "You don't know me" "But I was wondering if we could have a little chat" "A little chat?" "What about?" "About anything you like Weather conditions?" "Anything You pick or chuck the subject" "Is this an obscene phone call?" "Christ" "You the fish with the twenty-dollar name?" "Man, where you going?" "We got to talk" "That way" "Wait, we just want to talk to you" "Where the hell are we, man?" "Hold still you little son of a bitch" "Come on out!" "We don't want to hurt you" "We're players, man!" "Sidemen" "Bon appetie" "You can say that again, brother You can say that again" "You the one that plays ten kinds ofjazz rolled into one?" "I've never counted them I'm just a piano player" "Better start counting, buddy." "The man who invented jazz sent us here" "Really?" "What does he want with me?" "He challenges you to a piano duel" "Jello Roll, what's the reason for a trip to Europe on a steamer when you've never been on anything bigger than a Mississippi riverboat?" "I don't give a damn about Europe" "The only reason I'm hopping this crappy tub is because there's a gentleman I want to meet" "They say he plays a hot piano" "But I hear he has a little thing about setting foot on land" "Is he talking about me?" "You bet he's talking about you" "He say, Hey, Jelly" "Someone plays better piano than you" "So I say to myself, Self how can this cat play so well when he don't even have the balls to get off the goddamn ship" "Hey, hot damn, Jelly" "You invented jazz" "I said, Goddamn you can afford a first-class ticket to Europe and the boat that's going to take you just by lifting a finger Get a shot of it, boys, get a shot" "Tell the truth." "Are you scared?" "I don't know" "Why a duel?" "What happens when you have a duel?" "I hope this Jelly Roll Morton guy is as good as they say" "Heard a lot about him back in the States" "He's a Negro" "I believe you're sitting in my seat" "You're the one who invented jazz, right?" "That's what they say" "And you're the one who can't play unless you have the ocean under your ass?" "That's what I say" "(Franch)" "Jelly Roll Morton did not play" "He caressed those notes" "It sounded like a silk slip sliding down a woman's body" "His hands were butterflies so light" "He got his start in the famed tenderloin districts of New Orleans" "And did he learn to stroke the keyboard in those whorehouses" "People doing the deed upstairs didn't want any uproar" "They wanted music to slip behind the curtains and under the beds without disturbing the passion" "That's the kind of music he played" "And in that he truly was the best" "Bravo!" "Your turn, sailor" "Come on" "What's he doing?" ""Silent Night"?" "Isn't that a Christmas carol?" "Does he understand it's a contest?" ""Silenet Night" is jazz?" "Is it Christmas already?" "Come on, Jelly Roll show us what jazz is all about" "What is wrong with you?" "I can't help it." "Music makes me cry" "The whole crew bet on you I put a year's pay on the line" "Now you cut that out and start thinking your music" "Can I bet too?" "No!" "It's bad luck to bet on yourself" "I don't want to bet on me." "I want to bet on him." "He's the greatest" "You are crazy, you know taht?" "That way, if you lose you'll get your money back" "It's exactly the same piece of music, darling" "This is really the end of the line" "Unbelievable" "Come on you can do better than that" "Jelly, show them how to sink a ship" "You stick this up your ass" "Hey, Max" "Give me a cigarette, will you?" "You're not handling this well" "Just give me a cigarette" "You don't smoke" "What is the matter with you?" "You could lick this guy with one hand" "Come on" "Are you going to give me a cigarette?" "We'll be chucking coal a couple hundred years and all you can say is..." "Give me a fucking cigarette will you?" "You asked for it, asshole" "You smoke it" "I don't know how" "Jelly Roll Morton spend the rest of that trip locked in his cabin" "When we got to Southampton he got off the Virginian and went back to America" "I remember Nineteen Hundred watched him as he walked off down the dock and all he said was" "Fuck jazz too" "And that's just what he said "Fuck jazz too"" "This is an incredible story" "Did I miss anything important?" "You couldn say that" "Damn" "Don't worry, our friend will fill you in later." "Won't you?" "You can count on it" "Thanks He's so good at telling tales" "This is no tale, sir" "There's nobody here" "Because there's too many of us We scared him" "You leave this ship or I'll have to have you arrested" "Get back to work." "Quickly" "Give me another chance" "Piss off, friend." "Noon tomorrow this ship is history" "Stop or I'll shoot" "Gotcha" "Pops, easy, it's me" "You again?" "Yes, lower that cannon, will you?" "See your instrument and then steal it back again" "That's an old trick." "I should have guessed that you were a thief" "I was looking for this" "And what do you need that for?" "It's a matter of life and death And I need a phonograph too" "A thief and a liar" "Pops I don't have a whole lot of time" "Well, I do!" "Seeing as I have a gun" "And now that I think of it since when were records made on board steamships" "If that music was played by your friend it means that at some time in his life he got off that ship!" "Correct?" "Not a chance, pops" "He cut this passionate recording personally" "I think it's his best work" "But he didn't jump ship to do it not even for a second" "The sky's the limit Mr. Nineteen Hundred" "If this record sells like hotcakes and we think it will you'll go far, Mr. Nineteen" "Do you mind if I call you Nineteen?" "This is going to hurt, isn't it?" "Ready now, gentelmen" "On the count." "And one, two, three" "Nineteen" "That is one amazing piece of music What is it called?" "It's going to have people crying buckets" "It's got to have the right title though, something catchy like" ""Swinging in the Breeze" or..." "Great, as usual" ""Sweet Nineteen," that's it" "You are going to be bigtime" "And all you got to do is take that big step" "What big step?" "Getting off." "Getting off these lousy planks of wood and going after... going after your fame and fortune" "I don't mean to butt in fellas, but with this you can have anything you want and never have to set foot off this boat" "We'll print millions of copies so that people all over the world can hear your wonderful music Nineteen" "Mr. Nineteen?" "I won't let my music go anywhere without me" "No!" "Don't touch" "What are you doing?" "You can't do that" "We have a contract You can't go back now" "I always go back" "Darling what are you going to America for?" "Miss" "I'd be pleased if..." "Miss" "I'd be thrilled if yu'd accept this... small token" "Miss Padoan, what are you doing here all alone?" "Counting the waves?" "The captain said we'd be passing the Tropic of Cancer soon" "Great!" "At least we'll have something to look at" "You ever notice how the sea changes colors?" "Ten times a day" "Even more" "I could look at the sea all day long" "You know farmers don't ever look at the sea" "It scares them At least that's what I heard" "That's not true" "Once, my father told me he heard the ocean's voice" "Really?" "What did it say?" "I can't tell you." "It's a secret And secrets should be kept" "Gosh, it's really coming down now Let's get back inside" "Let me take your arm" "Women's dormitory 3 class" "Next" "Next" "Excuse me" "Excuse me" "Excuse me" "Please, miss" "I have to talk to you" "You're meeting your father aren't you?" "Yes" "How did you know?" "I think I've met him" "On this ship quite a few years ago" "I don't know if he took this same ship" "I'm sure of it" "He has a musette" "I think we played together" "I don't know if he'd remember, but say hello to him" "I will" "But how did you know who I was?" "It's very strange, no?" "It's a secret" "And secrets should be kept" "Although I think your father felt differently back then" "Please accept this... small musical token" "I'm sorry, but I can't hear you" "I want you to... accept this small token" "I can't hear you" "Good luck" "Thank you." "Good luck to you too" "Why don't you come and visit us some day?" "We live on Mott Street." "Number 27" "My father has a fish shop" "Maybe" "Padoan, okay." "Next" "Next" "He never mentioned her to me again And I never asked" "At least not for the next twelve crossings" "Besides, he was happy just like always" "His popularity was its peak" "Then, one evening in spring halfway between Genoa and New York right it the middle of the ocean" "In three days when we get to New York" "I'm getting off this ship" "Cat got your tongue?" "I'm glad" "But all of a sudden?" "My man..." "That's aces" "I've got to see something down there" "What?" "The ocean" "You're pulling my leg" "You've seen nothing but the ocean since the day you were born" "But from here" "I want to see it from there It's not the same thing at all" "Wait till we dock lean over the side take a good look It's the same thing" "No, it's not" "From land, you can hear its voice You don't hear that from a ship" "What do you mean, its voice?" "Its voice" "It's like... a big scream... telling you that life is immense" "Once you've heard it, then you know what you have to do to go on living" "I could stay here forever" "But the ocean would never tell me a thing" "But if I get off live on land for a couple of years then I'll be normal just like the others" "Then maybe one day, I'll make it to the coast look up, see the ocean and hear it scream" "I don't know who's been telling you this bullshit or if you're just making it up" "But you want to know what I think?" "I think... the real reason you want off this ship is the girl" "It's always the girl" "But even if it's not the reason that suits me just fine" "Because I've always wanted you to leave this ship and play for the people on land and marry a nice woman and have children and all those things in life which are not immense but are worth the effort" "You'll come visit me won't you, Max?" "On land?" "Of course" "That way, you'll introduce me to the mother of your children" "And invite me for Sunday dinner" "I'll bring the dessert and a bottle of wine and you'll tell me I shouldn't have and while you're showing me around your house shaped like a ship your wife will be cooking a turkey" "And then we'll sit at the table and I'll tell her she's an excellent cook and she'll say how you talk about me all the time" "You know I'm going to give you my camel coat" "You'll cut a fine figure when you get down there" "How many people I have seen saying goodbye on the docks without giving a damn" "But when I said goodbye to Nineteen Hundred, it was a real blow" "We laughed and kept saying "See you soon"" "But inside we both knew we'd never see each other again" "Goodbye, Nineteen Hundred!" "Take care" "Good luck Have a good time" "Take care Nineteen Hundred, take care" "Write us a letter sometimes" "Give my regards to Broadway" "What'd he do, step in shit?" "Maybe he just forgot something" "Maybe he's forgotten why he's getting off" "What do you want?" "He was strange for a long time after that" "He wouldn't talk to anyone" "He preferred keeping to himself for days and days" "He seemed taken by very personal matters" "Then one day while I was sitting at the bar" "Thanks for the coat, Max Fit like a glove" "It was a real shame" "I'm much better now I'm done with all that" "Just like old times" "I left the Virginian on August 21st, 1933 with my leave papers and back pay everything in order" "I knew that sooner or later I'd have been through with the ocean" "So that's what I did" "I heard no more about Nineteen Hundred or the Virginian" "Not that I ever forgot them" "On the contrary" "During the war I'd always ask myself" "Who knows what Nineteen Hundred would do if he were here?" "Who knows what he'd say?" "Fuck war, he'd say" "But said by me it wasn't the same thing" "A lot of time's gone by, you know who's to say he really didn't leave" "Maybe he actually went to the fish shop and asked for that woman" "Maybe" "Conn" "What's the matter?" "You lose your sea legs?" "Where the hell did you find that record?" "What have you been up to all these years" "Making music" "Even during the war?" "Even when no one was dancing anymore" "Even when the bombs were falling" "And I kept playing till the ship got here" "Call this a ship?" "It's more like a mountain of dynamite about to explode" "A bit dangerous, don't you think?" "And you, Max?" "Where's your trumpet?" "I gave it up as well, as while back" "But, you know, now I'm in the mood for starting again" "I'm busting with new ideas" "Let's start a duo." "You and me" "Or our own band" "The Danny Boodman" "T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred Big Band" "It's gets the blood going" "We'd be a smash" "Come on, Nineteen Hundred Come with me." "Let's get off" "We'll watch the fireworks from the pier and then we'll start from scratch" "Sometimes that's the way you have to do it" "You go right back to the beginning" "You're never really done for... as long as you've got a good story and someone to tell it to" "Remember?" "You told me that" "Well, what a stack of stories you got now" "The world would be hanging on your every word crazy for your music" "Believe me" "All that city" "You just couldn't see an end to it" "The end... please?" "You please just show me where it ends?" "It was all very fine on that gangway." "And I was grand too in my overcoat" "I cut quite a figure" "And I was getting off" "Guaranteed" "That's wasn't the problem" "It wasn't what I saw that stopped me, Max" "It was what I didn't see" "Understand?" "What I didnt' see" "In all that srawling city there was everything except an end" "There was no end" "What I did not see was where the whole thing came to an end" "The end of the world" "You take a piano" "Keys begin" "The keys end" "You know there are 88 of them Nobody can tell you any different" "They are not infinite" "You are infinite" "And on those keys, the music that you can make is infinite" "I like that" "That I can live by" "You get me up on that gangway and you roll out in front of me a keyboard of millions and billions of keys that never end and that's the truth Max, that they never end" "That keyboard is infinite" "And if that keyboard is infinite then there is no music you can play" "You're sitting on the wrong bench" "That's God's piano" "Christ, did you see the streets?" "Just the streets." "There were thousands of them" "How do you do it down there?" "How do you choose just one?" "One woman" "One house" "One piece of land to call your own one landscape to look at one way to die?" "All that world just weighing down on you" "You don't even know where it comes to an end" "I mean, aren't you ever just scared of breaking apart at the thought of it?" "At the enormity of living it?" "I was born on this ship" "And the world passed my by" "But two thousand people at a time" "And there were wishes here" "But never more than fit between prow and stern" "You played out your happiness, but on a piano that was not infinite" "I learned to live that way" "Land?" "Land is a ship too big for me" "It's a woman too beautiful" "It's a voyage too long perfume too strong" "It's music I don't know how to make" "I could never get off this ship" "At best" "I can step off my life" "After all" "I don't exist for anyone" "You're the exception, Max" "You're the only one who knows I'm here" "You're a minority" "And you'd better get used to it" "Forgive me, my friend but I'm not getting off" "Hey, Max" "Picture the scene at the Golden Gates" "Some guy searching a list trying to find my name, not finding it" "What did you say your name was again?" "Nineteen Hundred" "Niemann, Nightingale, Ninestock..." "Nittledeen?" "Well, you see, sir I was born on a ship" "Beg your pardon?" "Born, raised, and died on a ship Maybe I'm not registered there" "Shipwreck?" "Six and a half tons of dynamite Boom" "Feeling better now?" "Yeah, I'm fine except I lost an arm" "An arm?" "Yes, in the explosion" "Well, you should be able to find one over there" "Which one did you say you were missing?" "Left, sir" "I'm dreadfully sorry we only seem to have two rights" "Two right arms?" "Afraid so" "Would you mind awfully if..." "If I want?" "Well, if you take a right arm instead of a left?" "Well, all things considered better a right arm than nothing, I suppose" "Couldn't agree more" "No laughing matter, Max" "What a cock-up" "Spend eternity with two right arms?" "I mean, how would you make the sign of the cross?" "Hey, Max" "Imagine the music I could play with two right arms" "Hope I can find a piano up there" "What would you have done in my shoes?" "I don't know" "I wouldn't probably have felt quite useless" "Sooner or later, all stories end and there's nothing left to add" "Anyhow, thanks, pops" "Conn" "There's just one thing I don't get" "Who hid the broken record inside the piano?" "You're looking at him" "So you weren't so useless after all" "Conn" "Here" "Take your trumpet" "Well, you'll be needing it" "Never mind the money" "A good story's worth more than an old trumpet" "Okay, pops"