Shakespeare References in Down On The Corner

Cary Baker’s Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music contains a couple of Shakespeare references. The first comes in the title of the thirteenth chapter, which is “Tim Easton: The World As An Acoustic Stage” (p. 112). That’s a nod to Jacques’ famous speech in As You Like It, which begins, “All the world’s a stage,/And all the men and women merely players.” And then in that chapter, Cary quotes Tim Easton, writing: “Look deep into the town square scenes of many old paintings from the Renaissance and you will often find a street performer with a woman dancing nearby. Busking has always been a part of society. Everywhere I go today, I often look at the world as an acoustic stage and wonder what it would be like to set down the guitar case and just start singing right there and now on that spot” (p. 113). Then, in a later chapter, Cary Baker writes, “Perry did manage to score a part in a stage production of Hair, and later in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen Of Verona” (p. 197). He then quotes Harry Perry, writing, “I’d had some experience with Shakespeare” (p. 197).

Down On The Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music is scheduled to be published on November 12, 2024.