Martin--

Nice point.  Another correspondence is the shared genre we see in the raftsmen's episode in LOM (or in HF if you're using the MTP edition) and the Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash."  I've actually pointed out the similarity to students who don't seem to get the point of the verbal sparring between "the one they called Bob" and the Child of Calamity.  When placed in the context of the boast of JJF, they seem to get what's going in in that competition.  

Raftsmen's episode:
'Whoo-oop! I'm the old original iron-jawed, brass-mounted, 
copper-bellied corpse-maker from the wilds of Arkansaw!--Look at me! 
I'm the man they call Sudden Death and General Desolation! 
Sired by a hurricane, dam'd by an earthquake, half-brother to 
the cholera, nearly related to the small-pox on the mother's side! 
Look at me! I take nineteen alligators and a bar'l of whiskey 
for breakfast when I'm in robust health, and a bushel of rattlesnakes 
and a dead body when I'm ailing! I split the everlasting 
rocks with my glance, and I squench the thunder when I speak! 
Whoo-oop! Stand back and give me room according to my strength! 
Blood's my natural drink, and the wails of the dying is music to my ear! 
Cast your eye on me, gentlemen!--and lay low and hold your breath, 
for I'm bout to turn myself loose!' 

JJF:
I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at my may in the driving rain
...
I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag,
I was schooled with a strap across my back,
...
I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead
I fell down to my feet and I saw they bled
I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread



I know, it's only rock 'n roll, but I like it. 

--LH
________________________________________
From: Mark Twain Forum [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin D. Zehr [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 10:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cigars and whiskey on the ready...

Twain would have undoubtedly considered Keith Richards a kindred spirit.=A0=
 Consider this quote, long available from any of the editions of the Autobi=
ography:
=A0
I have always felt friendly toward Satan. Of course that is ancestral; it m=
ust be in the blood, for I could not have originated it.
=A0
Twain would have appreciated the bow to family connections in the great Jag=
ger/Richards composition, "Sympathy for the Devil."
=A0
Martin Zehr
Kansas City

--- On Thu, 12/2/10, Lawrence Howe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


From: Lawrence Howe <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cigars and whiskey on the ready...
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 9:24 AM


Alex--
Keep your anti-Rolling Stones rants to yourself =3DA0;)
--LH

--- On Wed, 12/1/10, Effgen, Alex Brink <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Effgen, Alex Brink <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cigars and whiskey on the ready...
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 8:51 AM

I thought the emoticon of semicolon and close parenthesis indicated a jest,=
=3D
=3D3D
not a rant.

I'm still so new to this digital world.

And for the curious the four books I list as alternatives...

DECISION POINTS, by George W. Bush
UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand
DECODED, by Jay-Z
LIFE, by Keith Richards with James Fox

...are currently ahead of our favorite autobiographer on the New York Times=
=3D
=3D3D
list. Come on, people! 19 bucks on Amazon gets you, what Adam Gopnik of th=
=3D
=3D3D
e New Yorker recently described as, "a reshuffling of the same deck of dict=
=3D
=3D3D
ated and written fragments and pieces published in the last decades of Twai=
=3D
=3D3D
n's life (slightly altered here by Twain's revising hand and ostensibly in =
=3D
=3D3D
his intended order)."

;)=3DA0 =3DA0 [indicating jest]

Seriously, for 19 bucks everyone I know is getting this as their Christmas =
=3D
=3D3D
present. Forget JZ, GWB, and whoever that Keith Richards guy is.

Alex