Rear Window Jumpin' Judy

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined version by Paul Collins.

"I am a painter. I make paintings. Working with my hands and with my eyes has left my ears free to listen. I have spent decades painting while listening to music, to sound, to poetry, to BBC, CBC, NPR. Listening to whistling while I work. This recording, “Rear Window Jumpin’ Judy” documents my work environment. We hear my neighbour, a song-writer (Peter Kingsbery aka Cock Robin) practicing. My son clicks a mouse at the computer. I put the prison song, “Jumpin’ Judy” onto the stereo and get down to work. As I slap gesso onto raw canvas, the rhythmic striking of the prisoners’ hoes keeps the beat. I am reminded of the opening and closing scenes in Hitchcock’s Rear Window, a composed field recording of neighbours’ sound-making : radios and hi-fis play, a song-writer plays and sings, the city rumbles."