As around the sun the earth knows she’s revolving And the rosebuds know to bloom in early may Just as hate knows love’s the cure You can rest your mind assure That I’ll be loving you always
As now can’t reveal the mystery of tomorrow But in passing will grow older every day Just as all that’s born is new You know what I say is true That I’ll be loving you always
Always (Until the ocean covers every mountain high) Always (Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea) Always (Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream)
Did you know that true love asks for nothing No no her acceptance is the way we pay Did you know that life has given love a guarantee To last through forever and another day
Just as time knew to move on since the beginning And the seasons know exactly when to change Just as kindness knows no shame Know through all your joy and pain That I’ll be loving you always
As today I know I’m living But tomorrow could make me the past But that I mustn’t fear For I’ll know deep in my mind The love of me I’ve left behind ‘Cause I’ll be loving you always
Always (Until the trees and seas just up and fly away) Always (Until the day that eight times eight times eight is four) Always (Until the day that is the day that are no more) Did you know you’re loved by somebody (Until the day the earth starts turnin’ right to left) Always (Until the earth just for the sun denies itself) I’ll be lovin’ you forever (Until dear mother nature says her work is through) Always (Until the day that you are me and I am you) Always (Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky Until the ocean severs every mountain high) Always mm mm
We all know sometimes life hates and troubles Can make you wish you were born in another time and space But you can bet your lifetimes that and twice it’s double That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed So make sure when you say you’re in it, but not of it You’re not helpin’ to make this earth A place sometimes called hell Change your words into truths And then change that truth into love And maybe our children’s grandchildren And their great grandchildren will tell I’ll be loving you until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
Following our old method in aesthetics here, we will attempt to collect candidates for the ten best, hoping to catch the ten in a wider net- which, incidentally, works when fishing for songs. As these swim by, we simply ask: might this be one of the best 10? and these are the candidates, of transcendent height, depth, and beauty.
Two different senses of “love song” are 1) the human song that is like the songs of the birds, a part of our natural courtship ritual, and 2) Songs about love in general, including the sad ones, and the ones about all kinds of love, not only the romantic. About half of all lyric poetry is love songs. As said, we hold that love songs evince the imago Dei of Genesis 1:26, some being like a reflector. The knowledge within is the vehicle of inspiration. These are principles of psychology, more fundamental than what has been accessible to our “science.”
We look especially to the lyrics, and to what it is that lyric poetry is doing, or to the function of lyric poetry. If modern psychiatric science has a better way of collecting data and approaching the questions of love, so that these things are clear and known in the practice of the art, …we have not seen it. A tentative list is as follows:
The Wedding Song
In My Life
Dance Me to the End of Love
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
I Don’t Know How to Love Him Superstar
Holly Holy
Play Me
Your Love’s Return
I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You
Louie, Louie!
Candidates
Air That I Breathe Hollies
Your Song Elton John / Taupin
Tiny Dancer Elton John /Taupin
Into the Mystic Morrison
Brown Eyed Girl Morrison
Tupelo Honey Morrison
Have I Told You Lately Morrison
Evergreen Streisand
Crimson and Clover Tommy James
Golden Lady Stevie Wonder
Sunshine of My Life Stevie Wonder
For Your Love Yardbirds (Gouldman)
I Can’t Explain Who
Close to You Carpenters
We’ve Only Just Begun Carpenters
I Don’t Know How to Love Him Superstar
Hush Herman
*We Gotta Get Out of this place Eric Burden
*Born to Run Springsteen
*Because the Night Patti Smith/ East Street Band Guy
My Love McCartney
Soul Love Bowie
Let it Grow Clapton
Bus Stop Hollies
For Emily Simon
Kathy’s Song Simon
Bridge Over Troubled Water Simon
*Time of the Season Zombies
*Something Beatles (Harrison)
*#9 Dream Lennon (Lennon)
*Twilight Time Platters
Special Angel Helms
I Love Your Way Frampton
Thank You ZeppelinShe’s a Rainbow
*Stones She’s A Rainbow
*Beach Boys Good Vibrations
Wondring Aloud Tull
Songbird Fleetwood Mac
Sad Love songs:
Taxi Chapin
Yesterday Beatles
Against the Wind Seger
Train Man Seger
Fire and Rain James Taylor
Suzanne Cohen
Tomorrow is a long Time Dylan
Stretched on Your Grave Sinead
Ten Years Gone Zeppelin
I’m Not In Love 10cc
Baby I Love Your Way Frampton
Hello, Its Me Tod Rundgren
No Matter What Badfinger
The word love has many meanings, and the honoring of St. Valentine’s Day opens out from romantic love to all sorts of friendship and the love of humanity in general. While our psychology have been for the most part unable to address any of these theoretically, the Greeks had several words for these different kinds: eros, epithumia, philia, agape. When John writes that God is love, the word is agape. The whole scripture ends in the marriage that is said to unite all things, so that one sees that this is more than a mere coincidence of words- the romantic love that joins man and woman at the beginning of each new family. That this love of one for another is what is at the root of all human connection, community and connectedness.
Love as a “metaphysical” idea stands next to “the Good,” and perhaps “thought thinking thought,” as the best of the Names or definitions of the Most High. It is between and around the two, heaven and earth, that make up the creation, between the things that we see and the good there is somehow this love.
“Philanthrope” as the love of man mat be a participation in God. But the love of the higher for the lower is an overflowing, rather than an eros or longing for fulfillment, as of an emptyness.
“I would I love you from my fullness, rather than my emptiness,” some other man has said.
Paul: Eph 5:31- For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself…
So scripture ends in a wedding, of the Bride and Lamb,when the city of God comes down from heaven, Revelation 19-22. …as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, the things in heaven and the things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:10)
Jesus Matthew 19:4 …He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. …
…So they are no longer two but one flesh. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
Lyric poetry in rock music is a speaking of the soul to the one loved. That’s why this one catches, as a rarefied essence. And it is fire. He does not sing the lines: ‘(she is coming down on her own now).” That is strange. It is to the one he has left behind because she did not come along on her own. So it is like Airplane’s “I saw you/ “Comin’ Back to Me.” That is just a dream.
Losing My Religion:
From Songmeanings.com
Oh, life is bigger It’s bigger Than you and you are not me The lengths that I will go to The distance in your eyes Oh no, I’ve said too much I set it up
That’s me in the corner That’s me in the spotlight Losing my religion Trying to keep up with you And I don’t know if I can do it Oh no, I’ve said too much I haven’t said enough
I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing I think I thought I saw you try
Every whisper Of every waking hour I’m choosing my confessions Trying to keep an eye on you Like a hurt lost and blinded fool, fool Oh no, I’ve said too much I set it up
Consider this Consider this The hint of the century Consider this The slip that brought me To my knees, failed What if all these fantasies Come flailing around? Now I’ve said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing I think I thought I saw you try
But that was just a dream That was just a dream
That’s me in the corner That’s me in the spotlight Losing my religion Trying to keep up with you And I don’t know if I can do it Oh no, I’ve said too much I haven’t said enough
I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing I think I thought I saw you try
But that was just a dream Try, cry Why try? That was just a dream, just a dream, just a dream Dream
“Losing my religion” of course intends the cliche,’ which, despite what is said, means more than exasperated or angry: it means being disillusioned. It means seeing beyond a love or the illusion of love, as in the opening and closing lines. The lengths equal to the distance in the eyes of the one loved is a nice line. But the analogy of love and faith is what catches the unconscious, as we secretly desire a spiritual lyric poetry. He sees himself, in the corner, seeing what disillusioned. If he refers to the spotlight of his own stage, seeing himself as the frontman of R.E.M., it means something like that the exasperation of love has led to the inspiration of R.E.M. lyrics. Losing my religion is then near to “losing my sanity” with losing the faith from the love- again despite what is said, that the song is about romantic rather than religious matters. It is similar then to when Jack White says,”I’ve been talkin’ to myself because I can’t forget…”
With a lyric poet as Stipe, his mere loves ARE of general significance.
Here is the collected wisdom on the matter:
Wikipedia: “Stipe has repeatedly stated that the song’s lyrics are not about religion. The phrase “losing my religion” is an expression from the southern region of the United States that means “losing one’s temper or civility” or “feeling frustrated and desperate.”[10] Stipe told The New York Times the song was about romantic expression.[11] He told Q that “Losing My Religion” is about “someone who pines for someone else. It’s unrequited love, what have you.”[12] Stipe compared the song’s theme to “Every Breath You Take” (1983) by The Police, saying, “It’s just a classic obsession pop song. I’ve always felt the best kinds of songs are the ones where anybody can listen to it, put themselves in it and say, ‘Yeah, that’s me.'”[13]
This disillusionment leads to what may be indistinguishable from madness, though it is temporary, and related to the inspiration. The indication of the Police song about unrequited love and obsession is very interesting. While Sting seems in error, Stipe seems correct in his response to “obsession,” from the first line. He means by this a true love, which is self sacrificing. It is of the sort that one does not love in this way again. The song may even communicate this correct response to the circumstance of one’s one crucial love.
The video is full of clues, including the “hint of the century.” It is as much a primary work of art as is the song. The writing that appears in a flash is da Vinci’s discovery and invention of the helicopter. This, the helicopter, is related to the theme of wings and sprouting wings. It would be the modern, mechanistic and artificial mode of ascent, as opposed to the natural development of love. The groups of figures are, first, the band, Second a group from Art, From what first appeared to me as Peter Breugels and da Vinci’s School of Athens and the Death of Marat or the tragedy of the French Revolution. It is , a set of definite references to Art history, Caravaggio and certain others, woven to tell a story. I do not understand the Persian and Hindu references, but this would make a third group. The spotlight, and the work of music, is represented by a fourth group, the communist workers, and in one scene these are him singing. It is difficult to place the homo-eroticism and the conflict regarding the princess and the angel wings, but the question concerns eros, ascent and sin. “Choosing my confessions” coincides in the video with homoerotic sin, or a festering of the appetites in a deserted love, as Nash says, “I embrace the many colored beast.” We will be working on the meaning through the video, as Stipe said in a 2004 concert that the song belongs to us, the fans, and refers to a collective matter as well, expressing something for us and for the age.
The video opens with spilt milk, I believe as in the proverb, “don’t cry over spilt milk.” The members of the band are then looking up, apparently as the angel descends, like inspiration into lyric poetry.
There are then the wings and reference to the angel, who falls and enters on various occasions, a homoerotic shadow figure, partly unconscious. The theme reminds of the teaching regarding love and the growth of the soul’s wings.
Eric Ducker, in “Rolling Stone, reports Stipe’s explanation of the idea:
“I’m not supposed to tell anybody the idea, but if you want, I’ll try to explain it to you.” I told him there’s a story by Gabriel García Márquez called “A Very Old Man With Wings” in which this freak angel arrives and nobody knows quite what to do with it. So it’s that story, told abstractly through the style of these guys called Pierre et Gilles, who are these iconic gay photographers that take how Indians do their gods and goddesses, then they do that to the Western gods. I said that it would be interesting to have an Indian copying two French guys copying Indian work. That’s the style of one piece [in the video], that’s the heavenly abode. And the place where the angel lands, it would look like Caravaggio, whose lighting I really like. Then there’d be propaganda posters, which is a third group of people who might see this event, but might misinterpret it or come up with a different solution altogether.
The archetype on which the plot is written has similarities, then, to Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust theme.
There will be some benefit to the consideration of the images in Jungian terms, of shadow, anima, self, wise man, child and such. The one who suffers is the adolescent child emerging into love, and the young adult erotic questions. The divine woman and her cohort are pictured in the mode of the icons of the Upanishads, seen as the Hare Krishnas have spread these among us, depicting stories from the Hindu books similar to our Homeric epics.
Hmmm “…how the Indians do their gods and goddesses, then they do that to the Western gods?” Ok. Poets.
Jung considers the soul in terms of three levels, each with an aspect that is more or less unconscious. The “shadow” is similar to the Freudian unconscious, containing repressed memories, parts of ourselves not acceptable to our conscious persona, as we see ourselves. Deeper than this, though, are the archetypes of the collective unconscious, and what Jung calls “anima,” the Latin word for soul, is the etherial “She” behind the love of every man for every woman. The corresponding function in a woman is called “Animus,” or spirit, and these are related to the formation of the imagos, shaped decisively by the parents, by which one find their fitting love. In the 5th volume of his collected works, Symbols of Transformation, Jung discusses the battle of the hero for deliverance from the mother, the same as the earth or cave, so that the soul might ascend. What is born from the death of love is also a child, but the adult or true self, and it is this, also like a nascent faculty, which integrates the contents of the archetypes in the unconscious, considered now to be knowledge in the soul. It is this child then that pursues wisdom and is guided by the wise old man,” the archetype of the philosopher. The “You,” then, the woman who appears as semi-divine, the beloved as carrier of the “projection” of the anima. The soul of a man produces an image that at once is and is not the beloved, and this image is the feminine unconscious of the male. Hence the beloved appears more beautiful to one in love, gilded by the charms and favors attributed to Aphrodite. But the form of the beautiful is the only one to appear in the visible at all, the first condcete experience of the divine as distinct from the contents of the imagination regarding the divine.
Wikipedia: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, subtitled “A Tale for Children” is a short story by Colombian writer and author Gabriel García Márquez. … into the sea, he sees a very old man with wings laying face down in mud in his courtyard.
…”The priest, Father Gonzaga, comes by the house because he is surprised by the news of the angel. At this time, onlookers are making hypotheses about what should happen to the angel, saying things like “he should be the leader of the world,” or “he should be a military leader in order to win all wars.” However, Father Gonzaga decides to determine whether the man is an angel or not by speaking to him in Latin. Since the man with wings did not recognize Latin and looked too human, the priest decides the man could not be an angel.”
The semi-divine woman is the one beloved, although the homosexual angel is a representation of the self, again half in shadows.
The adolescent suffering similar to the crucifixion is similar too to The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian by Antonnello de Messina. This too has a man tied to a post impaled by darts, bloodless.
Wikipedia:
Saint Sebastian (c. AD 256 – 288) was an early Christiansaint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian‘s persecution of Christians. He was initially tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows, though this did not kill him. He was, according to tradition, rescued and healed by Saint Irene of Rome, which became a popular subject in 17th-century painting. In all versions of the story, shortly after his recovery he went to Diocletian to warn him about his sins, and as a result was clubbed to death.[1][2] He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
Wiki: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of his life he moved between …
Wikipedia
The Caravaggio figure indicated as the lyrics say “hint of the century” is from his painting of St. Jerome translating the scripture.
Caravaggio had an interesting dispute with a rival painter, who describes him as representing carnal rather than heavenly eros, which is represented by the rival painter himself, in winged figures. But let us look for the drama or plot to the video, and try to see how this goes with the lyrics of “Losing My Religion.”
Following the spilt milk, and the attempt of his friends to comfort his despair, as he says, “the lengths that I would go to, he appears winged. He spreads his arms to say “bigger,” and these become his wings. His transcendence of the love is the lengths to which he must go. When he says “That’s me.” there appears first the homosexual angel with small wings, a cupid -like figure, or cupidity. He repeats “that’s me, and the spotlight is the communist workers, and again it is the suffering adolescent martyr when he says “losing my religion.”
“You ” is the anima figure, the princess, pictured with her cohort, and she is also “you on the occasion of her other appearance. The first time she appears centrally, is is at the word “I thought that I heard you sing.” Then at “trying to keep an eye on you, it is the homosexual cupid and the old St. Jerome looking up at the divine appearance of the beautiful in the one loved. Then, at “I’v said to much, the old St. Jerome figure falls, revealing that the cupid figure and he were in a heavenly condition. The cupid figure reaches down, but cannot reach Jerome, and the old bearded man picks up Jerome and points to him, at “hint of the century.” This is the same as the slip that brought him to his knees, humbled him, but brought him down, like losing his religion. The slip may have been to share his confession with the one loved. “Failed.” The attempt may have been to share confession with one loved who was not faithful, or had 11 gallows on her sleeve. A possible reading that may be in the right direction, and would explain the tension in the imagery.
Much more might be unraveled. Who is the second old man from Caravaggio, equivalent to the man who receives the angel in the story of the old man with wings? Who are the other Persians and the idolatrous Canaanites or Babylonians with the cow? The song is, after all about religion, if in a way not likely to be understood, and this would be to bring Jerome a crutch, and to look to lyric poetry for inspired songs.Who are the two who bring Jerome a crutch, and the one looking up to the heavenly cupid? There are wings in every group, including the communist workers at song, with something like an emblem. The artificial wings of the helicopter occur on the word “try.” To laugh, sing and try would go along with love, but that is here only a dream, as the one loved is one who does not love. Some are like that, the poorer, though less pained. Only the soul of the philosophers recover’s its wings.
Stipe has done well to keep his loves private, but one expects that “Losing My Religion” is written over the same love as Country Feedback, which Stipe calls his favorite R.E.M. song. Here the ducks are arguments the one lost has set out in a row.
Swan, Swan, Hummingbird
There is a very good reading of “Swan” on the Songmeanings site, unraveling particular lines from publications during the civil war. The scenes are from a publication from a prison camp, with trinklets being made of anything to sell for greenbacks, as to the captain. The futility of the Civil War is the theme, the price of heroes being inestimable to the captain’s mother. The beginning and the end reference the Christ, who emerges occasionally in the semi-automatic lyrics. “Girl and dog he bore his cross-” the family he was beginning was sacrificed in the war. Here are the lyrics from Songmeanings.com”
Swan, swan, hummingbird, hurrah We are all free now What noisy cats are we? Girl and dog, he bore his cross Swan, swan, hummingbird, hurrah We are all free now A long, low time ago People talk to me
Johnny Reb, what’s the price of fans Forty apiece or three for one dollar? Hey, Captain, don’t you want to buy Some bone chains and toothpicks Night wings, or hair chains? Here’s your wooden greenback, sing Wooden beams and dovetail sweep I struck that picture ninety times
I walked that path a hundred ninety Long, low time ago, people talk to me A pistol hot, cup of rhyme The whiskey is water, the water is wine Marching feet, Johnny Reb What’s the price of heroes?
Six of one, half dozen the other Tell that to the captain’s mother Hey, captain, don’t you want to buy Some bone chains and toothpicks? Night wings, or hair chains? Swan, swan, hummingbird, hurrah We’re all free now What noisy cats are we?
Long, low time ago, people talk to me A pistol hot cup of rhyme The whiskey is water, the water is wine.
From Twitter:
“This is a song about a war that, our country inflicted on itself a few decades ago..
REM – Swan Swan HThe http://Songmeanings.com page on “Swan” is VERY good. What is the connection of Johhny Reb to the bearing of the cross and wine? If the Captain has paid the price, they are not in a prison camp, but…. The civil war trinkets remind of Ophelia selling flowers and Edgar in Lear… “What noisy cats are we” comes direct from a civil war writing Rikdad suggests: compare Duck, Duck, Goose,” an arbitrary selection, as of which would die in the war or arranging those in the prison camp. The largest and smallest birds, and two very special birds. The Swan loves once, for life, then sings the “Swan song.”
Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, Galilee, but it is of course eucharistic, the bread and wine. “Do this in remembrance of me,” He says at the last supper. Rikdad Songmeanings: A telling phrase is “wooden greenbacks”: Greenback is a name for the US dollar, and “wooden”, applied to currency, means false or worthless. This would describe Confederate currency near or after the end of the war, when it ceased to have monetary value.
Try Not To Breathe
I will try not to breathe I can hold my head still with my hands at my knees These eyes are the eyes of the old, shiver and fold
I will try not to breathe This decision is mine I have lived a full life And these are the eyes that I want you to remember, oh
I need something to fly over my grave again I need something to breathe
I will try not to burden you I can hold these inside I will hold my breath Until all these shivers subside Just look in my eyes
I will try not to worry you I have seen things that you will never see Leave it to memory me I shudder to breathe
I want you to remember, oh (you will never see) I need something to fly (something to fly) Over my grave again (you will never see) I need something to breathe (something to breathe) Baby, don’t shiver now Why do you shiver? (I will see things you will never see) I need something to fly (something to fly) Over my grave again (I will see things you will never see) I need something to breathe, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh
I will try not to worry you I have seen things that you will never see Leave it to memory me Don’t dare me to breathe I want you to remember oh (you will never see) I need something to fly (something to fly) Over my grave again (you will never see) I need something to breathe (something to breathe) Baby, don’t shiver now Why do you shiver now? (I will see things you will never see) I need something to breathe (something to breathe) (I have seen things you will never see) I want you to remember
Old folks home residents are this song, a good one for the workers to know the circumstance. The poetry of Stipe extends in its breadth to thought on death, said also to be the beginning of philosophy.
The one dying is concerned for others and feels bad about burdening those caring for them, and so would even try not to breathe. He tries to suppress shivers. The end of the first verse is indeed as one who has chosen euthanasia, as these will do even from feeling a burden.
As the one dying enters something like a delusional state, the lines become deeper and enigmatic.
I need something to fly over my grave again I need something to breathe.
Air. The one dying needs air and a memorial at the same time, and wants their person to remember:
I want you to remember, oh (you will never see) I need something to fly (something to fly) Over my grave again (you will never see) I need something to breathe (something to breathe)
The one dying has seen something, or things their person will never see, but says, leave it to memory.” The last lines are “will see,” related again to what they have seen but fail to communicate:
(I will see things you will never see) I need something to breathe (something to breathe) (I have seen things you will never see) I want you to remember.
Though they want us to remember, these things are left to memory.
On Songmeanings, it is related that “There is a Southern saying that says every time you shiver, an angel has flown over your grave. So the death theme, connected with angels, is plausible.” (middleofsomewhere93on June 02, 2006).
Old Man Kensey
The words to Kensey are more than random:
Old man Kensey Wants to be a sign painter First, he’s got to learn to read He’s going to be a clown on TV Flexes his elbow, taut and free (That’s my folly) I believe
Drink up the lake Kensey’s awake (If that’s my folly) That’s my mistake
Old man Kensey Wants to be a goalie First, he’s got to learn to count He’s going to be a clown on a circus mount Letters to me signed in sopped up tar (That’s my folly) Kensey’s going far
John, Bill and Ed Stand on your head (If that’s my folly) I’m ready to go
Old man Kensey Wants to be a dog catcher First, he’s got to learn to stand He’s gonna be a clown in a marching band Letters to me signed, ransom, greed (If that’s my folly) I believe
Drink up the lake John, Bill and Ed (If that’s my folly) That’s my mistake Kensey’s awake Stand on your head (If that’s my folly) I’m ready to go
Drink up the lake Stand on your head (If that’s my folly) I’m ready to go
Clues are the repetition of clown, the sad deep music, and the presence of the lyricist in the story. It is about the similarity of the job of troubadour, lyricist and front man, and the nearness of madness or a similar eccentricity. Hence it ends “I’m ready to go.” “Clown on t.v.,” “Clown on a circus mount,” “Clown in a marching band.” The imagery: Drink up the lake” is an image of the flooding of consciousness by contents of the unconscious one cannot yet integrate. “Stand on your head” is also an image pertaining to the soul, probably not the inversion of the hierarchy of values, but only the reversed values of the eccentric when compared to the everyday common world,
John Lennon achieved some greatness apart from the Beatles. Together with “Mind Games” on Shaved Fish, the dream is a celebration of the mystery rite of love:
So long ago
Was it in a dream?
Was it just a dream?
I know oh yes I know
Seemed so very real
Seemed so real to me
Took a walk down the street
Through the heat whispered trees
I thought I could hear,
Hear, hear.
Somebody called out my name
As it started to rain
Two spirits dancing so strangely
[Ah! bawa kawa, posse posson]
Dream, dream away
Magic in the air. Was Magic in the air?
I believe, yes I believe
What more can I say
On a river of sound
Through the mirrors go round and round
I thought I could feel, feel, feel, feel
Music touching my soul
Something warm sudden cold
The spirit dance was unfolding
The poem describes a very mysterious and beautiful experience involving love and rain. The song is said to have come to Lennon in a dream. At first he says he knows, at least that it seemed so very real, but then he admits, that he believes, and what more can he say?
He was walking down the street in the heat, when he heard someone call out his name, and then they met as it started to rain, and their dance was like the spirits dance, as love brings the two to participate in what is like the dance of spirits, within the harmony of things lost from the beginning, in a conjunction of conscious and unconscious mind that is like walking in a waking dream. The harmony can apparently be entered briefly by two in love, and it is this brief contact that makes them both wish that the dance were permanent, and seek to recover the lost harmony in the end. But it is here that for a moment the divided human being can be as if whole, when the two participate in or incarnate the life of the soul which, if it were in one, would be the perfected soul. They are out of their minds, and at the same time more in them than they are likely to be again. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet dance like the two hands of a praying saint, and it is on this higher perfection that love depends for its magic. The two together and the singular soul are both in turn images of the Most High, or show what it means that the soul is an image of God, since here the overflow of the image allows indirect vision, by reflection. In love, the intelligible enters the visible, and so, some very strange things happen, as is commonly reported.
Here is a nice note from one called Linclink on Steve Hoffman’s Music Forum:
In a weird synchronicity…there are two threads here tonight one on songs with “Sha La La” in them & one on the meaning of John Lennon’s #9 Dream chorus- “Ah! bowakawa pousse’ pousse'”
Well, here we go…when I was living in NYC (’94-’00) I deeply immersed myself in your basic do it yourself basement Shamanism…the mantra I made up was to evoke Love & Magic & it was “Sha La La, Ah Bowakawa Pousee Pousee; Ah Bowakawa Pousee Pousee Sha La La”, or if you prefer “Ah Bowakawa Pousee Pousee, Sha La La; Sha La La, Ah Bowakawa Pousee Pousee”.
The Sha La La was meant to evoke Love, as it’s been used in so many songs as something so jubilant & joyful, and the Lennon phrase because it came to him in a dream, but I had heard, though he didn’t know this, that it was an incantation & I used that to invoke Magic.
Well I became friends with a non-native New Yorker, from which country in Africa I sadly can’t recall the detail of, & when we were talking about mysticism one day I happened to tell him about the incantation/mantra I’d made up. His eyes got huge & he exclaimed, “How in the world do you know about ‘Ah Bowakawa Pousee Pousee’?!?!”. I explained it was from a John Lennon song, & while he didn’t elaborate a whole lot (he was fairly busy that day with customers) he confirmed that it was most certainly a phrase used in some non-Western, non-White (meaning race, not White vs. Black Magic) form of Mysticism/Shamanism. He used to call me by that name, as in “Hey ‘Ah Bowakawa Pousee Pousee’!!”, and get this huge grin on his face when he did so. He was very surprised & amused that any White New Yorker would have had any contact with this.
It came to Lennon in a dream, but it was a very Mystical dream, & I wish I could recall all the details (maybe I’ll look it up again someday), but he said he thought it was just a nice sounding phrase. I think it was a Magical phrase that was delivered to him. “#9 Dream” cracked the top ten (made it to #9 actually) & put a Magical incantation out across the airwaves (which I believe is VERY powerful medicine for the world), just as he might have done in the 60’s had “Across The Universe” ever become the hit single it should have been with “Jai Guru Deva Om”.
After decades of listening to Tull & reading interviews from old magazine articles found on the Jethro Tull Press website, I believe the following quotes by Ian say the most regarding Thick’s lyrics.
(Excerpts from Ian’s interview with Melody Maker magazine published in their 12/07/74 issue):
“‘Thick as a brick’; it really is a slang phrase from the north of England, where I spent my (well, some of my) growing-up years. To describe someone as being ‘as thick as a brick’ meant to describe them as being stupid, basically. You know, to be ‘thick’, as in ‘thick-headed’; thick as a ‘brick’ being a small, dense object. So I was really talking about people being intellectually incapable of absorbing whatever it might have been put across in those slightly spoofish, bombastic terms in the lyrics of the album.”
(Excerpt from Ian’s 12/23/91 interview on the US radio show, ‘In The Studio – Thick As A Brick’)
“The way that I write allows a lot of people to interpret in their own fashion. I am not just saying one thing. I am saying a lot of things to a lot of people. The music means different things to different people.” “I want to insist that every listener makes a tiny bit of effort to reach the music and interpret what I am saying. My words put out feelers. It’s up to listeners to pick up on them and get from them what they wish – I’m not attempting to be clear-cut. I want to deal in terms that invite questioning. Balm for the masses is no use whatsoever.” “We do tend to judge music on its rhythms and whether you can tap your foot to it. But most of our music deserves to be listened to several times. I’m still listening to Beethoven and I still don’t understand what he is doing, but I’ll get there some day. God knows that whatever I ultimately make of Beethoven I will never derive the same interpretation as what was intended – and I hope he respects my right to my interpretation – but at least I have a willingness to try to understand it.” “I don’t really want to get into specific comparisons and explanations, especially about Passion Play and Thick As A Brick. I don’t want to start people off trying to figure out where the new album is in relation to the last two. Believe it or not, they all mean something.” “It’s distinctly worrying, because I know that the last few records have been difficult to listen to. WarChild, so I’m told, is a lot more accessible. I don’t know if I like that or not. I’ve started to worry that perhaps people will think it’s a simple record and they’ll play it at parties and they’ll play it when they’re stoned and they’ll play it in their car – instead of actually sitting down and making an effort to listen.” (Excerpts from Ian’s interview with Melody Maker magazine published in their 12/07/74 issue)
[gstormcrow:] One common theme in most of Tull’s lyrics is an implied narrator, akin to a medieval court-jester, whom tells absurd jokes riddled with hyperbole to humour his audience while hinting toward specific similarities of actual circumstances or events. Since he is considered a fool and not to be taken seriously, the jester’s jokes can be either safely dismissed for their absurdity or thoughtfully pondered for the meaningful questions they pose depending on the audience’s mindset. Examples of Tull’s narrator/jester theme can also be found in the lyrics of Minstrel In The Gallery, A Passion Play, Skating Away, Solitare, Wind-Up, Lick Your Fingers Clean and Sealion to name a few.
Over-analyzing is of course exactly that — by definition ”over” means too much.
So far, we have only to add the note that there is a double twist to the saying, and the muse may be having one over on Ian! But the wise of this society do not consider the thick with compassion. To persuade, one must see and feel from the point of view of the thick.
Also, the poet himself appears briefly, in the lines following: And the love that I feel is so far away. He tells his beloved that that he is as a recent nightmare to himself. She responds not with compassion, but only to say that his turbulent inner life is “a shame,” an unnecessary misfortune (as distinct from an embarrassment).
In honor of Creed, we will include a list of ten Christian Rock songs, or songs that could be played toward the purpose by a christian rock band. These are songs that could make up a great Christian Rock concert, enriching a small and struggling genre. Why this should be is a good question, if one considers that there is fine Christian bluegrass music out of the middle of America. There is Christian classical, but not Christian Big Band or square dancing music. Some modes do not fit. The purpose of music itself is to glorify the Creator, as Henry Schaeffer says. There is some question here, though, of whether the rock beat is not itself corrupt and irredeemable. But if Christianity is also a soaring of the intellect, and enlists the greatest passions, one would think the rock mode might be especially suited, if one could find the right way, and this we think was done by Scot Stipe of Creed and in Jesus Christ Superstar to some extent. The acoustic or folk ballad type of explicitly Christian music is somehow easier to come by, and there are some among my simply best of all songs list below. But there will be no longer any excuse that there should not be very successful Christian Rock concerts. The first three penitent songs, and not explicitly Christian, though they demonstrate the recognition of wrong in a Biblical context. Locomotive breath, studied above with Aqualung, is included because the fellow caught as if on a tragic train ride ends by picking up Gideon’s Bible, though I am not sure I have understood the meaning aright. God stole the handle, or seems to the fellow to have taken away the means of stopping the tragic train.
15. In the Light Led Zeppelin
14. In My Time of Dyin’ Zeppelin
13. Take Me to the River, Talking Heads
12. Locomotive Breath Jethro Tull
11. House of the Rising Sun Eric Burden
10. Stealin Uriah Heep
9. Jesus Children Steevie Wonder
8. Aqualung side two (above)
7. All along the Watchtower (above)
6. Presence of the Lord Blind Faith (
5. Easy Livin Uriah Heep
This is a thing I’v never known before, its called easy livin’
This is place I’v never seen before, and I’v been forgiven
Easy Livin, and I’v been forgiven, since You’ve
Taken your place in my heart.
Somewhere along the lonely road, I had tried to find you
Day after day on that winding road I had walked behind you
This news report began by saying that this new study has “proven” that anti-depressants are good for us, “ending all controversy,” “finally.” What it actually demonstrates is that for a pre-selected group, the drugs were more effective “on the average” than a placebo, or a fake pill, and that over an 8 week period (i.e., ignoring long term effects and discounting the initial bad reaction many people have to these drugs), for those categorized as suffering “moderate to severe” depression, while agreeing that antidepressants are over-prescribed for “mild” depression. These categories, mild, severe and the like, themselves are not established scientifically (but rather are set on the basis of a common sense judgment). Hence, far from proving that a million more people in the U. K. need to be drugged, and far from ending all controversy about antidepressants, the study only shows that slightly more than half of people who are very sad say they like the drugs for a little while. We knew that. What we do not know is why the BBC is sending out such drivel at such a time.
The following are some of the tweets preserved as the news reports were released, in reverse order and roughly edited:
They spent six years studying a pre-selected group, “120,000,” and never mention “SUICIDAL” tendencies as a known side effect on the BBC. As the old Mum says, “it says so right on the (f’n) can, those are the “side effects.”
Andrei Chipriani is the shrink who published the study reported on the BBC that I accuse of being profitable disinformation. Oh, and today, they add, only “60%” “Respond” to their “treatment,” and those are indeed the basis of their stupid study, just as I guessed:
Tweet:…And, those few are probably pre-selected for those who report that they do feel better, disregarding the “side effects!” Antidepressants do far more harm than good, and the drug oligarchs (panels of shareholder value algorithmic bank accounts) can stuff them, perhaps with some “Abilify.”
“Just don’t smoke weed for depression,” cause the f’n oligarchs might not be able to control the profits, and its less addictive than coffee! I have said I will believe the shrinks and society in general are actually concerned with depression remedies when they legalize weed.*
Similarly, we might begin to trust the “professionals” in their efforts at rehabilitating people from heroin addiction if they would recognize the obvious benefit of marijuana to such an effort. We have just been subjected to an enormous, now uncovered Oxy-heroin scam, and the drug companies legal and illegal are still interfering with Congress and public opinion to retain this multi-billion dollar industry. One immediately saw genuine pain sufferers forced to cry out loudly because Congress began to limit Oxy for everyone, with a blanket law, rather than craft laws carefully to follow distinctions, and return to non opioid pain remedies so as to stem the flow of the children into the river of the heroin dealers. My own representative is still spouting such drivel. We saw invisible criminal actors organized to make money off the rehab efforts, rehab recruiting companies whose first question was what is ones insurance company, swallowing up the seven hundred some million dollars Congress threw at the problem to make it look like they were doing something. Investigative journalism uncovered and reported on such things centered especially in certain cities in Florida. Now it is becoming apparent that the same efforts are being redoubled into antidepressants.
One cannot believe the combination of stupidity and dishonesty in the once trustworthy medical profession, where doctors once took seriously an oath to heal, period.
Weed in small amounts churns the knowledge within the soul that compensates the conscious attitude, so that, as with dreams, the soul produces healing contents on its own. The shore line between conscious and unconscious becomes slightly more passable, and thought mildly awakens, which is why the old fashioned non addictive remedies, weed and coffee, and even the toxic and addictive alcohol and naturally grown, less carcinogenic cigarettes, were the politically correct ancient remedies, rather than the TOXIC AND ADDICTIVE self serving prescriptions of BIG PHARMA.
I will not let them go for the death of the musician Nick Drake, apparently from an accidental overdose of prescribed antidepressants. They neglect the little practical inconvenience that suffering souls forget how much they have taken, or hurt so badly they do not care.
The BBC “study” is a fine example of profitable disinformation. Strangely, it tells us what to conclude, telling us the study has “proven,” “finally” etc, and THEN it explains, in words that most do not hear, about how limited the scope of their stupid “study” is. What it actually claims to show is that on the average the drugs seem to perform better than doing nothing plus taking a fake pill, and that only for a few. And it is questionable whether the study even shows that!
[Interlude] Sarcasm often does not come across in writing, due to the limitations of the written word. And so I have takes to marking sarcastic statements before saying the, as an exclamation point is often not sufficient punctuation. Comedy in general is based both on an ignorance and knowledge. Hobbes famously noted the satire of ignorance involved in every joke, as there is something we have to “get,” and it would not be humorous if we already knew or if everyone got it. Hence, comedy is inherently dangerous due first to the anger of the ignorant, which must be dodged, like the Fool in King Lear. But there is also a common sense truth at the same time, communicating knowledge. There.
There are four great songs of despair in our study of lyrics, but I will not include these here. Rather, here are some remedial sad songs:
Leonard Cohen — Suzanne
Leonard Cohen – Farmous Blue Raincoat (Audio)
Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat (Live)
[sarcasm] Oh, but they meant only a certain kind of depression, “moderate” to “severe,”and admit antidepressants are over-prescribed for “mild’ depression. And what they “prove” they are more effective on the average than placebos, so a million more need to take them.
[sarcasm] Here is the argument that overcomes the reasoning below on the “proof” final in the “Oxford U.” study addressed below: I am heard by some 20 people, while the drug manufacturers are on BBC. Can you not smell disinformation?
Yeah, someone finally liked my Leonard Cohen tweet! Thanx again!
In the news just now is the terrible shooting and our response to it is considering gun control and “mental health” remedies. So I tweeted:
Now, BBC, do me a study to counter the reasoning that if a bad man, who does not care about others or believe that murder is wrong, then is made to feel suicidal with easy access to guns….[sarcasm] oh, but “all question has been put to rest forever.”
I have one person right here who says antidepressants made her feel suicidal. “Its a side effect, they tell you when you take ’em. They know that, they say it on t.v., its just a side effect. But other drugs make me feel that way, too. Lyrica is another I cannot take…”
That same person has a brilliant insight into depression that shrinks do not get because they are too interested in their sophistry, treating souls to make money and gain reputation. Mum said: The purpose of depression (in natures psychic hygiene) is CHANGE. Depression is how we adapt, and as with anger, when we set things right, it has a purpose, though no souls are properly ordered so sadness does get away from us. What if we use drugs to inhibit the natural hygienic function of sorrow? The tears that clear the eyes and then they sparkle?
By the way, did they take into account, for example, whether those treated with drugs for moderate to severe depression had for example just lost a child or spouse? Usually they do not. By the way, we do admit there is such a thing as unnatural depression, but it is much more rare than the Big Pharma bank account shareholder value algorithm would find profitable for us to believe.
Sarcasm: BBC A British study has finally ended all question: Antidepressants are good, and a million more people could benefit from them. I believe they simply asked, do you feel better, short term? W/o checking why these drugs seem to be involved in 100% of one kind of shooting.
*The present efforts to grow “medicinal” weed are plagued by organized crime and again corrupt legislation. Growers poison the organic plant with phosphorous and other chemicals sold to growers to maximize profits off a limited number of plants set by law. Attempts are made to control seeds, and the original plant is bound to be a subject for genetic engineering.
Seasons in the Sun is a poem by Jacques Brel, translated and popularized by Rod McKeuen, then reshaped for a popular song by Terry Jacks. It is one of only four great songs of transcendent sorrow or incredible despair of a sort that could not enter popular lyric poetry until the Sixties.
In the popular version, the last section of the Brel poem La Moribond is changed to delete reference to his adulterous wife Francois, and include the Jacks section “Goodbye Michelle, my little one…” This is even more beautiful, and leaves the song an uninterrupted or uncomplicated tear jerker. In the Brel version, the Bohemian poet says goodbye to Emile his friend, with whom he shared wine and song, then to his Papa, for whom he was a black sheep submerged in wine and song, and Francois his unfaithful wife. This section is confusing, very sad, and even makes one laugh at its conclusion, as though he were to haunt her and her lovers. The Brel, in McKuen’s translation, reads:
“Good by Francois, my unfaithful wife.
Without you, I would have had a lonely life.
You cheated lots of times, but then
I forgave you in the end
Though your lover was my friend
And we hope not his friend Emile, but I fear that it is so.
It is not the song of a suicide, but of one dying, moribund, or on his deathbed. The things he will miss in life are very beautiful- Springtime, birds in the sky and pretty girls, to his friend; little children, to his father, and flowers to Michelle. Brel, for Francois, has, “With your lovers everywhere, better watch out, I’ll be there.” But his forgiveness and the jesting tone indicate that he has been raised above the things of love by the perspective of mortality, and perhaps eternity.
Here are the Terry Jacks/RodMcKuen lyrics, copied from Songmeanings.com.
Goodbye to you my trusted friend
We’ve known each other since we were nine or ten
Together we’ve climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and ABC’s
Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees
Goodbye my friend it’s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that spring is in the air
Pretty girls are everywhere
Think of me and I’ll be there
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time
Goodbye Papa please pray for me
I was the black sheep of the family
You tried to teach me right from wrong
Too much wine and too much song
Wonder how I got along
Goodbye Papa it’s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
Little children everywhere
When you see them, I’ll be there
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons have all gone
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons have all gone
Goodbye Michelle my little one
You gave me love and helped me find the sun
And every time that I was down
You would always come around
And get my feet back on the ground
Goodbye Michelle it’s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With the flowers everywhere
I wish that we could both be there
Among the greatest of all lyrics is Strange Fruit, written by Abel Meeropol and sung famously by Billie Holliday, who may be said to have died of the sorrow from singing it. David Margolick (2001) wrote that Holliday’s mother objected to her singing the song, and she said “It could make things better.” Her mother answered: “but you’ll be dead,” and Billie said, “yeah, but I’ll feel it. I’ll know it in my grave.” So she intentionally and courageously faced down the fear of death.
The song was difficult to sing in night clubs, because people came to have a good time, and this would put an end to that! But it would work at the end of the night, to send people home contemplative.
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
By their fruit we will know them. These “gallant” scenes of the “pastoral” South are not forgotten, in part because of the courage of Meeropol and Ms. Holliday. For shame, take down that defeated flag and hoist the stars and stripes!
The symbolism of bodies hanging from trees is like the crucifixion, and like that very eerie scene in an Arthurian movie when the knight Galahad comes to Mordred’s lair. The macabre contrast of fruit, flower and scenery with bulging eyes and burning flesh also makes the song give us chills from deeper than we know where. Not even Dylan or Neil Young produced this great a folk song, and this is jazz or blues.
I knew a woman, Elise Emerick, who saw a lynching in Florida back around the twenties, when she was five. Her father, Mr. Du Champs, (I believe he was a Henry) tried to stop it, and told her to go on home and don’t look back.
We have been trying to get Jack White, or some other Hendrix, to pull out the anger implicit in the sorrow of every note of the Billie Holliday version. I know this can be done, and with great commercial success, but the point is that right now in America, we need to wake up, and shout a loud, spirited “NO!” to fascism, tyranny and the destruction of our Constitution by domestic White Supremacists in league with foreign powers.
A final point: The fruit and leaves in the first two line reminds of the fruit and leaves in the book of Revelation. The leaves of the tree of life are to be given for the healing of the nations, which are of course still plural nations, and bring tribute into the city of God that has come down from heaven. There are 12 kinds of fruit on trees on either side of the river of the water of life. The eating of the fruit of the tree of life is a great mystery, and it is said that this is not possible in this life in any sort, because of the body. But it is promised one of the churches (Ephesus) that to him who conquers, it will be given to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, along with the six promises: to not be hurt by the second death, to be given the hidden manna and a white stone with a new name written on the stone, power over the nations to rule them with a rod of iron and the morning star, to be clothed in white garments with his name not blotted from the book of life and confessed to the father and before the angels, to be made a pillar in the temple with the name of the father and son written on him, and to sit with him on his throne.
The following video is simply profound, and identifies the strange fruit with the trees in Eden and the Christ hanging from the tree in the crucifixion:
We just sent Jack White the idea to electrify the classical harp. I hinted at bowing it, too, but their still way too cool to talk to a mere philosopher. We want him to convert the Billie Holliday blues song Strange Fruit into a Rock-blues song, translating what she does with her voice into electric blues guitar, and rage rather than sorrow, or sorrow yielding to our rage at the rising fascism that would again take power in America if it is not opposed, as by American Folk culture. Now there is a theme that could sound like Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused. We suggest like Uriah Heap in Easy Livin‘ with Hendrix on guitar. Its all in there!
Here are three rock songs, two especially Christian, from Chapter IX of my Rock Commentaries. (These are difficult to access on the Menu, but if one tries they will come up, and you can print them out to read more easily.) But these songs keep coming up, for reasons that will become apparent if one is following the logos. I wish Jack White could see my reading of the last two. He would be glad, I am sure, that someone has read the lyric.
Pride (In the Name of Love) U2
This song is a reflection upon those who have laid down their lives for mankind, fulfilling the teaching of the Lord, “greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). It is foremost a monument to Martin Luther King Jr., as a minister of the word and a sacrifice for liberty. The last line explains the title: “They could not take your pride/ In the name of Love.”
One man come in the name of Love
One man come and go
One man come he to Justify
One man to overthrow
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?
One man come on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?
In the name of love
What more in the name of love?
Early morning, April 4th
Shots rang out in the Western sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
In the name of Love
For the first two, he who came to justify and he who came to overthrow, he may have someone in particular in mind, though it is not clear who: Some two like Luther and Martin Luther King Jr, who is the primary object. To justify and to overthrow are the actions of political conservatives and revolutionaries, and the song is especially moving because it is about the love of mankind that inspires these in political action. Justification by faith is of course the teaching of Martin Luther, at the start of Lutheranism. But the meaning is also to make more just. The one who comes on a barbed wire fence reminds of those who fought the Nazis in Europe, and those washed up on a beach conjures images of Normandy or the Pacific Islands. The one betrayed by a Kiss is the only line directly Christian, but it sets the human actors in the pattern of the image of the martyrdom of Jesus. His abandonment, betrayal, rejection and crucifixion by mankind whom he came to save is the betrayal in the name of love. Finally there is the assassination in Memphis of Martin Luther King Jr., against the background of his statement recently in the mountaintop speech that they, the American blacks, were to be “free at last.”
All of these are under the teaching “Greater love has no man than this: That he lay down his life for his friend” (John 15:13). Christian political teaching is more difficult than Christian rock music, but this is an example of a Christian political teaching. It has often been said, at least since Machiavelli, that Christianity makes men effeminate and more willing to bear injuries than to inflict them in grabbing at the goods of the world, wealth and power. The truth in practice, as indicated by Mr. Skinner, is that a vast majority of U. S. Army Rangers, for example, are Christian, and very religious. There is also the saying that there are no atheists in the foxholes, as the nearness of death makes men serious. My old friend Bud, though, was in the battle of the Bulge under Patton, and he is a natural philosopher. “One man on a barbed wire fence” refers to a famous picture of an anonymous U.S. soldier caught in barbed wire, shot and left there, in World War II. And public servants, in domestic affairs as well, sometimes are inspired in their dedication by the example of the greatest love. Average police men, blue collar par excellence, can be understood at best to risk and lay down their lives daily. It is sometimes necessary and right to prevent evil from doing harm by force. But this is especially true of those who, like the demonstrators trained in nonviolence, are prepared to take blows and return none, like Mr. Zweig among the Freedom Riders. They show how Christianity can be active politically while remaining what it is. It is fullness in one place, the spiritual, and emptiness in another, the worldly assertion.
The title of the song is Pride, because the one who killed King could not take his pride in the name of Love, the name by which he did these things and died.
White Stripes
The inspired guitar riffs make us glad to find lyrics to justify the intense energy. Jack White shows that the rock strain continues to develop into the Twenty-First Century. We have not studied the band much yet, but are quite taken up whenever “Blue Orchid” or “Seven Nation Army ” come on the radio. We are very proud that the Whites come from Detroit, and join our Michigan Rock Hall of Fame. Jack is, of course, on his own now, and we are glad to see him playing with the Muppets and Garrison Keillor.
2003 Seven Nation Army
The guitar riff became famous when played at sports events, though no one much gets the meaning. It is a rare example of a marching beat, like martial rather than religious music, though it is in fact uniquely both at once. I sang parts of this song this morning when I woke up. Some songs one has to live in order to understand. All fibs are told to protect the innocents.
It is said on Songmeanings.com that the title comes from the way Jack heard the word “Salvation Army” when he was a child. But that is opposite the meaning. Meg White, the drummer, has said that “Jack basically wrote the song around the idea of this guy who comes into town and all his friends are gossiping about him. It gets to him so bad that he wants to leave town, and then he decides not to. Jack eventually did leave Detroit.” These things will give us a place to start in understanding the song, which even grows in intensity from studying the lyrics.
I’m gonna fight ’em off.
A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back.
They ‘re gonna rip it off.
Taking their time right behind my back.
And I been talk’in to myself at night because I can’t forget
Back and forth through my mind behind a lit cigarette.
And the message runnin’ through my eyes says leave it alone.
Don’t want to hear about it:
Every single one’s got a story to tell.
Everyone knows about it.
From the Queen of England to the Hounds of Hell.
And if I catch you comin’ back my way, I’m gonna sell it to you.
And that ain’t what you want to hear, but that’s what I’ll do.
And the feelin’ comin’ from my bones says find a home.
I’m goin to Witchita.
Far from this opera for ever more.
I’m gonna work the straw
Make the sweat drip out of every pore.
And I’m bleedin’ and I’m bleedin’ and I’m bleedin’ right before the Lord.
All the words are gonna bleed from me and I will think no more.
And the stains comin’ from my blood tell me go back home.
“Leave it alone,” “find a home,” and “go back home” may be the lines where the lyric structure again provides a clue to a coherent reading. When the line is compared with that which occurred in the same place but a different stanza, the meaning becomes clear. One sees a development, where the song teaches him how to deal with it.
This is, like “Blue Orchid,” a response to infidelity in love. This is “white” blues at its best, like Zeppelin, rarer, perhaps, in “black blues, like “Heard it through the Grapevine.” And like the Zeppelin song, “everybody ‘s gonna know” is an embarrassment, here the embarrassment of the fooled lover, as when these things appear in the tabloid press. “From the Queen… to the hounds” is an interesting way of describing the expanse of the public, considered “Everyone.” “No time for spreading rumors / Time has come to be gone.” “Their gonna rip it off. Taking their time right behind my back” is then obvious. “Leave it alone” is, then the same as “Get behind me,” as will appear momentarily. “Don’t want to hear about it / Every single one ‘s got a story to tell:” Ones own romantic suffering is incomprehensible and nothing, like dust in the wind, to others, who cannot hear or comprehend the cries of the agony of the true lover. But it may be the writer who no longer wants to hear the tale that many have to tell him. “Sell it to you” might just be gangster talk for murder, the kind found in the ballads, or in Hendrix’ “Hey Joe.” The pain of the cuckolded lover turns to outward rage. (The line could also mean he is going to lie to her, or him, the third party, but this is the lesser possibility. One lyric prints “serve it to you,” like divorce papers, but that is not the word on the video). His rage is the temptation. But the message comming through his eyes says leave it alone. Instead, He wants to go to Wichita, far away from the soap opera things of his Detroit love world, as he shows the mitten of Michigan in the video. “Work the straw” might refer to cocaine, as one suggests on Songmeanings, but it is more likely literally straw, as in, lose oneself in hard farm work in the straw fields of Kansas or Nebraska. Or maybe it was the fields around Nashville.
When he sings “bleed’in” on the video, he wipes tears. Now the poetry gets real: Bloodsweat occurs in the scripture, and is known to occur literally, to humans in times of great strain. It may be at the edge of his humanity, and again, the agony of the lover is not understood, or is beyond communication, as the agony in the garden was for that one, in analogy. He is bleeding “right before” or into the presence of the Lord. This is the imago Dei, and the lovers death in soul is like the crucifixion by analogy. Simon’s words trickle down from a wound he has “no intention to heal.” “All the words are gonna bleed from me, and I will think no more.” The blood is his thought and poetry. As the message from his eyes said “leave it alone,” his poetry, the stains from his blood, tells him to go back home, since now he has none. The root of the rage of infidelity is related to this goal of love, for which one does not need the particular one loved. The “Salvation Army” has indeed prevailed over the rage that opens the song. But that is not the “Seven Nation Army” at all. One might consider Revelation.
Blue Orchid is about the corruption of innocence, probably in love, though the song has been read as being about molestation, and may carry this meaning as an undercurrent. Commentators, as on Songmeanings, note that a Russian child sex ring was named “Blue Orchid.” But that is not the meaning here. The reason that it seems the song must be about love and infidelity is the line “Your lips taste sour / But you think its just me teasing you.” The lyrics are these:
You got a reaction.
You got a reaction, didn’t you?
You took a white orchid,
You took a white orchid, turned it blue.
Somethings better than nothing
Somethings better than nothing, its giving up.
We all need to do something.
Try to keep the truth from showing up.
How dare you.
How old are you now anyway?
How dare you.
How old are you now anyway?
You’re given a flower
But I guess there’s just no pleasing you
Your lips tastes sour.
But you think its just me teasing you.
You got a reaction
You got a reaction, didn’t you
You took a white orchid
You took a white orchid, turned it blue.
Get behind me
Get behind me now anyway.
You got a reaction.
You got a reaction, didn’t you
You took a white orchid.
You took a white orchid, turned it blue.
“Get behind me” is of course what the Christians say when the Devil is near. It probably comes from Matthew 4:10, after the temptation, when Jesus says “Be gone (hyp-age).” The snake enters the Video right at “Get behind me.”“Your lips taste sour” does not fit a molestation. It is rather a broken love, though the lines “How old are you now anyway,” and “How dare you” make the rock anger fit a molestation. “Turned it blue” would then be as in the blues, a love turned from innocence to sorrow by infidelity. We will try to read the song this way, and see if it remains coherent.
“You got a reaction” would be like a response to the excuse that she was just trying to get some reaction from him, an aloof lover. “We all need to do something” and “How old are you now anyway” then fit with something like that she did some other guy while he was away. “It’s giving up” is to give up on the love, to choose the appetites over love. This is the failure of the love in one of the tests that show true love. Is she so immature that she must have something for the appetites even at the cost of love? “You got a reaction” is then that she destroyed their love, his innocent love, turned it blue, and now he does not want her anymore. The reaction is “get behind me,” “anyway” repeated from the question “How old are you now, anyway.” From the song “Red Roses for a Blue Lady,” the white orchid is the lapel used at weddings.
As Allan Bloom teaches, jealousy assumes that the beloved owes the lover love for being loved, though that is false. Marriage is a bit different, and lovers exchange promises of fidelity as a safeguard against these emotions, so difficult for humans to deal with. In love, though, the passions and appetites of the true lover are wholly attached to the beloved, and he does not desire the hottest hottei naked right in front of him, believe it or not, but rather, only the beloved. Infidelity then demonstrates the failure of the lover to inspire that “ant-eros, the love in return that is the goal of the lover, according to Plato;s Phaedrus. It is indeed giving up, and there is no recovery, though marriages might limp along for practical reasons.
The video for this song is an artistic masterpiece. The clothing of Jack, as well as the conclusion with the white horse, are disturbing, but the interpretation shows the meaning. The dancer woman is the anima, or an “anima figure,” and it said that Jack took up with her after the video. Indeed, she is sneaking in, so if it were not for other lines, it might be a woman who snuck in and made the singer corrupt his marriage, and he may intentionally make this ambiguous from magnanimity. It is also possible that infidelity led to infidelity in the lover, the one speaking. “You” could be the one who snuck in, a seducer, but that does not fit with all the lines. The apple has this meaning, though, the destruction of the innocence of his marriage. The white horse is again the pure heart or spirit, as in “ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn,” the vehicle of the pure passions that carry the true lover. The horse is masculine. The perversion of one brief scene is the corruption of innocence that is the theme of the song. The appetites adhering to the white horse show that in the lover, as human, allows for the rage in projection, against his own anima or soul. Anger is always due to the projection of that in the soul of the one enraged which is like what was acted upon by the perpetrator. Hence, we will stick to our first reading that it is the same event as Seven Nation Army,” as the only coherent reading of all the lines. Otherwise, one would approach these matters with all the concern of a Lao Tzu, and there would be nothing for the song to work through. But it arrives, again, in “leave it alone,” find a home, and “get back home.”
Laced with Sarcasm and a bit of outrage, by Mark A. McDonald, PhD
mmcdonald77 