| Jackson Browne – Our Lady of the Well Lyrics | 4 years ago |
|
The song is so open and non-specific, there could be 1000 different readings of it, depending on the person. It's the non-specificity and the use of elemental words like water, well, desert, etc., that contribute to a spiritual, dreamy feel. It's a feel very similar to other Southern California songs of the time. As though part of a dance, two people come to the well every morning to draw water, which with the sun is the source of life on earth. They don't speak perhaps because they don't know each other, except for this daily, early-morning visit. Or perhaps they don't speak the same language. But in drawing water, they participate in a sacred, even though mundane, ritual that is far older than any religion. Both stare at the mountains, perhaps reading the season from the amount of snow, or just reaffirming that it is there as a permanent fixture of their lives. It's a primitive place if you have to draw your own water. But the writer has made a long trip to come to this simpler place. Like many a religious figure, he has had to cross the desert to get there. But instead of a revelation, he goes backwards to what is already known, simpler, more primitive rhythms that are tied to nature, away from the frantic, manufactured complexity of where his country has gone. Simplicity. Growing food and watching your children run. The picture of our lady of the well is reminiscent of paintings of pagan goddesses or patron saints. It's the gift he gives to the "people of the sun" before he returns home. The cruel and senseless hand that passes over the country isn't a person or thing. It's a malign spirit that is destructive. The opposite of the God of Genesis who hovered over the waters in an act of creation. Although he would like to stay and watch the children run, and commit himself to the simpler life where people have to retrieve their own water and grow there own food, he feels compelled to return to "the brave ones" back home who resist the cruel and senseless hand. Instead of the peace of life that is run by the rhythms of the sun and the splash of the water bucket, he conscience tells him he has to go home. |
|
| Gordon Lightfoot – Approaching Lavender Lyrics | 4 years ago |
|
It's a beautiful lyric poem, the words to a very beautiful song. At various times we think Lavender is a person, but sometimes it is just a color. The wordplay in the song is very good. I think Lavender may have been "one that got away." The beginning of the poem sounds like a warning. Lavender is very attractive but you have to take her seriously. If you don't, there are consequences. The middle describes the narrator's consuming need for Lavender. That leads us to think something bad is on the way because obsession goes bad. The narrator becomes separated from Lavender in a break-up scene off-stage. The last two verses repeat the warning of the beginning. Prose version: The writer became romantically involved with a strong, beautiful woman, but she takes life too seriously for him, and he has to leave. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.