The Painted Desert Lyrics
We've played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I'm sure the rains have ended, the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Is a cactus blooming there in every roadside stand
where the big deal is cowboy gear won in Japan?
We've played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I'm sure the rains have ended and the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Is a cactus blooming there upon the Northern rim
or in the ruins of the Hopi mesa dens?
On a blanket in the cooling sand you and your friend agreed that
the stars were so many there they seemed to overlap.
We've played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I am sure the rain has ended, the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Was a cactus blooming there as you watched the Native boy?
In Flagstaff trailer court, you wrote the line:
"He kicked a tumbleweed and his mother called him home where the Arizona moon met the Arizona sun."
Isn't that the plan we had or have you changed your mind?
I haven't read a word from you since Phoenix or Tucson.
April is over will you tell me how long before I can be there?
Sounds as if it's about a friendship in which one person moved to AZ and the other didn't and is waiting to make a trip. However, the friend who moved moved on to another friendship and is losing touch. It's lamenting that loss vs. accepting it. It's hard to be left behind!
I've always thought this was about a long distance relationship that fell apart when the guy in Arizona hooked up with the new "friend" he met in the canyon. It's my favorite song from In My Tribe.
My favorite part: In Flagstaff trailer court, you wrote the line: "He kicked a tumbleweed and his mother called him home where the Arizona moon met the Arizona sun."
That should be "in a Flagstaff..." I should know better than copy-pasting from this site without double checking the lyrics.
That should be "in a Flagstaff..." I should know better than copy-pasting from this site without double checking the lyrics.
Some interpretive meaning lies within the context of the song's lyrics. The references to Hopi culture and the phrase, "...and his mother called him home, where the Arizona moon met the Arizona sun" refer to the matrilineal society of the culturally secretive Hopi. In Hopi mythology, the Hopi traditionally saw the goddess Spider Woman as their creator, "Grandmother of the sun and as the great Medicine Power who sang the people into this fourth world we live in now.”
Inferences can made from that aspect.
The constant queries into the disintegrating status of friendship/love is the call for assurance and comfort. Arizona moon expectantly intends to meet with the Arizona sun to reaffirm the connection now lost and in ruination.
"Or so you wrote" - that just kills me. So much meaning in those few words.
It sounds to me like her lover has gone on a long road trip, and they had a plan for her to meet him to see the Painted Desert. But the Painted Desert is not just a place, it's also a time of year - it refers to the wildflowers that bloom after the winter rains. Thus, "I'm sure the rain has ended, the blooms have gone".
To her, it seems that their relationship may have faded like the flowers. Also, his letters are a one-way communication. She can't write to him since she doesn't know exactly where he is. ("I haven't read a word from you since Phoenix or Tucson.") She can only sing this song.