The Bird In The Gravel

This song is about a variety of feelings and behaviors, but as to just one -- at the time it came out I got the sense that the part about the leaves falling without changing color (and perhaps the dead bird in the gravel, too) had to do with the phenomenon of acid rain & its effect on the trees & wildlife, which was a serious problem in the northern U.S. and Canada, and remains so though somewhat abated now by environmental protection measures taken in response. That's only part of what the song refers to but some of the rest of it is about the routines and patterns of people going about their business. If you a drawn in by the song, it's a great way to illustrate how environmental degradation -- in its relatively early stages -- does have noticeable effects, but people tend to go blithely on about their business, only a few even paying any attention.

I have a lot to say about this song. It's probably my favorite song of all time. For the moment, though, I just want to mention that the song takes place at a wealthy gentleman's manor, as his "servant" brings his tea and pours it for him, the raucous staff in his kitchen prepares his meals, and his maid takes a walk through a forest while she's on break.

And during this walk, she's thinking about her loved one, who is soon leaving. Not gone yet but the fact that their relationship is going to be over has put her in this "in-between" place of having a beloved, and of having lost a beloved.

"I don't mind when it's over I don't mind when it's all done it's just the moments in between just before it's gone"

She is clearly in love ("I am crying because I love you.") so much so that she "can't be there when" her lover leaves - it would be too much, but still she worries "what if you're afraid?"

Then, in one of the most beautiful moments of music and lyrical poetry, the maid remembers something that her love said:

"you said something about the leaving the moments in between the yawning when the world shifts the clanging of the trains"

So beautiful. The in-between moments are the chasm between two different worlds - a "yawning when the world shifts." Then immediately from this insightful and abstract expression of a complex human emotional state, she lands squarely on the ground with the solid, real-world imagery of hearing "the clanging of the trains" - which also raises the question "is the lover leaving by train? is that where she can't be when her lover leaves?"

And then the maid follows with four more lines of very solid visceral imagery from the present world surrounding her:

"and a dog sits up and growls and a cow begins to bawl and a nun nearby stops to listen cross herself and then move on"

All of this taking in the moment of reality after exposing the raw, sensitive nature of what's preoccupying her mind (the in-between moments) suddenly shifts her focus and the juxtaposition is funny to her and she begins to laugh.

"I was laughing in the forest"

She's laughing hard and loses her balance, which doesn't stop her process of soaking in the world around her:

"I fell down in the leaves and I watched the trees above me crossing in the breeze"

She's slowly remembering a deep joyful love based on the sensual world:

"I love the bare branches I love the healing bells the bareness in the last sun the greyness and the gold"

And then, an event of no significance, perhaps oddly timed, but perfectly commonplace, just happens to occur right then!

"and a flock of geese flew over"

And she is so taken by the sudden incongruity of the sight she succumbs to the ultimate euphoria of being alive and being one with the world she observes:

"and I laughed harder still I laughed 'til I was heaving"

So overcome she is, she laughs until she simply cannot laugh anymore! And then:

"everything was still"

The world around her, and her turbulent world of emotions, have found a calm moment of rest, a welcome respite.

The music that accompanies the second part of the maid song repeats for every one of the eight verses, but each slowly builds in volume, complexity, instrumentation, and dynamics. Even the final lines of the servant are woven in and out of it to help support the effect of the maid's song building in importance.

The first verse begins in almost complete silence; her first, high-pitched, warbly note barely breaking the silence, but beginning the most awe-inspiring musical ascent. By the eighth verse, a cacophonous orchestra from every inch of earth's symphony hall is blaring the music required to match the intensity of the maid's moment. The music builds quickly, but subtly, and by the climactic line "I laughed till I was heaving," it's hard to remember that the music started in silence only seven verses ago!

However, the descent of this climactic musical moment is rapid and noticeable - by the end of the next line, "then everything was still," the music rushes away from under her voice, like a completely opaque fog obscuring a scene in a theater being blown off the stage as quickly as possible to reveal the action happening there.

And though, if you follow the words, get into their meaning, and let your spirits ride the crest of this musical masterpiece to its climax, you will find the sudden drop doesn't leave you feeling empty, but, with racing heart, leaves you feeling full, but still.