Does anyone out there have an opinion about the meaning of this song? Too obvious?? is this guy a "player" who'd trying to reform? Is he killing that which he loves?? (GENTLE ON MY MIND - John Hartford)
@pixelperfekt I think of hartford as the poet. He is painting a picture. The meaning is up to us, the listeners. I think he creates different scenes...scenes where he is moving and traveling, and the same feelings, the same strong feelings about this person he loves is following him...haunting him perhaps....She is occupying his mind and is running counter to the distance and movement of his travels...he moves...and she is a constant...he is away and she is home....he is unable to get away from it...It is a painting of the inner thoughts and feelings of a rambler, who has found...
@pixelperfekt I think of hartford as the poet. He is painting a picture. The meaning is up to us, the listeners. I think he creates different scenes...scenes where he is moving and traveling, and the same feelings, the same strong feelings about this person he loves is following him...haunting him perhaps....She is occupying his mind and is running counter to the distance and movement of his travels...he moves...and she is a constant...he is away and she is home....he is unable to get away from it...It is a painting of the inner thoughts and feelings of a rambler, who has found that he can't get away from a call to love...So he is encountering love, and it is changing him...WE don't know what he will do with it. But it is that point for the rambler to have to deal with a call, or a missing....But he doesn't say that directly...He paints beautiful pictures of it, using poetry and this one song is a fine example of what song writing, combined with melody can do. Campbell's voice is just beautiful, and Hartfords folk roots, and instrumentation with the banjo made it a really big hit...It crossed over to country, pop, and rock at the time. I remember my sister playing the song on her folk guitar when she was 17, and my older aunt Franny asking her to play it and sing it again and again.
Does anyone out there have an opinion about the meaning of this song? Too obvious?? is this guy a "player" who'd trying to reform? Is he killing that which he loves?? (GENTLE ON MY MIND - John Hartford)
@pixelperfekt I think of hartford as the poet. He is painting a picture. The meaning is up to us, the listeners. I think he creates different scenes...scenes where he is moving and traveling, and the same feelings, the same strong feelings about this person he loves is following him...haunting him perhaps....She is occupying his mind and is running counter to the distance and movement of his travels...he moves...and she is a constant...he is away and she is home....he is unable to get away from it...It is a painting of the inner thoughts and feelings of a rambler, who has found...
@pixelperfekt I think of hartford as the poet. He is painting a picture. The meaning is up to us, the listeners. I think he creates different scenes...scenes where he is moving and traveling, and the same feelings, the same strong feelings about this person he loves is following him...haunting him perhaps....She is occupying his mind and is running counter to the distance and movement of his travels...he moves...and she is a constant...he is away and she is home....he is unable to get away from it...It is a painting of the inner thoughts and feelings of a rambler, who has found that he can't get away from a call to love...So he is encountering love, and it is changing him...WE don't know what he will do with it. But it is that point for the rambler to have to deal with a call, or a missing....But he doesn't say that directly...He paints beautiful pictures of it, using poetry and this one song is a fine example of what song writing, combined with melody can do. Campbell's voice is just beautiful, and Hartfords folk roots, and instrumentation with the banjo made it a really big hit...It crossed over to country, pop, and rock at the time. I remember my sister playing the song on her folk guitar when she was 17, and my older aunt Franny asking her to play it and sing it again and again.