diamonds and rust...

happy b-day Joan Baez




Diamonds and Rust
Words and Music by Joan Baez


I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I'd known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall

As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin's eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest
Ten years ago
I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust

Well you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes the girl on the half-shell
Would keep you unharmed

Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling around
And snow in your hair
Now you're smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Now you're telling me
You're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
Because I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid


if you're not aware, Joan Baez wrote this song after her breakup with Bob Dylan

the sisters of mercy...

The Sisters of Mercy
written & sung by
Leonard Cohen
visual from the movie
McCabe & Mrs. Miller


The Sisters of Mercy
Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long.

Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned.

Well they lay down beside me, I made my confession to them.
They touched both my eyes and I touched the dew on their hem.
If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn
they will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.

When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon.
Don't turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon.
And you won't make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night:
We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right,
We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right.


i was first introduced to this song by the Judy Collins version many years ago. it's a haunting melody and lyric. in the version above, played and sung by Leonard Cohen, if you listen carefully, you will hear riffs from what i consider his consummate song - Suzanne. here's a really interesting video that i found of the song

Calypso...

Earth Day 2008

Calypso
John Denver



To sail on a dream on a crystal clear ocean
To ride on the crest of a wild raging storm
To work in the service of life and the living
In search of the answers to questions unknown
To be part of the movement and part of the growing
Part of beginning to understand

Aye, Calypso, the places you’ve been to
The things that you’ve shown us
The stories you tell
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit
The men who have served you
So long and so well

Like the dolphin who guides you
You bring us beside you
To light up the darkness and show us the way
For though we are strangers in your silent world
To live on the land we must learn from the sea
To be true as the tide
And free as the wind-swell
Joyful and loving in letting it be

Aye, Calypso, the places you’ve been to
The things that you’ve shown us
The stories you tell
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit
The men who have served you
So long and so well

Aye, Calypso, the places you’ve been to
The things that you’ve shown us
The stories you tell
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit
The men who have served you
So long and so well

well I'll be damned...

Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full

and today is a full moon. imagine that...

there has been a controversy about carly simon's song you're so vain and just who she is singing about. the most accepted theory is that it refers to warren beatty. no one really knows. she never has said.

diamonds and rust, on the other hand, not only leaves little to the imagination, but joan baez said to whom the song refers - bob dylan. she had a relationship with him and there are some subtle and some not-so-subtle references in the lyrics.

the above version is from a live performance in 1975. i previewed more recent ones but they all seem filled with the wisdom of having age. i like this one because it comes across more to joan baez's possible state of mind at the time.

It's all come back
too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you're
offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid

life passes...

in a taxi cab ride.

being in high school and college for the span of the 1960's, i was part of the dawning of the age of aquarius. the decade was tumultuous to put it mildly. it was wrought with revolutionary idea after revolutionary idea. it was, i would like to think, a time when democracy was taken to a level that would include everyone no matter their race, religion, orientation, ethnicity, color, gender.... sometimes, i wonder what happened to all of the lofty ideas and promises. there was lots of promise.

of course, today, we have gone somewhat backward. it's all right to say you hate a specific group on the radio with thousands listening. it's common place to watch men and women bleeding from roadside bombs on the television. it's de rigeur to have your thoughts and beliefs questioned, categorized and put down. i guess the world just wasn't ready yet.

besides rock music, one of the bigger musical genres was folk. joan baez, judy collins, pete seeger, fairport convention, peter, paul and mary all were mainstays of the day. i was drawn to folk music because of its storytelling nature. i love songs that tell stories.

one of the great stroytellers was harry chapin. i know that people rue his untimely death and wonder what music would be like if he hadn't died in that crash, but it's what happened and it doesn't really make any difference. he had the ability to take a very insignifacant occurrence and to turn it into a great song. after dance band on the titanic, taxi is my favorite harry chapin.



there is a second part to the story entitled sequel.

when i listen to taxi, i almost feel like i'm in the taxi with him...

memories that never leave you...

pete and i had gone to grammar school together but weren't actually friends. we went to different high schools. he chose a catholic school and me my first foray into a public high school. we hooked up again in college and became friends. april was the catalyst for this happening. they were dating, eventually became engaged and married. later, they divorced. we've lost touch as happens in the journey of life.

sitting on the back porch of the rectory at the newman center in college one evening, pete and i were studying. april was strumming on her guitar and humming. it was just a typical thing for the three of us to do. we were inseparable for a long period of time. father mcginn, the pastor of the newman center, was a brilliant man, a cartesian scholar, but had problems with the simple things in life. he was down to earth and caring and he loved to hear april sing.

on this evening he came in after dinner and, ahem, a couple of his favorite manhattans, heard april on her guitar and got instantly excited. "

april, april. play that song i really like. you know the one. both sides at the same time...

we couldn't hold it in. we were always laughing at and with this dear, dear man. he ignored us because he knew we loved him. april always knew what he was talking about. she played it for him all the time. he even let her play it at mass, i believe.

if you aren't familiar with the song, it's actually joni mitchell's both sides now. great song with lots of meanings and an explanation of what it's all about.

judy collins' version is my favorite. pay attention to the sound coming out of that twelve-string guitar. she's magic. enjoy...



my thanks to nicole belle over at crooksandliars.com for bringing this back into my life...

who knows where the time goes...

this song, written by sandy denny and sung by judy collins, is my depression song.

what i mean by that is if i'm feeling funky and not knowing exactly what my state of mind is really at the moment, i'll put this on the cd player or ipod. if i start to cry or am on the verge of crying, i know i'm depressed. listening to the song helps get me out of the funk.

listen closely to the words. the two lines that have special meaning for me are I do not count the time and I do not fear the time. time is the bandit that steals our lives. there is nothing we can do about the passage of time. it is the one constant in the world. kind of strange calling it a constant. there is nothing constant about it. it is ruled by change. i recently heard a line that the only people who like change are wet babies. the rest of us resist it.

how sad.

judy collins is one of my all time favorite performers and song writers. her music is story telling. i like songs that tell stories. this song, who knows where the time goes, is used in the video above as the opening of the movie the subject was roses. it's a great movie with patricia neal at her finest. and, yes, it is a bit depressing. but it also is filled with hope.

as the adage from the hopi indians goes, when hope is gone, life is over...