From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #103 Reply-To: jangle-poets@smoe.org Sender: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jangle-poets-digest Wednesday, October 24 2007 Volume 09 : Number 103 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Gypsy Rose (was : [JP] LOADED) - w/ Kennedys & Nields [Nieldsforever@aol] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:56:13 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: Gypsy Rose (was : [JP] LOADED) - w/ Kennedys & Nields << Life Is Large This Moment Half a Million Miles Day In & Day Out 9th Street Billy Midnight Ghost Me Myself & I Minor Swing Matty Groves Stand Dharma Cafe River of Fallen Stars Wall of Death Chimes of Freedom Breathe (my first hearing) Fortune Teller Road Gypsy Rose 8 Miles High Rhapsody in Blue >> >> >> Pete had a really different song intro for "Gypsy Rose" when TK played it last week at Medfield. This difference, as in "really interesting difference," highlighted for me the recurring experience -- which would sound hackneyed and trite if it weren't actually true -- how there is always, always so much more depth to the Kennedys than immediately meets the eye, layers upon layers, in addition to and over and above the fascination of their music. I'll reconstruct what Pete said about "Gypsy Rose" (and about Dave Carter) as best as I can, knowing that memory can be an elusive thing, sort of a reflection of the light Pete was shining by way of illumination, a reflection of a reflection, like earthshine coming back to us from the surface of the moon. ============================================================== << Long ago there lived a Persian poet named Jelaluddin, who is better known today as Rumi because he came from Roman Anatolia, which lay outside the Persian Empire at that time. Jelaluddin wrote love poetry, but in the Sufi tradition where love poetry celebrates the love of the soul and the soul's beloved, which is the Higher Self, one's true self and spiritual home. Dave Carter's "Gypsy Rose" can be understood in this way too, as love poetry which operates on more than one level, the love between two lovers also being at the same time a way of expressing the love between the soul and the soul's beloved who is one's own Higher Self. >> ============================================================== That was really far-out and unexpected! Maybe the intro was crafted for the occasion, since the show was at a UU church in Medfield? Maybe Dave Carter, like 9th Street Billy, is a modernday satguru, sort of a Latter Day Rumi? Dave Carter -- "My love is like a gypsy rose Wild is the only way he grows Out where the sweet July wind blows He blooms over yonder. His voice is like a mountain stream Washes me clear, washes me clean I walk along the banks serene Where he will wander. There is no hill high as the moon No river deeper than the sea No shooting star reckless in flight Burns in the night Wild as the love he gave to me Only the rain knows where he goes Thunder and me, ramblin' with my gypsy rose." ============================================================== Jelaluddin Rumi -- "Totally conscious, and apropos of nothing, you come to see me. Is someone here, I ask? The moon. The full moon is inside your house. My friends and I go running out into the street. I'm in here, comes a voice from the house, but we aren't listening. We're looking up at the sky. It's midnight. The whole neighborhood is up and out in the street, thinking, The cat burglar has come back. The actual thief is there too, saying out loud, Yes, the cat burglar is somewhere in this crowd. No one pays attention. Lo, I am with you always - means when you look for God, God is in the look of your eyes, In the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self, Or things that have happened to you -- There's no need to go outside. Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself. A white flower grows in the quietness. Let your tongue become that flower. I need a mouth as wide as the sky To say the nature of a True Person, Language as large as longing. The fragile vial inside me often breaks. No wonder I go mad and disappear for three days Every month with the moon. For anyone in love with you, It's always these invisible days." ============================================================== I've heard "Gypsy Rose" done by Tracy Grammer, by Chris Thompson, and by TK. I can only qualify this by saying, it's a great song whenever any of them play it! This is really the "folk process" that we hear so much about. I couldn't end this sideways glance of desire at "Gypsy Rose" without two digressions, both of which have more to do with the Rumi poem I chose almost at random. Nerissa Nields has been introducing the song "The Soldier at Your Door" with a story she's learned of the Old Man, the Thief, and the Moon. I couldn't help but notice that the Rumi poem (excerpted here) reminded me a lot of that, with the key ingredients being the moon and the thief! And the Rumi line, "When you look for God, God is in the look of your eyes" reminded me of TK's "Stand," where the line goes, "Like a pilgrim traveling in disguise, I searched for God, I found it in your eyes." I don't think it's so much a matter of mining sources, as having the eye-opening experience of discovering really striking resonances of the same vibes, amongst fellow travelers walking much the same road -- you know, "Common Bond" and "One Heart, One Soul," and all that! Bruce Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/ Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy merchandise...what more could you ask for? ------------------------------ End of jangle-poets-digest V9 #103 **********************************