From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2012 #1134 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe:mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website:http://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Sunday, August 19 2012 Volume 2012 : Number 1134 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Now Song For Sharon was NRH vs TI, and JOTMAS (the gift went on) ["Mark" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 21:30:46 -0700 From: "Mark" Subject: Now Song For Sharon was NRH vs TI, and JOTMAS (the gift went on) - -----Original Message----- From: Robert Sartorius Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 6:18 AM To: joni@smoe.org ; onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Cc: sem8@cornell.edu Subject: RE: NRH vs TI, and JOTMAS (the gift went on) Anyway, over the years, I have had the rather odd habit of occasionally editing Joni's lyrics while playing her songs for myself. I may be looking in some cases for improvement, or for additional poetic density - but usually, I'm just trying to reduce the number of words I need to sing to some manageable sequence. (Song for Sharon was one such song). The verses for 'Song for Sharon' actually follow a logical progression. It helps if you're trying to remember all the words. I'm going to do this from memory and explain the links I have in my head to remember them. I went to Staten Island Sharon To buy myself a mandolin And I saw the long white dress of love On a store front mannequin Big boat chugging back with a belly full of cars All for something lacy Some girl's gonna see that dress And crave that day like crazy So she's on the ferry coming back from Staten Island and she sees the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada They can balance and they can climb Like their fathers before them They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline Shine your light on me Miss Liberty (interesting reference to 'liberty' here. I'd actually never thought about a double meaning here before) Because as soon as this ferry boat docks I'm headed to the church to play bingo Fleece me with the gambler's flocks A reference to gambling leads into I can keep my cool at poker But I'm a fool when love's at stake Because I can't conceal emotion What I'm feeling's always written on my face There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street I went into see her as a kind of joke And she lit a candle for my love luck And eighteen bucks went up in smoke And why does she feel that way about her love luck? Sharon I left my man At a North Dakota junction And I came out to the Big Apple here To face the dream's malfunction Love's a repetitious danger You'd think I'd be accustomed to Well I do accept the changes At least better than I used to do Now she thinks about someone who could not accept the changes of love or life or whatever. A woman I knew just drowned herself The well was deep and muddy She was just shaking off futility Or punishing somebody My friends were calling up all day yesterday All emotions and abstractions It seems we all live so close to that line And so far from satisfaction This leads into the advice she's gotten as to how to get away from that line and closer to fulfillment or 'satisfaction'. Dora says have children Momma and Betsy say Find yourself a charity Help the needy and the crippled Or put some time into ecology Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes And lovely landscapes to discover But all I really want to do right now Is find another lover Here she starts to explain the origins and reasons for wanting to find another lover as opposed to all of those other paths suggested to her. When we were kids in Maidstone Sharon I went to every wedding in that little town To see the tears and the kisses And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown And walking home on the railroad tracks Or swinging on the playground swing Love stimulated my illusions More than anything Now she elaborates further on her childhood infatuation with romantic love and ties it back to the 'long white dress of love' and 'every wedding in that little town'. And also goes into her first experience with the down side of love. And when I went skating after golden Reggie You know it was white lace I was chasing Chasing dreams Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans He taught me first you get the kisses And then you get the tears But the ceremony of the bells and lace Still veils this reckless fool here Ice skating is the link here as she brings the lyric into the present tense and once again brings duality into play. Now there are 29 skaters on Wolman Rink Circling in singles and in pairs In this vigorous anonymity A blank face at the window Stares and stares and stares and stares And the power of reason And the flowers of deep feelings Seem to serve me Only to deceive me Finally she briefly sums up their two lives and points out how Sharon expresses her talent, entering a bit into Joni's world and how Joni will occasionally seek out the space and air of the world that Sharon inhabits. Anyway, if you get to this point and you know the last verse is coming, you pretty much have gotten it. First and last verses are usually pretty ingrained if it's a song you love. Sharon you've got a husband And a family and a farm I've got the apple of temptation And a diamond snake around my arm But you still have your music I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky You sing for your friends and your family I'll walk green pastures by and by I don't think I left any of the verses out. Specific words may be altered since sometimes what gets stuck in my head isn't always exactly what is on the record. But that was all typed from memory. Most of Joni's lyrics are very logical and straightforward. Mark in Seattle ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2012 #1134 ****************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------