From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2013 #151 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 Monday, January 28 2013 Volume 2013 : Number 151 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Lyrics [Dave Blackburn ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:46:55 -0800 From: Dave Blackburn Subject: Re: Lyrics Shari, I certainly didn't intend to diminish your love for the song, which I too greatly admire, especially the insight behind the line "like the enemies you've earned" - dig the wisdom there - but I feel like her choice of "fall" was a little weak. Similarly her use of "shine" almost forty years later felt like a word rather emptied of its power through over use in song lyrics and pop psychology. Elsewhere in The Fiddle and the Drum she is in top form, working the war and peace metaphors in the title, and going further to set up the handshake/fist duality in the second verse. It was this sense of the weakness of the verb "fall" in this context that got me wondering whether in fact it was "follow", which I still find more cogent, accurate and insightful even if that is in fact not what she wrote. Dave On Jan 28, 2013, at 7:56 AM, Shari Eaton wrote: > I have always loved this song and 'We fall, oh my friend' has a hand in that love. It's unique, unexpected and guides the emotions really well. I'd be more curious to understand how you could possibly find it clumsy. > > > On Jan 28, 2013, at 6:09 AM, Dave Blackburn wrote: > >> Thanks for all the insight on this question everyone. I am persuaded that the >> word is "fall" and I see how it might be shorthand for a turn of phrase like >> "we fall into line" or "we fall for it" but it still strikes me as slightly >> clumsy for Joni. Does anyone else feel that? >> >> Dave >> >> >> >> On Jan 28, 2013, at 5:46 AM, Catherine McKay wrote: >> >>> Mark, that makes perfect sense to me. >>> >>> From: Mark >>> To: Richard Flynn ; 'Catherine McKay' >> ; jlhommedieu@insight.rr.com; 'Dave Blackburn' >> >>> Cc: 'JMDL' >>> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 9:12:08 PM >>> Subject: Re: Lyrics >>> >>> ... >>> >>> I think raising the drum sticks and crying out represents the fearsome power >> of the U.S. war machine and could also very well refer to the harsh treatment >> of people who joined together to protest the Viet Nam war. But I also think >> there is a reference to the drums that once led soldiers into battle. The >> fall, in that case, is the fall of men in battle. >>> >>> Mark in Seattle ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2013 #151 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------