From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2013 #872 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 Thursday, June 27 2013 Volume 2013 : Number 872 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- This Rain, This Rain [Marianne Rizzo ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 08:08:06 -0400 From: Marianne Rizzo Subject: This Rain, This Rain Thank you, oh so much Catherine and also Vincenzo. It means so much to me to read this. Catherine, You have taken on a full time job with the transcription and the chronicling and photographs of everything luminato. "The work you've taken on. . . " You have illuminated us. Eternally grateful to you and all the jmdlers and also, thank you joni So much here. Marianne > > > > > -------- > This Rain, This Rain - the lyrics [Catherine McKay > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 04:44:18 -0700 (PDT) > From: Catherine McKay > Subject: This Rain, This Rain - the lyrics > > Here are the words for "This Rain, This Rain." Wording varied somewhat from > one night to the other, with Joni sometimes repeating a word or phrase > here > and there, and this is an amalgam of the two. > > I'd like to thank Vincenzo > Mancini for his help on this. The version he found had clearer sound than my > own recording and, along with the section of Emily Carr's journal, as well as > Joni's talks about it both at TimesTalks and before she began the poem on > stage, helped to clarify some of the parts that > weren't making a lot of sense > because we couldn't hear them well ("tree-souls," for example, and what about > those "balky sheets"?) > > B > This rain, this rain > by Joni Mitchell > > Is this the > wettest place on earth? > My little fire is sputtering. > Oh, now my hot water > bottle's gone and burst, > And I'm mean mad > And I'm muttering > Soggy biscuits! > Balky sheets! > The bucket brimming where the canvas leaks. > I smack my dogs for > muddy feet. > Oh, this rain, this rain > will not retreat. > > That painting I made > yesterday - > Who would want to look at it? > It's just a mess! > Greens and greys. > I threw a stupid book at it. > I'd hoped to catch tree-souls in paint. > But hope! > That's for idiots > And saints. > My soulless trees > Are so incomplete. > Oh, this > rain, this rain will not retreat > > I wish I had a real good pal, > Someone I > could stand to listen to. > I don't care - guy, gal, > Just someone who could take > me too. > If I was nicer, less astute, > Less compelled to spew the truth... > For > truth is seldom soft and sweet, > And this rain, this rain, > Will not retreat, > will not be beat > > All big cities make me sick, > Except in Europe, I don't know > why. > Big buildings stretching brick by brick. > Like my cedar groves, they > scrape the sky. > It doesn't rain like this back there. > Oh, it rains enough, > just enough to wash the air > and sweep the litter off the street. > But THIS > rain, Oh, > This rain will not be beat > > I wrote this poem for Emily Carr, > Though she's been dead for quite some time. > Most of these words are hers, > But > some are mine. > I made them rhyme. > > This rain, > This rain, > Oh, this rain > > > "This > Rain, This Rain" is based on the writings of Emily Carr and is part of one of > Carr's journals. This particular journal is called "Hundreds and thousands." > When Carr talks about "The Elephant," it's her little house on wheels. (See > photo at > http://tinyhouseontario.com/2012/02/05/emily-carr-another-tiny-houser/emily-c > arr-dogs-and-elephant/) > > Excerpt from "Hundreds and Thousands,"B by Emily > Carr (pp 88-89) > > "Such a terrible loneliness and depression is on me tonight! > My heart has gone heavier and heavier all day. I don't know any reason for it > so I've mixed a large dose of Epsom Salts, put my sulky fire, which simply > would not be cheerful, out, smacked the dogs all round for yapping and shut > myself in the Elephant, although by clocks I should not be thinking of bed for > three hours yet. This is the dampest spot I was ever in my life. The bed, my > clothes, the food, everything gets clammy. I burst two hot bottles two nights > running. I took a brick to bed the next night; too hot, set fire to the cover. > Tonight I invented a regular safety furnace. I put the hot brick into an empty > granite saucepan with a lid on. It is safe and airing the bed out > magnificently. (One thing that did go right.) > > "I made two poor sketches > today. Every single condition was good for work, but there you are - > cussedness! What a lot I'd give tonight for a real companionable pal, male or > female, a soul pal one wasn't afraid to speak to or listen to. I've never had > one like that. I expect it is my own fault. If I was nice right through I'd > attract that kind to me. I do not give confidences. Now look at Mother "Pop > Shop." There she is in her tiny shop doling out gingerpop, cones, confidences > and smiles to all comers. Let any old time-waster hitch up to her counter and > she will entertain him and listen to him as long as his wind lasts. Tonight > one was there a full hour and a half. She has nothing to sit on at the > counter. She's awfully fat and heavy but she lolls with this bit of fat on a > candy box and that bit on a pop bottle and another bit on the cream jars and > the counter supports her tummy while she waggles her permanent wave and > manifold chins and glib tongue till > the sun sinks behind the hill and her son whimpers for supper and the man has > paid his last nickel and compliment. Then she rolls over to the cook stove > complaining at the shortness of the day. Does she get more out of life by that > sort of stuff than I do with my sort of stuff? I wouldn't change - but who is > the wiser woman? who lives fullest and collects the biggest bag full of life? > I dunnob&." > > Carr, Emily. Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr. > Vancouver: Douglas & ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2013 #872 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. 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