From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V2 #62 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Tuesday, June 23 1998 Volume 02 : Number 062 Today's Subjects: ----------------- RE: for Trajectory list! (stories about Veda songs) [Tony Jackson Subject: RE: for Trajectory list! (stories about Veda songs) > -----Original Message----- > From: jeF kearns [mailto:jefkearns@hotmail.com] > Sent: Sunday, June 21, 1998 8:46 PM > To: trajectory@smoe.org > Subject: for Trajectory list! > > Hi! This is jeF. Does anyone know any of the stories behind Veda's > songs? Or anything she might say before performing them? I am kind > of curious to know. Hmmmm.... Here is a few snippets of info from my meager memory, most of which I remember from the Diva's In the Round show that I posted about on here a while ago. Born Lucky (with the 'Our Woman, afraid of nothing' line) - She said it was for a friend of hers who was 6 (3, 18?) months old, so it's about a little tiny child in her life (I don't know whose) 26 Years - She said she wrote it the day before her 26th birthday. (the next time I found myself singing that song to myself I was surprised that I hadn't already guessed that was when she wrote it: "I was born / I was born to / I was born ... tomorrow" and that stuff about 26 years being the same amount a tragedy and a victory) I know that Slumber Queen has an explanatory intro, perhaps about a folk story she heard in some town(?) and it's just before the song on my "Women in (E)motion" CD which I left at home today. I vaguely remember hearing that Shamus and Stone were two friends of hers, or something. Do I recall something about 6 Feet of Silence being the silence of the grave? Of course my memory can be an untrustworthy liar at times. :-T Also, If you like, you can always make up your own stories like I do. Summary of Tony the Tiger's made up ideas for what Veda's songs are about ======================================================================== = == songs about PEOPLE AND BUILDINGS == - - I really clung to 'Laine' when I was moving out here to Vancouver from Ottawa. It was like the breaking of a fellowship for me to leave my friends back there. This song would bring a tear from time to time (still does). - - I have never lost anyone really close to me (neither friend nor family) and I've haven't had conversations with my dead yet, but the accordion and the chant of "My brown body beats" still stirs emotion in me and makes me imagine being haunted by a host of friends and loves, but striving to *live* with their memory, and not drown in it. - - 538 E Georgia and the Neighbourhood Song are both beautiful in different ways... and they both make me think of the ordinary things that mingle to make the extraordinary feeling of *home*. This was also really important to me while I was moving. == path of a body == - - This is sad. I have a dear friend. She was badly abused by a boyfriend long ago and he damaged her uterus. More recently, she found out she was pregnant, knew she would not be able to bring the child to term, and was forced to abort the child for her own safety. Whenever I listen to the song "small weight", I think of her for a moment. "I can barely be a mother." - - Happier now. I truly love the wordless beauty that is *not* captured by "...and birds." It is not "captured". Instead it is "framed"...or maybe "outlined". I have had so many beautiful moments that words can gesture towards, or suggest, but never dare describe. I remember my wordless moments of beauty in this song...because "words just kill remembering." == Lit from within == - - I have always loved the song "Well I Guess Not." It reminds me of my ex-fiancee and the everpresent uncertainty about just who the right person is for whom. I also love these lines: "A small rock rolling around / a tap dripping / yes yes yes yes yes yes / not yes as in 'I give you permission' / yes as in 'Oh yeah, I knew that' " I guess that's enough of my little summaries. I could mention a couple on Spine, but I'll just stop here. > "I can feel it in my bones > i'm gonna spend my whole life alone" > - Liz Phair I was just walkman-ing this tape on my way to work today! "The fire you like so much in me Is the sign of someone adamantly free" "wild and unwise... I wanna be mesmerizing too" "It's true that I stole your lighter And it's also true that I lost the map But when you said that I wasn't worth talking to I had to take your word on that" "You put in my hands a loaded gun and then told me not to fire it When you did the things you said were up to me and the accused me of trying to fuck it up" Cheers, all Tony the Tiger A--A |**| =()()= "Forever seek knowledge through the sharing of emotion and the wondrous expression of thought" - Sylvia Mae Register "feelings are everywhere - be gentle" j. masai ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V2 #62 *******************************