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I'm reading the Neil Young biography, "Shakey" by Jimmy McDonough. In the chapter I read earlier this evening, the purity of Young's song, "Helpless" is mentioned, and it's oh so very easy to hear the first line in my head - There is a town in north Ontario... Undoubtedly the sound of the Canadian Shield.
I love the loneliness in that song; it is indeed pure as a hermit living years in a cabin by an untouched lake. Clear as a bell, or more likely, loons crying out, youknow feel what he's feeling just seconds after the song starts. It's not even Young's plaintive voice - were that the case, all his work would have the same effect (and while a lot does, it's not an all-or-nothing case!) But that is the something that catches me - that single, pure, emotion, a clear shining light of the full moon on water.
Justin Currie does it too - the place where he sings Sometimes I could sell my soul to sit and watch you smoke in "Here and Now" captures yearning in the same way, as I've said before. A different place - a pub, not a lake, maybe. Lucinda Williams singing "Can't Let Go"; she knows she should, if only she could. (There's a place I am far too familiar with, and don't pretend you aren't.) There are other songs that have that straight-arrow to someplace at the speed of sound feeling - U2's "Bad" feels to me like being held and comforted by a friend who knows you well enough that you don't have to, can't even try to, lie. Two poppier odes to what isn't, not singular as Del Amitri but once again with feeling, in the Goo Goo Doll's "Iris" and "If You're Gone" by Matchbox 20. I was too old by the time they appeared, but if they'd come out when I was 14, the needle would have worn a groove there, I'm sure.
"Wish You Were Here" clearly trips people up in the same way. The reaction of one of INXS when it was played on Rock Star: INXS is one of the few times I've seen an honest reaction on reality tv. Sadness - grief? shrouded in a few notes.
Purity isn't restricted to regret, or yearning. The joy in the opening notes of "Beautiful Day" and "She Sells Sanctuary", and Bono's sighed Yeah at the beginning of "Desire" sounds like - well, desire. Surrender in "Fall at Your Feet", closed-eye afterglow in "Ocean Pearl". "Boots or Hearts" has cynical awareness; they learned from ol' Leonard even if it's couched in country. So did Eldritch of course - "Nine While Nine" is a railway platform in Peterborough instead of Leeds; the same thoughts except it's my lipstick. Cacophonous clashing images in "Toyko" spells confusion to me, whether Bruce intended it to be so, I'm not entirely sure - which just adds to the state.
I'm not sure where I'm going. Probably the appropriate song to end on.
I love the loneliness in that song; it is indeed pure as a hermit living years in a cabin by an untouched lake. Clear as a bell, or more likely, loons crying out, you
Justin Currie does it too - the place where he sings Sometimes I could sell my soul to sit and watch you smoke in "Here and Now" captures yearning in the same way, as I've said before. A different place - a pub, not a lake, maybe. Lucinda Williams singing "Can't Let Go"; she knows she should, if only she could. (There's a place I am far too familiar with, and don't pretend you aren't.) There are other songs that have that straight-arrow to someplace at the speed of sound feeling - U2's "Bad" feels to me like being held and comforted by a friend who knows you well enough that you don't have to, can't even try to, lie. Two poppier odes to what isn't, not singular as Del Amitri but once again with feeling, in the Goo Goo Doll's "Iris" and "If You're Gone" by Matchbox 20. I was too old by the time they appeared, but if they'd come out when I was 14, the needle would have worn a groove there, I'm sure.
"Wish You Were Here" clearly trips people up in the same way. The reaction of one of INXS when it was played on Rock Star: INXS is one of the few times I've seen an honest reaction on reality tv. Sadness - grief? shrouded in a few notes.
Purity isn't restricted to regret, or yearning. The joy in the opening notes of "Beautiful Day" and "She Sells Sanctuary", and Bono's sighed Yeah at the beginning of "Desire" sounds like - well, desire. Surrender in "Fall at Your Feet", closed-eye afterglow in "Ocean Pearl". "Boots or Hearts" has cynical awareness; they learned from ol' Leonard even if it's couched in country. So did Eldritch of course - "Nine While Nine" is a railway platform in Peterborough instead of Leeds; the same thoughts except it's my lipstick. Cacophonous clashing images in "Toyko" spells confusion to me, whether Bruce intended it to be so, I'm not entirely sure - which just adds to the state.
I'm not sure where I'm going. Probably the appropriate song to end on.
.