Last Monday I got a CD that I’d ordered on eBay. I put it aside, as I had a lot of work to do before leaving for Canada on Thursday for a family event (which I started a thread about in MPSIMS).
Anyway, the CD made it into the box of music for the trip, and I put it into the CD player a few hours away from home. Waited for my favorite song on the CD to come around. Listened closely to the lyrics. And cried.
Paul Simon wrote “American Tune” in 1973, but it means so much more in 2001. Go to the site and read the lyrics. Or get out the albums There Goes Rhymin’ Simon or Greatest Hits, Etc. and give it a listen.
Friends, the flags may be flying at half-staff, but they’re still flying.
Hmmm, 41 views and no replies . . . guess Mr. S. and I are the only ones who found this song extremely moving. And to think that I couldn’t wait to return from my trip and share this with everyone, someone . . .
Everyone feels what they feel, and that’s OK, but still . . .
Scarlett, take heart – I just came across this thread and I love the song (see new sig). I don’t have it on an album (just an old recorded cassette somewhere at home), so I just scoured the internet for it. It’s downloading as I type. Apparently there’s a Willie Nelson version of it, too.
Thanks for reminding me of “American Tune”… [ul]**And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered.
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease.
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered,
or driven to its knees.
Ah, but it’s all right. It’s all right.
For we’ve lived so well so long.
Still, when I think of the road we’re travelin’ on,
I wonder what’s gone wrong.
I can’t help but wonder what’s gone wrong.
And I dreamed I was dying.
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly,
and looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly.
And I dreamed I was flying,
and high up above my eyes could clearly see
the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea.
And I dreamed I was flying.[/ul]**
I’ve been listening to a few different things over the last week (other than the obvious patriotic fare) that have touched me in ways that they didn’t before:
Billy Joel’s “Summer Highland Falls”: just a couple of lines that hit home…[ul]Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity,
our reason coexists with our insanity.
And though we choose between reality and madness
it’s either sadness or euphoria.[/ul]
Billy Joel’s “Miami 2017”: the lyrics for this one are kind of chilling…[ul]I seen the lights go out Broadway,
I saw the Empire State laid low…[/ul]
Beth Neilsen Chapman’s “Sand and Water”: ER fans should remember this one from last season. A sad song about the death of her husband. It captures the pain that the victims’ families must be experiencing, and includes the line:[ul]Stone is just sand and water, baby,
Sand and water and a million years gone by[/ul]
And, of course, Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind”: yeah, that’s why we love the place…
I’d love to know what other people have been listening a little more carefully to over the past week…
Wonderful song, that. I’m planning on playing it at an open mike night tomorrow. It can bring tears to my eyes on an average day… needless to say it’s quite an emotional song after current events.
Some friends invited my wife and me to a candle lighting memorial on Friday, and a man played the piano and sang that song. I cried, my wife cried, the whole damn place cried. Of course, at that point we were all wrecks anyway. Afterward many folks were discussing how well that song fit the situation.
Thanks, everyone. It just made me sad to think I was alone in this feeling. I’m glad to hear that others have been affected the same way. It makes me feel less alone, here at home, working by myself.
But I’m working, if very slowly. I feel good about that. It’s my first real work in a week.
Paul, I’m a Billy Joel fan myself, and I did think of “Miami 2017” sometime in that first day or so. Can’t listen to it yet, though, I don’t think. Ditto “Summer, Highland Falls,” one of my favorites. Music has always been an emotional trigger for me. I love to sing (and I’m told I’m good), but I have never been able to sing at funerals. It’s too much.
I would really love to be there next time Joel performs Miami 2017 or New York State of Mind in concert. I’d suggest a “Miami 2001” tribute version, ala Candle in the Wind, but I just don’t think it would be an appropriate enough message.
