Tom Paxton’s “Jimmy Newman” about a Vietnam Solider
Get up Jimmy Newman, the morning has come
The engines are rumbling, the coffee’s all brewed
Get up Jimmy Newman, there’s work to be done
And why do you lie there still sleeping?
<snip>
It’s stateside for us, Jim, the folks may not know.
We’ll let it be such a surprise
They’ll loading us next, Jim, we’re ready to go
And why do you lie there still sleeping?
<snip>
A joke is a joke, but there’s nothing to gain
Jim, I’d slap you but I’m too weak to rise.
Get up, dammit Jimmy, you’re missing the plane
And you’d only to open your eyes.
With the Grateful Dead mentions, you guys missed Black Peter, which never fails to choke me up. Especially this part:
*
Just want to have
a little peace to die
and a friend or two
I love at hand *
So here’s to useless superannuation
And us old relics of the days of steam.
In the morning, Lord, I would prefer
When men with torches come for her,
Let angels come for me.
You know which one always got to me? **Seasons in the Sun ** by Terry Jacks. That poor little boy.
Oh, and to give this post some validity, **Streets of Heaven ** by Sherrie Austin.
And **Bang the Drum Slowly ** by Emmylou Harris.
The McGarrigle Hour album features Dig My Grave.
Go and dig my grave
Both long and narrow
Make my coffin
Neat and strong
It’s two two to my head
And it’s two two to my feet
It’s two two to carry me lord
Whenever I die
And the pre-finale of Les Miserables, with Jean Valjean, Fontine and Epinine:
Forgive me all my trespasses and take me to your glory/
To love another person is to see the face of God
Asie from some song with “Seasons” in the title by a guy (Jackson?) whose name I can’t remember, I love Leonard Cohen’s “Joan of Arc”
“And who are you?” she sterly spoke
To the one beneath the smoke.
“Why, I’m Fire” he replied
“And I love your solitude, I love your pride.”
“Then Fire, make your body cold.
I’m gonna give you mine to hold.”
Saying ths, she climbed inside
To be his one, to be his only bride.
I agree with the sound, that of a pop-punk-meets-70s-semiprog, but I sort of disagree with the hollowness. Sure, each individual song on the album seems hollow, but each of them seems to be written from the perspective of a different person who died. So not each of them will fully explore the concept of death and dying, but overall, the album does.
Speaking of death and the Stanley Brothers, Ralph Stanley’s a cappella version of “O Death” on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack is really haunting.
O, Death
O, Death
Won’t you spare me over til another year
Well what is this that I can’t see
With ice cold hands takin’ hold of me
James Dean in that Mercury ‘49
Junior Johnson (?) through the woods of Carolin’
Even Burt Reynolds in that black Trans-Am
All gonna meet up at the Cadillac Ranch.
I’d also nominate The Weaskerthans’ Past Due, which is the third and final piece of a series that build to this contemplation of death. Great stuff. I’ve put in line breaks to mimic how it’s sung: