That song from Paint Your Wagon:
Here? They? Who? Who does this silly thing? And why?
Is it explained in the play (or movie) or are we just supposed to go along and think, hey, Jack’s falling on Joe and Maria is whippin’ 'em both up?
Even for a Broadway play, this seems deranged.
Never seen the play, but in the movie, Partner(and I feel like I ought to know who plays him, but I’m not going to type an incorrect name so I won’t type any name at all) sings the song in question for no apparent reason. Seems like Lee Marvin’s character comments on his nice singing voice, and then they move on to discussing other things. It’s kind of a fun song, if not neccessarily logical, but it doesn’t add any depth to the plot.
Well, first off, the rain is Tess, not Jack. Second, it isn’t Pardner (Clint Eastwood) who sings it in the movie, it’s Rotten-Luck Willie (Harve Presnell)(who was also the only cast member who could really sing.)
[Ben and Pardner are walking through the mining camp]
Ben Rumson: Hi, Willy! How’re things goin’?
’Rotten Luck’ Willie: I ain’t won a hand in two weeks.
Ben Rumson: (to Pardner) They call him ‘Rotten Luck’ Willie. You couldn’t beat him with five aces.
Pardner: Oh, I don’t gamble.
Ben Rumson: Neither does he.
And it’s Mariah, not Maria. Mariah, like Mariah Carey.
I dunno, but I read somehwere that in Wyoming they just call the wind the wind. Or the damn wind. Or the goddamn wind.
The same people who say that Tony RockyHorror ate out Mia Wallace’s pussy, and that’s why Marcellus Wallace had him thrown through a little greenhouse, fucking up the way he talks.
Tess, is correct, but not this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Your_Wagon
I don’t don’t where the site I quoted got Jack from but no question the original spelled it Maria. And Joe is spelled Jo.
eBay has the original sheet music for Paint Your Wagon with that spelling.
Huh. I thought it was spelled Mariah.
Okay, never mind.
:o
Pardner, however, sings “I talk to the trees”
Also “I Still See Elisa” and “Gold Fever.” God, I love this movie.
It’s one of the many many philosophical paradoxes encoded into Paint Your Wagon that are designed to challenge the audience’s complacent assumptions regarding the nature of reality, ultimately breaking down the doors of perception and eliciting a transcendent state of consciousness.
In this case the key to the riddle is embedded in the following lyrics:
The song clearly specifies that wherever the singer is, for whatever reason, there are only three names available; those of rain, wind and fire. Therefore the question “Who are the persons referred to as ‘they?’” has no meaning ‘here’ (the location referred to in the song), since names would be necessary to identify them. This also explains why the singer characterizes himself as ‘lost,’ since he is in a place which itself has no name by definition; only names for rain, wind and fire.
Of course, his further insistence that “there ain’t no word but lonely” introduces another level of paradox, since the song obviously contains more than just the word ‘lonely.’ Or does it? Can a song and the complex emotional state it seeks to convey be characterized as a single ‘word’ in some sense? If so, then we are faced with the conundrum of a ‘word’ that contains an abstracted representation of itself within its own structure in an infinitely receding mirror-maze of semantics. We are asked to consider the intricate relationship between symbol and object; between the name and the thing named; between concept and communication. As Korzybski observed, the map is not the territory.
Correction: Pardner mangles “I Talk To The Trees.” etc. What Clint did can’t be defined as singing in any sane universe. Hell, even Lee Marvin and Ray Walston did a better job with “The Best Things In Life Are Dirty.” But then Ray was a seasoned Broadway star. He managed to carry Lee through it without too much trouble. As opposed to Lee’s solo number…<shudder>
Mr. Fenty: Horton, how did that bottle get in your pocket? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DRINKING HARD LIQUOR?
Horton: Well, since this afternoon. I know you don’t approve, Pop, but believe me, until you’ve had a good cigar and a shot of whiskey, you’re missing the second and third best things in life.
Rumson: Horton!
Pardner: Where’d you take him, Ben?
Elizabeth: Damn you, Ben Rumson. What are you going to teach this boy next? How to cheat at cards, or just physical education with one of Willie’s floozies?
Horton: That’s the best one, Pop!
Well… I don’t, for one. I just call it “the wind.”