Songs

'Friday night running, to Sunday on my knees' - U2

This sentence applies more literally to me perhaps than in the song=p. Running on Friday night, and kneeling on the church pews on Sunday.

It's an exceptionally slow Sunday which is how Sundays should be, and for so long I haven't had the pleasure of really waking up late and wandering through Sunday with nothing really compelling to do.

The choir surprised us today with beautiful rendition of Pan De Vida, in Spanish of course, porque dios es amor! And, because it was the reading of the prodigal son, there was also Amazing Grace which is many people's nicest non-Christmas hymn.

And because Sunday is family day, and Mom was away in Indonesia for class reunion, dad lapsed into bard mode.

About how the prodigal son moved him to Christianity above Buddhism. I guess this philosophy is rather unique, one which removes notions of justice, and righteousness, and more to love and mercy. a devolvement of power from the government to the province of the heart.

it doesn't make sense. how can i do something wrong and expect to be forgiven, with no bad consequences? what's to stop me from sinning again. well, many times, i don't. but in that way it does move the motivation to the individual. not to sin for the sake of not sinning.

i don't really like the word sin because it implies something so cast in stone and so wrong, when most of the time we're moving in shadow. the church can be rather rigid at times. dad told me of aunt who got pregnant before marriage and had a child out of wedlock, and when she wanted to have a catholic marriage with that guy, the church didn't allow it, and she decided that the church was bullshit. It very well could be, and in Europe, only half of them go to church so maybe it's all boiling down to the individual now.

No shame about it but less choirs, no more majestic cathedrals and holding hands during our Father. That is probably what Church is good for, this sense of home. But it is very difficult for people who do not belong. Although catholicism has moderated much in the past decades and is generally very genial and accepting.

It's the songs of the Beat era which hold so much appeal. I think poetry is very much dying now because of the advent of popular lyricised songs on record, and there isn't need for much sentimentalism. Okay I still see a poetry column in FT but even then it's a 1950's one. The BBC poets, Auden, MacNiece, Hughes gave way to a new generation in the West, maybe inspired by Kerouac more in lifestyle than in style.

And the next generation, Dylan, Lennon/McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, Cohen all can be considered poets in their own right, and perhaps that wave has already passed so we have to turn to them for music of a certain sort.

Both Sides, Now
Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons ev�rywhere
I�ve looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on ev�ryone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I�ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It�s cloud illusions I recall
I really don�t know clouds at all

Moons and junes and ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As ev�ry fairy tale comes real
I�ve looked at love that way

But now it�s just another show
You leave �em laughing when you go
And if you care, don�t let them know
Don�t give yourself away

I�ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It�s love�s illusions I recall
I really don�t know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I�ve looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I�ve changed
Well something�s lost, but something�s gained
In living ev�ry day

I�ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It�s life�s illusions I recall
I really don�t know life at all
I�ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It�s life�s illusions I recall
I really don�t know life at all

J. Mitchell


P.S Was she the girl who sang the Blues in "American Pie'?