Re: "the white tent, the raft"

Steven, thank you for that!  Even tho I'd read that from the borders
site, it was eons ago, and it's nice to have that memory jump-started! 
It's amazing to feel all the things that songs make you feel, and then
to find out the artist intended what you felt is such a wonderful
connection.  
Saw Jane in Chicago on the 11th.  Oh my.  Oh, my my my.  I took two
newbies with me, and they were teared up before the first few songs. 
She came out for the obligatory encore, and everyone started speaking
Jane songs they wanted to hear.  I read everyone's set lists, and
noticed that 'You don't need' hadn't been heard, so I asked for that. 
Well, first I shouted out 'Freebird', that made her laugh.  She looked
over at our table and said, "i don't know that one, what else do you
want to hear', and I said 'you don't need' and she did it!

thanks all, big love to you and safe holidays,
bent

>>> stephen wilson <[email protected]> 12/17/2004 11:02:26 AM >>>
Hi Bruce,
 
Funny, I was listening to that very song this morning! The old
dependable Warner Bros. vinyl LP, still going strong.
 I'm not very good at analyzing poetry, but maybe the white tent on the
raft is the self, a fragile home; and the movement of the leaves &
water/tears is downstream, going down. The clearings represent scenes
from memory - they are dreamlike. It's sad and autumnal though the music
itself seems to contradict those feelings.
There are some clues in the discography notes, from the 'No Borders'
website:

 
Jane's Notes:
this record was originally going to be called "Twillingate." I see it
as an autumn album, the blue of the cover too cool. really, it should
have been dark reds, burnt oranges, golds. more like "when i was a boy."
i recorded wrote the songs for this album in the basement where i
recorded my first record. (i also wrote "the speckless sky" there).
strings all around the little room with pages and pages of lyrics and
music drawings. when i think of certain songs i see in minute detail the
white-washed bricks on the wall so intently must i have been peering at
it while i heard music in my head. "the white tent the raft" took up a
whole wall. it was going to be around 35 minutes, i figured, each
clearing expanding into a new song until you almost forgot where it came
from and then side-stepping back at the last minute. there was a lot of
difficulty at this time and I had bad headaches. i was grateful for the
songs to lose myself into. 

Twillingate was a small town in Newfoundland that was the setting for
songs like Lena and Red High Heels. "first you go up the hill and then
you...." chipping red nail polish and new found love and goodbyes. My
sister told me a funny story about being in an elevator and wearing an
unusual hat. It became The Lobby. I couldn't remember her telling me.
People have to be careful what they say to me. My left brain doesn't
always know what my right brain is doing. The Bird In the Gravel - "I
don't mind when it's over, I don't mind when it's all done, it's just
the moments in between, just before it's gone." The crux of it. 


Steve W.


B Merrill <[email protected]> wrote:
Would anyone care to offer any thoughts as to what "the white tent,
the
raft" is about? The connection between this vision of a tent on a raft
in a
river, and the various passing scenarios that Jane sings about-- as
supplemented by the unsung text on the insert?
????

Has Jane ever volunteered anything about this song? It remains the
most
puzzling of her songs for me. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn
that
it came out of her dreamings. It also comes out of time of personal
distress & sorrow, I take it. 

The way that her current performances are described, it appears that
she's
in a happier time of life. 

ta ta,

Bruce

PS I gave away my copy of the Walking to a dear friend, last year. The
enforced absence will make it more thrilling when I,
eventually...........
hear it again! 
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