Re: SoJ/I, Week Five: "Bound by the Beauty" song by song 2thru6

I remember on the tour for this album Jane said the she wrote *The
Valley*about when she lived across the street from a halfway house and
she would
look down on the residents as they hung out and fed the Black Birds.  This
and that she used to read the scripture "The Lord is my shepherd..." to her
grandmother.  These are the two elements of this song.  I love it.

*The Life is the Red Wagon *- As this record came out at the same time that
I tested positive for HIV, I decided back then that this would be played at
my funeral.  I loved its message and thought it an inspirational way to send
my loved ones back onto their paths.  Twenty years later it is the song that
WAS going to be played at my funeral.  Maybe it still will be but not for
awhile, I'm confident.

By the way, our dog is named Rosy after the song *Hockey*.  Rosy is quite
shy and does not easily go to people.  When Jane was at our house, it was
sort of cool when she squatted down and tried to get Rosy to come to her by
saying ROSY much in the same way she does in the song.  I had to chuckle.

David

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 1:01 PM, [email protected] <
[email protected]> wrote:

> something about trains - my daughter just popped in and said "Oh, look...
> jane!  i love this cd - it reminds me of saturday cleaning days of my
> childhood - especially this song."  i will find my self sittling on the
> porch
> at night and this line will come to mind "something bout trains, and love,
> and
> the way this old earth looks tonight." it's inspiring even tho you can't
> find
> the one that you love, you keep moving on. golly. i just connect so deeply
> to
> these songs. it was an intense time for me. having just woke up and all.
>
> Hockey - very nice. i think of it all the time. "someone just got called
> for
> dinner." This whole cd for me paints such vivid pictures of just ordinary
> life
> - that turns out to be extraordinary in the telling. just because it IS.
>  "he
> might look out the window... or not"  and then not letting the sunday
> afternoons get away - which is when i struggle with depression - sunday
> blues.
> now i ride my bike on sunday afternoons.
>
> Everything reminds me of my dog:  one of my very most faves. because I have
> a
> dog you  see, and so often I will talk to him and wonder "what is it you
> want?
> look at it, do you want me to dial the number for you?"  so much in my
> everyday life will bring this song to mind. artists, golfers, old people.
>  it
> has excellent imagery.  i got to work after hearing this song on the way
> this
> morning, and my zen calender for the day seemed to match this song
> completely:
>
> "When a Zen monk writes the word  dew,  it is not to the natural phenomenon
> that he refers, but to direct revelation. Nothing concealed anywhere.
> Truth,
> revealed in all things. Buddha revealed in all things. Dharma revealed in
> all
> things. If you all just let the scales drop from your eyes, you realize
> that
> everything everywhere is filled with truth; everything everywhere is filled
> with Buddha; everything everywhere is to be appreciated! That is what the
> scroll of  dew  is hanging there to say." -   soko morinaGa
>
> which is to say that i think dogs = truth.  dogs reveal all things. truth
> is
> revealed in dogs, buddha is revealed thru dogs and everything everywhere is
> to
> be appreciated - just as dogs do. i'm going to far aren't i?
>
> The valley - wow, this songs brings a heavy sigh. it is so beautiful and
> yet
> reminds me of how often i find myself walking thru the shadows in that
> valley.
> i want to live in the hills! i really do. and yet, i do walk in such good
> company. so blessed. ...no wonder i fell for jane with this album. they are
> all so excellent.
>
> The life is the red wagon - this was initially my favorite track on the cd.
> because i needed so much pulling for me. i pulled sure, but it felt like
> mostly the other way around. my friend and i were divorcing our spouses at
> the
> same time and came to find ourselves living together with her 2 young boys,
> and my 2 young girls. how we survived that 78 days, i will never know, but
> i
> think it had something to do with this song.
>
> ..more tomorrow, unless y'all just tell me to be still.
>
>
> Tracy
>
> --- On Sun, 3/8/09, Michael Williams <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> From: Michael Williams <[email protected]>
> Subject: SoJ/I, Week Five: "Bound by the Beauty"
> To: "Siblings" <[email protected]>
> Date: Sunday, March 8, 2009, 1:36 PM
>
> Released in 1987, 10 tracks, including (what we thought was) the conclusion
> to
> the "Map of the World" song sequence, and the immortal
> "Hockey".
>
> "Hockey" is a perfect example of what i mentioned when i wrote about
> "The Walking" yesterday - jane draws a vivid picture not just of the
> scene at the hockey game, but also in just a couple of lines the
> boy-now-a-man
> speaking with his girlfriend, looking out the window, remembering the
> hockey
> games of his youth.
>
> when i wrote about one of the earlier albums i mentioned that i didn't
> think the whole of the album was greater than the sum of its parts. in case
> you
> couldn't tell, i think "The Walking" is much greater than the sum
> of its parts. as i re-listened to "Bound by the Beauty" yesterday i
> thought that as an album it's not as great as the sum of its parts ("la
> jalouse" has never done much for me, for example). but some of those parts
> are so beautiful that this was my favorite jane album for a time, and "the
> life is the red wagon" is probably one of my top three jane songs, if not
> my favorite.
>
> there's much more that can be written about this album - i look forward to
> your comments.