Song of the Week- "Waters of March"

[Aspiemom]

So S!mbells and I had so much fun with "U.B. Jesus" last week, that we're taking on a new difficult lyric this week. She picked "Waters of March." Here's a link to the video. Hope it works. [url][/urlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDborZdgxN4

My initial thought: The listener starts at a disadvantage from the beginning. Every line begins with a pronoun that lacks an antecedent. "It's a _____. [repeat]" What's "it's?" What are we singing about here? Are these ideas connected? Anyone who has a thought feel free to chime in.

This cover is half in English and half in Portugese. March strikes me as interesting too, as it's the month of the Equinox. It's the Spring Equinox for those of us in the north, and the Fall Equinox for those below the equator. So we're meeting in the middle, some of us headed toward spring and some toward fall; some of us singing English and some Portugese. The English lyrics discuss "the promise of spring."

[Aspiemom]

Can we run that again? This should be the YouTube link to the "Waters of March" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDborZdgxN4

[elbakan]

Yes, I'm in Australia, Melbourne. And your in Kansas? It would have to be Hollywood's most famous city - do you think?

Never heard of a city named "Kansas" Perhaps you are referring to the city named "Kansas City"! (Which is
a twin city between the states of Missouri (The Larger part) and Kansas).

[Aspiemom]

Mea maxima culpa, Simon. I meant no offense in assuming you were a woman or referring to your decades of experience. I have the social skills of a turnip.

I am only a few years younger than you are, and I have decades of experience listening to other bands, like ABBA. Yeah, really. But I'm new to David Byrne/Talking Heads, and it's kind of like having my own time machine. Here's the recording from 1977. Here's SMS from 1984. Here's Between the Teeth from 1994. David singing folk music in 2008. It's all basically new to me, as someone who wasted the 1980s listening to ABBA (and Air Supply, OMG- "He's lost in love; all hope is gone. . ."). So I'm interested in how my experience differs from those who listened to the music at the time it was released.

I'm very used to people assuming I live in Kansas. What genius decided to put Kansas City in Missouri? It causes needless confusion and always will. Anyway, Kansas City, Missouri is where the cool people live. And I live there too!

[Aspiemom]

This exchange reminds me of the people in "Self Made Man" who are "trying to figure out what sex we are." At least neither of us is "living in a dump," although K.C. is known as "fly over country" here, ala "The Big Country." And, no, that's not the Mississippi running through Kansas City, although I'm impressed that you looked. K.C. is divided north/south by the Missouri River, which runs across the state and empties into the Mississippi in St. Louis (Missouri). I Googled Melbourne and was greeted by a photo of an attractive young woman giving me a come hither look over her shoulder. Maybe my husband would be attracted by that marketing technique, but me not so much!

I'm not holding back on "Waters of March," but I'm a bit stumped. There's something dualist going on, I guess. Life/death, gun/water. I still like David's cover in two languages because of the cross-over of seasons at the Equinox- In our case, K.C. headed for Spring as Melbourne heads to fall. It reminds me of raising kids-- mine are heading for spring as I head for fall. Maybe the song is about accepting that kind of idea.

There are Waters of March in Kansas City. It's the oppressive snow finally melting. (Winter- I'm not a fan. It's cold, dark, and dangerous here. Temps drop well below zero Fahrenheit, about neg. 15 celcius?, for days at a time). There's mud all over the place now, and you can hear the drips joining and running down the gutters toward the Missouri River. Musically, the song echoes some of those sounds, I think.

[Aspiemom]

My initial thought: The listener starts at a disadvantage from the beginning. Every line begins with a pronoun that lacks an antecedent. "It's a _____. [repeat]" What's "it's?" What are we singing about here?

Oh, Coke is "it." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zFPcWsmH1g&feature=related

[Aspiemom]

I can see why jingle writers were attracted to this song. The meter is ridiculously easy to copy. Here's a poem about my day at work:

It's a trap; it's a trick;
It's a sin; It's a lie;
It's a corporate puppet with a spot on his tie.

You can make anything bounce and rhyme with this scheme. Somebody stop me!

I'm moving from the ridiculous Coke ad to the sublime Walt Whitman. The real lyric to "Waters of March" reminds me a bit of "Song of Myself," standard high school material but actually a difficult poem. Whitman seems to think he can transcend life, death, God, but it's still not clear to me how he planned to accomplish this. Near the end, Whitman writes "It is not chaos or death- It is form, union, plan- it is eternal life- it is Happiness." The Waters of March video also says "It is not death," although there certainly is a bunch of death imagery.

The earthquake aftermath looks awful. No one is ever safe, sadly. I fear for the people of Libya today too.

[Aspiemom]

I like your poem....very appropriate (well for my feelings about what Coke did to the song) but I'm not sure why it relates to your day at work. You potentially work in a corporate environment and maybe your not happy with a business direction??? Feel free to explain....

Okay, since you asked. I don't work for a corporation; I sue corporations. A lot of the corporate employees that I encounter face huge pressures to do things that are rotten. I hope to provide a counter-balance to those pressures, so that maybe some of them would be able to go to their bosses and say, "I'm sorry. We just can't do that. It's illegal." Hope springs eternal. Get it? "spring" like our song.

As for Middle Eastern tyrants, have you checked out "Here Lies Love?" Some people think that David went too easy on Imelda, but I think the work really damns her. Check out David's duet in "Seven Years" and tell me which of those characters is a saint. (As your literary mentor, I feel free to toss out assignments! You should choose your mentors more carefully.) Rationalization and denial color everyone's perceptions, probably, but they can really blind those with unchecked authority. That's why I think they hold on. I was shocked when Mubarak left, actually.

So, trying to segue back to our Song 'o the Week, I'm noticing that it's a very sensory lyric. Sound-words like drip, images like the sun, and that "sliver of glass" stick in my mind. Mindfulness, presence, awareness of nature might be a theme? Maybe there's a connection between 19th century transcendental thought and eastern Buddhism (mindfulness etc.) Or maybe I'm piling too much weight onto this little song.

What's the latest on the "Theory of Everything?" I've been waiting for the astrophysicists and the quantum physicists to figure that out for as long as I've been waiting for the flying car I was promised as a child. (I've given up on the flying car. Global warming, you know, who could justify that carbon footprint?) I do find the very small physics fascinating. I read a story last week that said there were more neural "connections" in every human brain than there were stars in the universe. Wonder how many of mine are grooving on Byrne's music.

[Aspiemom]

Okay, damning was too harsh a word. It's a fun album and a tour de force of collaboration!

Good idea to invite Buck's Student to suggests a song for next week. He had some interesting comments on "The Lady Don't Mind" video.

[Aspiemom]

Buck's Student proposed "Blind" from Naked. I was going to start a new post on it after I get the kids to bed- four hours and counting! Feel free to start it yourself if you get to it first.

[Aspiemom]

Re "Song of Myself" - its has 52 stanzas - it must reflect a year yeah?

Yes, that works with a lot of the themes of the poem about eternity, etc. Thanks.

I posted the Song of the Week, "Blind" under "Talking Heads," since it's from a TH album.

Nice weather down there, huh? We had wintry mix followed by 6 inches of snow. But it's melting again. Drip. Drop.