This is the latest installment of quotes and words that move me for the weekend of 8/24/13 (Volume 45). I hope you enjoy them too. Have a favorite? Dislike one? Make you think of a song? Feel free to share in the comments–your thoughts and video links are always welcome.
And now for something a little different … all words this week’s extended edition are lyrics–except for the Cruz poem–brought to life by fingers strumming just a few little strings on a hollowed-out wooden box. Ah, if it were only so simple, right? If you are a music lover, this should light your fire; if you are a lover of words, the lyrics should make your soul shine. If you are neither, well, you may just want to turn the page. “Words for the Weekend” will be back in a couple of weeks, but in the interim, enjoy the extended playlist and free downloads, and as always, check out the Weekend Words’ Archives if you need a music, quote or poetry fix… ~ Love, Christy
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“I’m moving on alone over ground that no one owns
Past statues that atone for my sins
There’s a guard on every door
And a drink on every floor
Overflowing with a thousand amens
And it’s hard to say
Who you are these days
But you run on anyway
Don’t you baby?
You keep running for another place
To find that saving grace
Don’t you baby?”
~ “Saving Grace” performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from “Highway Companion.” VIDEO.
*
Alternate song: “Two Step” performed by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds from “The Lost Acoustics,” VIDEO. (This is my favorite Dave & Tim performance; Dave is a man possessed, especially toward the end. Forget Sally, I’ll have what he’s having.)
“Hey my love do you believe that we
Might last a thousand years
Or more if not for this,
Our flesh and blood
It ties you and me right up
Tie me down
Celebrate we will
Because life is short but sweet for
Certain
We’re climbing two by two
To be sure these days continue
These things we cannot change”
*
“Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from my home
Freedom
Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone
A long, long, long, way, way from my home
Clap your hands
I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from my heart
I got a telephone in my bosom
And I can call him up from my heart”
Freedom by Richie Havens, “Music from the Original Soundtrack and More: Woodstock“
* Havens’ ashes were scattered over Woodstock on Sunday, August 18, 2013. Havens died of a heart attack last April. He was 72.
*
“Well my fall from grace was a sight to see
Good turned to bad and bad turned to misery
I found out what it is and what it’s not
And all I ask for sure ain’t what I got, no
Well I’ve been rained on, rode hard and put up wet
Danced with the devil ’til I’m in debt
Took all I got and there ain’t much left of me
I’ve been knocked down, drug out and left for dead
Barely held together by a few old threads
And I’m still here there ain’t much left to see, no
Well I’m still holding on and there ain’t much left of me”
Ain’t Much Left of Me by Blackberry Smoke* (performed live at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia), “The Whippoorwill“
*
I spent many a fun night at the Georgia Theatre.
image via redclaysoul.com
*
“You don’t have to prove
Your manhood to me constantly
I know you’re the man can’t you see
I love you righteously
Flirt with me, don’t keep hurtin’ me
Don’t cause me pain
Be my lover don’t play no game
Just play me John Coltrane”
Righteously by Lucinda Williams, “World Without Tears“
*
“Mysterious, blown in with the night
All this beauty captured in a frame
Visibly shaken, but never stirred
Drives them insane
I see the way she plays her men
And I know I’ve got to know her name
She’s so beautifully broken
Shaped by the wind
Dangerously twisted
Here I go again
She’s so beautifully broken
You can barely see the flaw
Especially from a distance
Which is always how I fall”
Beautifully Broken by Gov’t Mule, “Deep End“
*
“I’ve got ways to make you hear me
just by whispering your name
I’ve got ways to make you think
You’ll never be happy again
I’ve got ways to make you see
I’m so much better than before
I’ve got ways to make you swear
You won’t want your old life anymore
I’ve got lights you’ve never seen
I’ve got moves I’ve never used
I’ve got ways to make you come
Back to me”
Back to Me by Kathleen Edwards, “Back to Me“
*
“You’ve been looking for rhyme and reason.
The confusion is dragging you down.
You got lost in the chaos.
You got lost in the ashes and dust.
What you needed was someone to trust.
Hey, there’s a good light, shining in you. There’s a magic in your eyes.
Hey, there’s a good light, shining through, and I need it tonight.
We’re all stumbling through the darkness.
No one can stay there and still make it through.”
Good Light, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors*, “Good Light“
*
“There’s a whole lot of singing
That’s never gonna be heard
Disappearing every day
Without so much as a word
Somehow
I think I broke the wings
Off that little songbird
And she’s never gonna fly
To the top of the world now
To the top of the world”
Top of the World by Patty Griffin on “Impossible Dream“
*
“I was flattered but ambivalent
I was captive and I was spent
I was wounded the other day
But you
You couldn’t see me:
I’m really me
Of all the stories I’ve heard
The one with the injured bird
Seems to me most true
It seems to me most true”
Injured Bird by Michael Stipe and Vic Chesnutt on “The End of Violence Soundtrack“
Vic Chesnutt was from my college town of Athens, GA. A car accident in 1983 left Chesnutt partially paralyzed, and he died of a muscle relaxant overdose on December 25, 2009. Vic’s last album “At the Cut” included the song Flirted With You All My Life (video)–in an NPR interview, he said it was “suicide’s breakup song with death.” Vic’s live performance of Everything I Say (video) captures a style that was once referred to as “haunting, funny, poignant, and occasionally mystical, usually all at once.” I refer to his work simply as musical masterpiece:
*
“He deals the cards as a meditation
And those he plays never suspect
He doesn’t play for the money he wins
He don’t play for respect…
I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that’s not the shape of my heart”
Shape of My Heart performed by Sting and Dominic Miller on Miller’s “Shapes“
*
“If you see her, say hello, she might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring, is livin’ there, I hear
Say for me that I’m all right though things get kind of slow
She might think that I’ve forgotten her, don’t tell her it isn’t so…
Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past
I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast
If she’s passin’ back this way, I’m not that hard to find
Tell her she can look me up if she’s got the time.”
If You See Her (Say Hello) performed by Jeff Buckley “Live at Sin-é“
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“I don’t know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don’t know how you were inverted
No one alerted you
I look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
Look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps”
~ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” performed by George Harrison originally on “The White Album” VIDEO.
*
“Tell me is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin?
Telephone’s ringin’; it’s your second cousin
Is it the barmaid that’s smilin’ from the corner of her eye?
Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye.
Makes it kind of quiver down in the core
‘Cause you’re dreamin’ of them Saturdays that came before
And now you’re stumblin’
You’re stumblin’ onto the heart of Saturday night”
~ Looking For the Heart of Saturday Night by natural poet, and so so so very funny, Tom Waits. “The Heart of Saturday Night” (His spoken word intro about taking himself out for a date is not one you’ll soon forget. See I didn’t forget, Eeyore!)
*
A poem turned song, Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” (“Essential Leonard Cohen“) inspired by Rumi: “Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.”
Dedicated to my friend Mished-up:
“The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
You can add up the parts
but you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”
*
Two Guitars – by Victor Hernández Cruz
Two guitars were left in a room all alone
They sat on different corners of the parlor
In this solitude they started talking to each other
My strings are tight and full of tears
The man who plays me has no heart
I have seen it leave out of his mouth
I have seen it melt out of his eyes
It dives into the pores of the earth
When they squeeze me tight I bring
Down the angels who live off the chorus
The trios singing loosen organs
With melodious screwdrivers
Sentiment comes off the hinges
Because a song is a mountain put into
Words and landscape is the feeling that
Enters something so big in the harmony
We are always in danger of blowing up
With passion
The other guitar:
In 1944 New York
When the Trio Los Panchos started
With Mexican & Puerto Rican birds
I am the one that one of them held
Tight like a woman
Their throats gardenia gardens
An airport for dreams
I’ve been in theaters and cabarets
I played in an apartment on 102nd street
After a baptism pregnant with women
The men flirted and were offered
Chicken soup
Echoes came out of hallways as if from caves
Someone is opening the door now
The two guitars hushed and there was a
Resonance in the air like what is left by
The last chord of a bolero.
-
“Two Guitars” by Victor Hernández Cruz from Maraca: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2000.
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Playlist of featured music: HERE
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I was happy to see so many fans of The Civil Wars last weekend. If you’d like to hear more, you can download a free copy of their album “Live at Eddie’s Attic” via Noisetrade. They do a beautiful cover of Sade’s “No Ordinary Love” and the download is worth that one track alone.
Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors have a tour sampler, including Good Light and more artists, for free download too via Noisetrade: GOOD LIGHT TOUR COMPILATION
Download Blackberry Smoke‘s acoustic version of new single, Ain’t Much Left of Me, free via Noisetrade
To all those who offered love, support and personal stories this week, thank you. I love you all.
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