I Have to Go, But I'll Be Back
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Wifey, kids and I are heading out for almost a week, so my musicological intercourse with all of you will be totally reduced until that's over with. To placate you, I'll share a song ivylander passed onto me without comment last year, "Darlin' Wait for Me" composed and sung by Richard Hawley from his 2005 CD Cole's Corner. The singing, melody and arrangement are all perfectly fine. Because it's so simple musically, my attention wandered to the lyrics. On the surface they're simple, but complications lurk. I transcribed them:
"Darling wait for me by your gate in the evening light. I just can't wait. For I have to go morning too soon, so honey don't you cry; I'll be back here soon. So think of me when you feel that moon. All it calls to me as it calls to you. Darling wait for me. I'll be home then when the autumn leaves bring me back again. Darling wait for me. Darling please wait till the evening light by a starlit gate. So think of me when you feel that moon. All it calls to me as it calls to you. That's all I ask of you all, I ask 'til I hold your hand there'll be peace at last. Don't wait up 'til it's dark. All the lonely hours that we're apart. Darling please darling please darling please darling please."
First he tells her to wait, but he can't wait. Does he then say, "I have to go morning too soon"? Odd syntax but perhaps understandable that he would be upset enough at that moment to have a hard time with syntax. "Feel that moon" must be about understanding symbolism, not about her skin sensing heat from reflected light. Maybe I mis-transcribed "All it calls." Oh well. Next he tells her that the autumn leaves, not she, will be prime movers of his return and its timing. He goes on to say that she has to wait outside until it gets dark. Are we talking hours? What if it's cold? When he says, "That's all I ask of you, I ask 'til I hold your hand there'll be peace at last." First of all, he's asked her to do lots of different things, not just hold hands and bring peace, and I bet he meant to say that there will be peace after he holds her hand, not until. Finally, after having asked her to wait up 'til it's dark, he now tells her not to wait up 'til it's dark. The final "darling please"s may indicate that he realizes that she realizes that he's mentally ill, and that she's backing away from him, hoping to make a quick getaway.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (11)
Hello, I must be going.
I came to say
I cannot stay
I must be going...
Have a safe journey. We'll be waiting for more musical news.
Annieander, thank you. Sometimes musical news is the best kind of news, right?
Ab-sive-tively
Spike, your deconstruction of the lyric is positively Talmudic. I think.
We shall miss you, but knowing that it is only for a week makes us brave.
You leave us with a veritable Hawley exegesis. Have fun, and we'll catch you on the flip side!
Spike, i am only today reading your momentary farewell; or your BBIAB, to the internet generation. first off, the choice of Richard Hawley - oh, you must come back. secondly, the lyrics - vampire love? i'm kidding - i don't think writers ever add or miss a punctuation mark unknowingly so the syntax has got to mean something. lastly, did you say where you were going? nevertheless, we will be expecting your safe return. (:
poebegone, does your avatar show you commenting on this post to moi? No way! I don't even know what BBIAB stands for, but now have to.
Vampire love may be the key here; thank you for making sense of it.
We went to Cabo San Lucas. I was hoping that I'd have the opportunity to see if the "Italian" restaurant which was the subject of my 5/17/08 post (http://mog.com/Spike/blog_post/161785#write-comment) was still all Pavarotti-singing-Italian-arias all the time, but it was too far away from where we were this time.
Spike, vampire love is my explanation to a lot of songs, including The Platters' Twilight Time, so i would not trust me on that. :}
that's me writing on one of my many travel journals you're seeing in my avatar. yes, before there were blogs, i was a diarist at heart, and with MOG, made an electronic addition to these journals. i do it less now - i was missing life while busy writing about life. and anyway, travel - mine and anyone else's - always excites me.
BBIAB = be back in a bit. a piece of the ever-evolving internet jargon.
poebegone, your life on the other side of the planet must have its excitingly vivid moments that beg you to put them into words. Eons from now, people will be glad that you took a momentary pause from the fast lane to immortalize them onto paper.
Spike, what a very nice thing to say. although i think you have me mistaken for someone interesting. ;d indeed, today's paper is tomorrow's fossil, and my diaries would threaten any museum's reputation!