And the seasons they go round and round
Thursday, June 21st, 2007“And the seasons they go round and round”
Solstice again
The spreading flood of light once more crests
About to fold back on itself
Narrowing to the tiny pool of damp and bitter Winter
But though the light has spent its gasp
The heat will spread a little longer
And those of us with lightness in our hearts
Can frolic for a season in this day’s afterglow
“And the painted ponies go round and round”
I’ve been listening to Joni Mitchell’s tribute album. There are some interesting performances, especially Bjork’s, which approaches the Boho Dance from such a different direction that I now appreciate a new dimension to the lyrics. With the original, Joni suggests a resignation toward the subject, that character who cannot step outside the boho dance, and the focus for me was the general contrast between the consumer/voyeur and the creator. Bjork makes it so much more personal — she expresses a passionate dislike for that constrained character, and by extension, the whole art-shilling dance.
Jame’s Taylor’s song is also touching. He’s the only one who seems free to take his tribute, The River, and simply toss it off in his own voice as if it were an old standard. Thus it is refreshingly free of the agonized artifice and self-conscious striving of some of the others.
The album is still in heavy rotation in my house, primarily because it serves as an echo of Joni and her original versions, which are virtually unchallenged in the potency of their impression. The tribute is an afterglow of Joni Mitchell in her prime.
“We’re captive on the carousel of time”
Joni came into my life just as I first ventured into life itself. Court and Spark carried me through my first love. I was a naive puppy, and she sang to me of richer possibilities — sensuality augmented with intelligence and sophistication, yet still purely naked in her vulnerability.
As a musician, I was just beginning to perform in public. Her startling originality, wandering free of the conventions of functional harmony, her phrasing that honoured her words and meaning over the stricture of the four square beat: all these impressed me deeply, as I sought to find comfort under the gaze of my little audience. To this day, I seek out music that follows its own integrity over that of the current convention.
“We can’t return, we can only look behind from where we came”
And even here, building software day after day, year after year, an echo of idealist youth seeps through. At 2Paths, I really value the team, a diverse collection of brilliant and eccentric misfits, who contribute in their various idiosyncratic ways to develop high quality software. Its the people that make this more than just a boho dance.
“And go round and round and round in the circle game.”