A Song I Wish I Could've Written

but that Jackson Browne was able to write at sixteen (16!)
It's These Days and it is one of those perfect songs for an autumn or winter day where you just kind of feel...like you don't know what to feel. Like one of those days. I guess I really listened to the lyrics for the first time today and they just struck me. I think it's the weather.

These Days

Well I've been out walking
I don't do that much talking these days
These days--
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
For you
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
It's so hard to risk another these days
These days--
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losing for so long

I'll keep on moving
Things are bound to be improving these days
One of these days--
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

Nico's version is the one I'm most familiar with and the one I personally like the best but the Jackson Browne and Gregg Allman versions sort of give off that autumnal melancholy vibe a little bit more.

Nico- These Days [download] buy it on iTunes


Jackson Browne- These Days [download] buy it on iTunes


Gregg Allman- These Days [download] buy it on iTunes



one in an occasional series

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Your Simply Amazing Stuck in My Head Song of the Day

so i was making a mix cd for hubby today and she wanted the Rihanna "Umbrella" song. anyway it reminded me and i must have listened to Mandy Moore's version of Umbrella for two hour straights, which made me start to cry, which made me want to listen to the song anymore. it really is a beautiful song and mandy moore has such a wonderful voice with a twinge of melancholy- i really do enjoy her

You had my heart
And we'll never be worlds apart
Maybe in magazines
But you'll still be my star
Baby cause in the Dark
You can see shiny Cars
That's when you need me there
With you I'll always share
Because...

When the sun shines
We'll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath
I'mma stick it out 'till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Told you we still have each other
You can stand under my Umbrella
You can stand under my Umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(Ella eh eh)

These fancy things,
Will never come in between
You're my entity
Here for Infinity
When the war has took it's part
When the world has dealt it's cards
If the hand is hard
Together we'll mend your heart
Because...

When the sun shines
We'll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath
I'mma stick it out 'till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Told you we still have each other
You can stand under my Umbrella

You can stand under my Umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)



Mandy Moore- Umbrella (mp3)

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Hi.

(the l.a. times had an article about a new web series quarterlife. and this was the only part that interested me because it kinda summed up what i've been going through but was maybe too verbose or melodramatic to express. but yeah it pretty much is me right now-plus the whole gender identity confusion, of course:)

The show is named for a recently defined phenomenon: the quarter-life crisis in which twentysomethings struggle with feelings of disappointment, longing, confusion, the sense that life is passing them by and that they will never get to do or have what they want, if they could only work out what that is.

yup.

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Kind Of What My Mind Feels Like Right Now

Joan Miró. Harlequin's Carnival. 1924-25. Oil on canvas. 66 x 93 cm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery

"Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish that man would go away."
Hughes Mearns (1875-1965)

you gotta love your family. the only people in your life who can constantly and consistently make you feel horrible. and of course you can never say goodbye

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A Song I Wish I Could've Written

and even if I don't have anyone right now who would obviously have inspired this, I'm sure in the future there will be another who makes me feel this way though the lyrics are universal and seem to fit me and my actions too often and....yeah... all you should know is joni mitchell, quite simply, is my goddess.

Woman of Heart and Mind

I am a woman of heart and mind
With time on her hands
No child to raise
You come to me like a little boy
And I give you my scorn and my praise

You think I'm like your mother
Or another lover or your sister
Or the queen of your dreams
Or just another silly girl
When love makes a fool of me

After the rush when you come back down
You're always disappointed
Nothing seems to keep you high
Drive your bargains
Push your papers
Win your medals
Fuck your strangers
Don't it leave you on the empty side

I'm looking for affection and respect
A little passion
And you want stimulation-nothing more
That's what I think
But you know I'll try to be there for you
When your spirits start to sink

All this talk about holiness now
It must be the start of the latest style
Is it all books and words
Or do you really feel it?
Do you really laugh?
Do you really care?
Do you really smile
When you smile?

You criticize and you flatter
You imitate the best
And the rest you memorize
You know the times you impress me most
Are the times when you don't try
When you don't even try

Joni Mitchell- Woman of Heart and Mind (live) [download] buy Miles of Aisles

(another in an occasional series)

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A Song I Wish I Could've Written

because this is what I'm feeling right now.
Yeah I haven't been having the best couple of days lately, and the cold in the air is probably beginning to affect me but maybe it's why this song sums up how I feel right now, except for the true love part- I've never had one. If I'm ever able to write anything half as good as this I could gladly die.
Anyway it is a most beautiful song by Janis Ian, a song whose title I'm sure must have been inspired by the movie:

Tea & Sympathy

I don't want to ride the milk train anymore
I'll go to bed at nine and waken with the dawn
And lunch at half past noon and dinner prompt at five
The comfort of a few old friends long past their prime

Pass the tea and sympathy for the good old days long gone
We'll drink a toast to those who most believe in what they've won
It's a long, long time 'til morning plays wasted on the dawn
And I'll not write another line, for my true love is gone

When the guests have gone, I'll tidy up the rooms
And turn the covers down, and gazing at the moon
Will pray to go quite mad and live in long ago
When you and I were one, so very long ago

Pass the tea and sympathy for the good old days long gone
We'll drink a toast to those who most believe in what they've won
It's a long, long time 'til morning plays wasted on the dawn
And I'll not write another line, for my true love is gone

When I have no dreams to give you anymore
I'll light a blazing fire and wait within the door
And throw my life away, "I wonder why?" they all will say
And now I lay me down to sleep, forever and a day

Pass the tea and sympathy, for the good old days are dead
Let's drink a toast to those who best survived the life they've led
It's a long, long time 'til morning, so build your fires high
Now I lay me down to sleep, forever by your side.

lyrics from Janis Ian.com

Janis Ian- Tea & Sympathy (mp3) buy Between the Lines

(second in an occasional series)

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A Song I Wish I Could've Written

(y'know but I would have the appropriate pronouns to reflect my chosen gender)

Of course maybe I would be able to write such a song if I too were a Rhodes Scholar outlaw poet Country Singer cum actor who's lived a wanderin' rough life. But it is a song full of emotions and images that I'm sure everyone feels they can relate to at some point in their life. (or maybe that kind of solitary drifter life still has some kind of romantic appeal, at least to me.) No matter- It's The Pilgrim, Chapter 33 from Kris Kristofferson's second album The Silver Tongued Devil and I:

See him wasted on the sidewalk in his jacket and his jeans,
Wearin' yesterday's misfortunes like a smile--
Once he had a future full of money, love, and dreams,
Which he spent like they was goin' outa style--
And he keeps right on a'changin' for the better or the worse,
Searchin' for a shrine he's never found--
Never knowin' if believin' is a blessin' or a curse,
Or if the goin' up was worth the comin' down--

CHORUS:
He's a poet, he's a picker--
He's a prophet, he's a pusher--
He's a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned--
He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,
Takin' ev'ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.

He has tasted good and evil in your bedrooms and your bars,
And he's traded in tomorrow for today--
Runnin' from his devils, Lord, and reachin' for the stars,
And losin' all he's loved along the way--
But if this world keeps right on turnin' for the better or the worse,
And all he ever gets is older and around--
From the rockin' of the cradle to the rollin' of the hearse,
The goin' up was worth the comin' down--

He's a poet, he's a picker--
He's a prophet, he's a pusher--
He's a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned--
He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,
Takin' ev'ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.
There's a lotta wrong directions on that lonely way back home.

Kris Kristofferson- The Pilgrim, Chapter 33 (mp3) buy The Silver Tongued Devil and I

(first in an occasional series, maaaaaybe)

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