Nightingale

Judy Collins is best known for covering songs. Her voice isn't great, but her arrangements were spectacular, and I often forget that she could write a pretty good song herself. Her 1970 release "Whales and Nightingales" included this beautiful "Nightingale" song in two versions, one sung with the lyrics below and the other a very nice instrumental arrangement. (I can't get YouTubes to embed today, so I'm linking.)


Jacob’s heart bent with fear, like a bow with death for its arrow;
In vain he searched for the final truth, to set his soul free of doubt.

Over the mountains he walked, with his head bent searching for reasons;
Then he called out to God for help, and climbed to the top of a hill.
Wind swept the sunlight through the wheat fields,
In the orchard the nightingale sang,
While the plums that she broke with her brown beak,
Tomorrow would turn into songs.
Then she flew up through the rain, with the sun silver bright on her feathers,
Jacob put back his frowns and sighed and walked back down the hill:
"God doesn’t answer me, and He never will."

"Albatross" is a well-written and well-arranged song, too:

on

7 comments:

  1. David Foster1:10 PM

    I really like 'Albatross'....back in 2011, I posted a thread to discuss the possible meaning of the lyrics:

    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/20197.html

    (AVI thought booze & drugs were probably a primary influence)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Grim7:56 PM

    I think I fixed the code. In general, you have to switch from "Compose Mode" to "HTML Mode" and then drop the YouTube embed links. Then when you switch back to "Compose Mode," you should see the video box.

    An alternative way to do it is to go to top, where there's an "Insert Video" button. Clicking that gives you the option of YouTube on a dropdown menu, which opens a new window that allows you to click on "Search" at the top, and then there is a search bar that lets you search YouTube for the video you wanted.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Texan9910:50 PM

    Aha! I must remember that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. J Melcher10:46 AM

    I made the mistake of reading Judy Collin's auto-biography. She (and, I presume, her ghost writer) present her as a talent with a terrible character. All the personal detritus in the wake of her ascent ... no doubt typical of the industry but distasteful all the same.

    As a general lesson:
    If you want to enjoy the magic, don't look behind the curtain.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Texan993:12 PM

    Even when I was a teenager enjoying her music, I found her autobiographical notes whiny. Everything was always someone else's fault, never anything to do with her inability to make and keep commitments.

    ReplyDelete
  6. james8:08 PM

    Is there a special term for "impressionist" poetry that doesn't have a narrative or clear meaning?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Texan9911:34 AM

    No idea, but I'd definitely call these lyrics, like many pop lyrics, dreamy and allusive. I'm not sure they're up to being parsed out. There's lots of imaginative longing and frustration, very left-brain.

    ReplyDelete