Jesus, don't cry
You can rely on me, honey
You can combine anything you want
I'll be around
You were right about the stars
Each one is a setting sun
Tall buildings shake
Voices escape singing sad, sad songs
Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks
Bitter melodies, turning your orbit around
Don't cry
You can rely on me, honey
You can come by anytime you want
I'll be around
You were right about the stars
Each one is a burning sun
Tall buildings shake . . .
Voices whine
Skyscrapers are scraping together
Your voice is smoking
Last cigarettes are all you can get
Turning your orbit around
Our love
Our love
Our love is all we have
Our love
Our love is all of God's money
Everyone is a burning sun
~ Jeff Tweety & Jay Bennett
So yes, there's a reason I selected this song today. But if you thought that it was written about 9/11, you would be wrong. Appearing on Wilco's fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the song was written and recorded months before September 11, 2001. The album was scheduled for release on that exact date (strange coincidence) under Reprise Records, but Wilco was dropped from the label when Time Warner (Reprise's parent company) merged with AOL. Wilco subsequently offered the entire album on live stream from their website on September 18. After signing with Nonesuch Records in November, the album was released in April 2002. So even though "Jesus Etc." was released post-9/11, the song was written and recorded before that tragedy occurred. Of the coincidences, Jeff Tweedy said, "There were a lot of eerie echoes of 9/11 that I heard on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, maybe because some of the focus on that record was being introspective about America. I understand how people could hear that in it. I'm obviously very, very honored if anybody found any kind of consolation in that record, at that time or now."
Despite my love for Wilco, I chose a Norah Jones cover of the song for this post because I really love her version. I first heard it (with the duo Puss 'n Boots) from a video recorded at the 22nd annual Bridge School Benefit Concert in 2008. The Bridge School concerts, founded by Neil and Pegi Young, supported the Bridge School, which serves students with severe physical impairments and complex communication needs in Mountain View, California. Due to Live Nation taking too much of the money raised, last October saw the last of the concerts.
When we, as a nation, were inconsolable about the tragedy that we watched play out on our TV screens, the music industry tried to help us by offering music to soothe the soul and give us hope. But the suits at Clear Channel decided that it was in our best interest to be spared songs that might be considered insensitive. While the list was not an outright ban, but rather a suggestion of songs not to play, most of the songs would hardly be considered appropriate by any deejay with any sense at all. But also on the list were songs like Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" and John Lennon's "Imagine." I remember well the fallout from music fans against Clear Channel and the control they tried to place on free speech.
(If you think I might be trying to make a statement by putting certain names in bold print in this post, you get an A. And if you know what that statement is, A+.)
Not to ever take anything away from those who suffered from the 9/11 tragedy, I have often thought about our collective grieving over only certain acts of terrorism or mass murder and why there are not designated days to commemorate the lives lost in other tragic events, like those at Sandy Hook or Oklahoma City or the Boston Marathon. If the answer to my pondering is the sheer number of casualties from 9/11, then what about the approximately 1,620 people who die each day from cancer? I have been known to say, "There's no terrorist like cancer." Have we just accepted that cancer deaths are unavoidable and a natural occurrence? (And might we one day think the same about mass murders?) I would love to someday see a "war on cancer" that receives an equally passionate dialog (and funding) as the "war on terror" (an oxymoron if there ever was one).
Our love is all we have. Our love is all of God's money. Everyone is a burning sun. We rise, we burn in one another's lives, but eventually, we set. And in the end, we realize that our love was the most valuable thing we had to give or receive. It's that simple.
Never forget love.
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| Sunset on Islamorada 3/2016 |
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