¤ milky moon ¤

When I heard divers wife I though she was maybe going lower with her voice this time round....um.
I love this song. Still prefer divers wife I think.
This rocks though.

claire wrote:I actually think that part of the song is really cheeky. Right before it starts, she says "the event lives only in print" and then the music becomes very simple and light, but sort of maudlin as she sings quotes from news stories about his death. And then the music builds back to something stronger and more emotional as she gets back into the philosophical themes of the song.

for reals? I think it's much more sombre than the section preceding. The whole "I fell, I tried to do well bit" is imo kind of silly in how it rhymes and the chords are very major and resolving. The section is pretty simple but not really light, and there's a lot of weight in what she's saying as she brings poetic beauty and philosophical significance to dry newspaper records.

I have to agree with Andrew - the previous section sounds more sort of... mocking, almost. The rhyming scheme and the rhythm, especially the "text will not yield, nor x-ray reveal with any fluorescence" bit evokes a sort of frantic, frustrated, gesticulating speculation, like one of the aforementioned scholars grappling with a tricky problem. And then, "It's all right, and it's all over now" kind of hushes it and calms it down.

Hi everyone!
I think it hasn't been mentioned here yet that Joanna quotes George Washington twice in her lyrics:

"If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God."

Source:
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/washi ... dvice.html

aha! another source to scour!

thank you

Oooh. This song seems to be pretty political, what with all the... political references and all.

Jordan~ wrote:This song seems to be pretty political.

My thoughts exactly. Is it just a coincidence that she performed this song for the first time less than a month before presidential elections?


Also the words of George Washington are a clue to another Manhattan location described in the song. It is Washington Square Park.

Before the Washington square was built in 1826, the area was used as a burial ground. The north side was a German cemetery, while the south side was a potter's field. A potter's field or common grave is an American term for a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people. The expression derives from the Bible, referring to a field used for the extraction of potter's clay, which was useless for agriculture but could be used as a burial site.

Between 1829 and 1833, a row of houses were built at the North side of the square. The prestigious houses, built of red Brick in Flemish bond in Greek revival style, became known as 'The Row'. The entrances are flanked by Ionic and Doric columns and have marble balustrades.

In 1826 the City bought the land west of the Minetta, the square was laid out and leveled, and it was turned into the Washington Military Parade Ground. Military parade grounds were public spaces specified by the City where volunteer militia companies responsible for the nation's defense would train.

In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration as president of the United States, a large plaster and wood Memorial Arch was erected over Fifth Avenue just north of the park. The temporary plaster and wood arch was so popular that in 1892 a permanent Tuckahoe marble arch, designed by the New York architect Stanford White, was erected, standing 77 feet (23 m). During the excavations for the eastern leg of the arch, human remains, a coffin and a gravestone dated 1803 were uncovered 10 feet (3 m) below ground level.

The inscription on the arch reads:

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God. — Washington



Sources:
http://www.aviewoncities.com/nyc/washingtonsquare.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Square_Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter%27s_field

Thank you so much for all this information!

It turns out John Purroy Mitchel is not the only John in this amazing song. There is also John Milton.
Here is a quote from his tractate "Of Education":
Inflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.

The words of Milton are inscribed around top of a small monument in McCarthy Square, Greenwich Village, Manhattan:
"BRAVE MEN AND WORTH / PATRIOTS DEAR TO / GOD AND FAMOUS / TO ALL AGES"

The text on the plaque which is placed on the front of the monument is a little bit different. It reads:
"BRAVE MEN, WOMEN AND WORTHY PATRIOTS DEAR TO GOD AND FAMOUS TO ALL AGES".

Here is some information from the site NYC Parks:
The City Council named the site in memory of Private First Class Bernard Joseph McCarthy, who was born and raised in Greenwich Village. A Marine, McCarthy was killed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in August 1942 at the age of twenty-two. His was the first reported death of a Greenwich Village resident in the war.



Sources:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/readin ... ndex.shtml
http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/mccart ... uments/998
http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/mccarthysquare/history

Wow. I guess she's been spending a lot of time in NYC's parks, huh?

Jordan~ wrote:Wow. I guess she's been spending a lot of time in NYC's parks, huh?

Yes, but why? Let's follow the clues she left us:
Spending time in NYC Parks
For Ys she collaborated with Van Dyke Parks.
Whose rare name is shared with Dick Van Dyke.
And another place to find a dick is a Dick in a Box

So there you have it.

</sleepy silliness>

andrewb wrote:

Jordan~ wrote:Wow. I guess she's been spending a lot of time in NYC's parks, huh?

Yes, but why? Let's follow the clues she left us:
Spending time in NYC Parks
For Ys she collaborated with Van Dyke Parks.
Whose rare name is shared with Dick Van Dyke.
And another place to find a dick is a Dick in a Box

So there you have it.

</sleepy silliness>

So the clues point to ... Andy Samberg. What a terrible treasure hunt! Giving us information we already knew!

hmmm methinks the order is exactly backwards there, it starts with Andy(as i can guess he has led her happily through long walks in the parks, and ends exactly there...all that they offer and history too...because to take that all in is to sense the fragilty of those that make these histories?

John Purroy Mitchel was the mayor of New York from 1914 to 1917. At age 34 he was the second-youngest ever; he is sometimes referred to as "The Boy Mayor of New York."

Guess how old Andy is.

Alex Ysoltsev wrote:John Purroy Mitchel was the mayor of New York from 1914 to 1917. At age 34 he was the second-youngest ever; he is sometimes referred to as "The Boy Mayor of New York."

Guess how old Andy is.

Clearly this runs deeper than we know...

I think there is a huge chance that these two monuments in Central Park were the source of inspiration for the song as well.

Cleopatra's Needle

It is an Ancient Egyptian obelisk which actually has nothing to do with Cleopatra (it is just its popular name) as it was erected on the orders of Thutmose III around 1450 BC (a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty; Ramesses II, also known as Ozymandias, was a Pharaoh of the Ninteenth dynasty).

The Indian Hunter


I guess these two monuments could remind Joanna about poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Horace Smith and hence the idea of the song was born.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra%27s_Needle
http://centralpark.org/index.php/2010/0 ... tral-park/
http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/centra ... uments/769

"Cleopatra's Needle" in Central Park is one of a pair - the other is on the Victoria Embankment by the Thames in London. Both are ancient Egyptian artefacts, but they do not in fact commemorate Cleopatra.

"Cleopatra's Needle" in Central Park is one of a pair

Actually, there is also the third one in Paris at the Place de la Concorde.

I've been to all three