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| The Pollyanic Allegoric Perception of Left In The Dark | |
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pidunk 06:24 am UTC 05/17/07 |
I heard Jim describe this song in an interview, discussing that he was nervous throughout the recording, and crying. This was that Australian Radio interview mentioned previously. In 1981, at this public setting, this is what he had to say about it. One could wonder, why would he be nervous about it and why would he be crying through it? Theatrics? Well, the song's story does lend itself to be sung by a man crying. And what else? Did the story of the song have other meanings to him, that helped the tears, or brought the tears, that managed to have been well enough consistent with the story? The character in the song is bereft at the loss of his wife, for the evening to another man, and he asks alot of scathing questions. Jim in the radio interview said he wanted to get the raw emotions of jealousy out into the open, to just let that jealousy pour out. What parallels existed, that made Jim think about jealousy? And in this scenario, he indicates to his wife, this character, that since she has returned, he just wants love from her, and needs to know nothing else. This is where a resignation comes, referred to by tealcyfre. There is alot of pain in the song. But there is also something else. There is the 1987 statement about it too. The thing that Jim said that was not on the radio, that was not on any interview per se, that was the part of the song that he said mattered the most. He wanted to write the line, "I know that you love me." And he wanted to find a way he could work it into a song, and he wrote this song, in which it was not a sugary sweet unwounded setting, and it was not a reprisal setting, and it was not a hearts and flowers setting. "I know that you love me" is the line he wanted to build everything else around. But, it is such a big song, isn't it? Sometimes that is the most that matters to me, and I could mention one example when I had to leave town suddenly after Jim and I had spent the better part of that year seeing each other frequently, and I had the airport van at the door. Just then, Jim phoned me and I told him of the flight that had been hurriedly arranged, and told him the van is there, and asked him, "You do know that I love you, don't you?" And he said, "Yes." We agreed I'd call him when I landed and I did. Jim and I have had our issues but as long as I know he knows I love him, somehow, that's all that I need, when there is nothing else. It is apparently important to him, as well. Well, the song is large, and it was hard to listen to at first but then I realized it fit into a larger context of the entire album. I feel that there is an entire allegoric set upon which the song meaning can be derived. I know I keep looking for that, and I have found a few pieces of it. I've said elsewhere that Jim's songs carry alot of meaning to me, and sometimes I find more than I expected. What is usually true of Jim, is that he has a complexity in his thoughts that I could only hope to figure out if I think of the right context. But I am a Pollyana, indeed. | |
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