Thursday, February 08, 2007

Rainy Day Music

It has turned from sun to rain in Awesome Part of the Country, which is yes, still awesome. I don't mind the rain. I hate driving in rain, but I like walking in the rain. I like being indoors as it taps expectantly against the window. It is the sound of waiting. It is as anticipatory as a pulsating heart, but can be as mollifying as an old song hummed underneath one's breath. It is the sound of breathing, slow then quick, sometimes rising to trembling crescendos. It is the sound of life itself.

So for a rainy day, some rainy day music by one of my favorite bands. The Jayhawks are one of America's best bands, and having spent much of this year with international students (I sometimes call them "the foreigners" but that sounds too xenophobic, although there is enough grad school drama involving them to make one xenophobic) I have become adamantly American. I think I spent most of college and law school being an Anglophile and grudging Francophone, watching BBC America and listening to Edith Piaf. It's funny how the tides turn--how rebellion turns on itself. Just as I'm now a better daughter/sister/aunt than I ever could have been ten years ago, I now have more pride in my American culture than I did as a punkass quasi ex-pat, and yes, we have culture. Yes to bluegrass by Gillian Welch and Allison Krauss, to George Jones and Loretta Lynn, to Tom Waits and to The Jayhawks' Rainy Day Music.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to add my blog to YouTube, so if you want to hear the song without clicking on an embedded clip, click on this link and it'll take you to the video for the song:



Save It For A Rainy Day

Pretty little hairdo don't do what it used to
Can't disguise the living
All the miles that you've been through

Looking like a train wreck
Wearing too much makeup
The burden that you carry
Is more than one soul could ever bear

Don't look so sad, Marina
There's another part to play
Don't look so sad, Marina
Save it for a rainy day

You neve make your mind up
Like driving with your eyes shut
Rough around the edges
Won't someone come and take you home

Waiting for a breakthrough
What will you set your mind to?
We stood outside the Chinese restaurant in the rain

Don't look so sad, Marina
There's another part to play
Don't look so sad, Marina
Save it for a rainy day