Making a meme from Sandra
Gettin’ Smaller In the Rearview Mirror: Cry, Cry, Cry
I’ve got a mini-version of the Stendhal syndrome going on here. Lines of songs that are in no way sad just get me, and I am powerless to prevent the catch in my throat or the tears welling in my eyes. This would be poignant if the songs weren’t so … not sad.
Stendhal syndrome, Sandra tells us, is “this emotional response to art that manifests itself physically.” Then she lists lines of songs that make her choke up. I’m going to do that, too. My list (a whole lot of these have to do with delivery):
“Oh come ye back / My own true love / And stay awhile with me / If I had a friend / All on this earth / You’ve been a friend to me.”
(10,000 miles, Mary Chapin Carpenter)
“If I exorcise my devils / Well my angels may leave too / When they leave they’re so hard to find”
(Please Call Me Baby, Tom Waits)
“But I wish that I had ’cause I’m feeling so sad / that I never had one of your children.”
(Another Day, as done on the This Mortal Coil collection)
“What chance for such girls / How can we compete? / In a world that likes its women / Stupid and sweet / I bet you rue the day / The angels gave you your share / Of bright cornflower blue eyes / And golden hair”
(Ugly Little Dreams, Everything But the Girl)
“When I was a girl, my mom and I we always talked / And I picked flowers everywhere that I walked / And I could always cry, now even when I’m alone I seldom do / And I have lost some kindness”
(When I was a Boy, Dar Williams)
“You pulled me like the moon pulls on the tide / You know just where I keep my better side”
(Richard & Linda Thompson)
I’m going to reluctantly limit myself to three Sondheim lyrics:
“I chose and my world was shaken / so what / The choice may have been mistaken / the choosing was not / You have to move on”
(Move on, from Sunday in the Park with George)
“Stay with me / The world is dark and wild / Stay a child while you can be a child / With me.”
(Stay With Me, from Into the Woods)
“The ones who follow the rules / And meet themselves at the schools / Too busy to know that they’re fools / Aren’t they a gem? / I’ll drink to them!”
(The Ladies Who Lunch, from Company)
“The opposite of war isn’t peace / it’s creation”
(La Vie Boheme, from Rent)
“She (We gave her most of our lives) / Is leaving (Sacrificed most of our lives) / Home (We gave her everything money could buy) / She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years”
(She’s Leaving Home, by the Beatles but I love Al jarreau’s version best)
“One of these mornings / You’re gonna rise up singing / And spread your wings / And take to the sky / But ’til that morning/ there’s nothing to harm you / With mommy and daddy / standing by.”
(Summertime, best sung by Sarah Vaughan)
“Oh sweet the night that holds your name / Oh sweet the star that truly shines / Though but a tender babe thou art / The graces all grow up with thee.”
(Christ Child’s Lullaby, Shawn Colvin — it’s the way she sings it)
“You have hands that will open up the doors / You may have the hopes this world is waiting for / You are my own, but you are so much more / You are tomorrow on the wing, child of mine.”
(Child of Mine, Mae Robertson & Don Jackson)
And the topper:
“something’s happening…
who is it?
I’m holding my sweet mama in my arms
is she dying?
no, I think she’s just been born
and she looks so… sweet…
and she looks so… hopeful
and she looks so… trusting
she doesn’t know how hard…”
(The Gospel According to Darkness, Jane Siberry)
I’ve written about it before — can you imagine being able to hold your mother and give her all the love she should have had but didn’t get? My mom deserved a lot more love than she got.
I’m sure there are more but I need to to and change Madison’s diaper.
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