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Posts Tagged ‘songwriting’

I’ve spoken before about my lingering high-school bias toward Canadian literature. And while I consider it largely overcome, some things still set off alarm bells. And in the first 20 pages or so of David Adams Richard’s Mercy Among the Children, they were ringing like mad. There were pine trees, snow, and moose…and little else. It was like crunching on a mouthful of maple leaves. And I thought, “Oh God, this is going to be a long haul.” Thank goodness I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Set in a small town in New Brunswick, Mercy Among the Children is the story of two generations of the Henderson family who are miserably poor, and as a result, almost always beset by misfortune. However, many other families in the town experience the same biting poverty, yet there is one difference between them: ever since Sydney Henderson (the father), pushed another boy off a roof in anger when he was a child, he vowed to never again act in anger, or even to speak up for himself. This single decision will change the course his life, as well as the lives of his wife and three children.

Although Richards uses multiple perspectives, the most dominant is that of Lyle, Sydney’s eldest son, who cannot understand why his father will not stand up for himself in the face of unjust accusations. At first, these accusations are small – stolen fish or starting a fire, but soon Sydney is accused of the darkest of crimes – sexually assaulting a young retarded boy, and then leaving him to die. Yet still, Sydney’s gentleness and self control permit him from defending himself, and the town turns upon the family that has always made them uncomfortable, making Sydney the scapegoat for all the town’s recent troubles. When his father will not speak up for himself or his family, Lyle starts to see him as weak, as a coward and lets his anger take over. He is tired of being an outsider, of being mercilessly persecuted by the other children and scorned by the town. He takes to carrying a knife, he sees the tremendous power in anger, and we watch as he becomes everything his father would not wish him to be.

This is one of the darkest novels I’ve ever read. It is  laced with perpetual foreboding, and any of the smallest actions can snowball into something even greater and more fearsome. It is a town in which the earth itself is poisoned by chemical dumping, which makes people sick or disabled (Lyle’s sister August is born an albino) adding to people’s misfortune. Although the greater poison is the lies and secrets which creep in as insidiously as the pesticides, slowly corrupting goodness. Outside of Sydney and his wife Elly, there is no loyalty, no community, and Richards does a brilliant job of analyzing the motivations of some of the town’s most despicable characters. It is a testament to his skill as a writer that we can even manage some sympathy for them, for Richards illustrates the delicate rationalizations which allow us to remain convinced of our own goodness no matter the situation, these gradual revisions of our own histories, and memories, creating that essential self-delusion that allows us to carry on. Although of course it is these very machinations that propel the misfortune in this a town in which everyone is trying to rectify a perceived imbalance – owed or owing. Yet Syndey Henderson saw through this from the beginning and trusted the universe would right itself, though this may not save him or his family in time. Perhaps the novel’s greatest tragedy is that Lyle does not understand this lesson, and the reader must watch as one bad decision leads to another, until he is hopelessly enmeshed in a web born of his own anger. He discovers too late that the harder fight is resisting the intoxicating power of violence, and that for this his father was actually the strongest man imaginable.

Though most of the action takes place in the 1980s, the Hendersons live in a tiny shack in the woods, and the appearance of technology seems almost anachronistic, for here is man at his most primal, stripped of all the trappings that make him “civilized.” And despite this small town, Mercy Among the Children manages to convey the most sweeping range of human emotion from the purest love to the most bitter hate (tellingly, the books four main sections are entitled: mercy, fury, love and redemption – if that’s not sweeping, I don’t know what is).  In a novel of murder, plotting, lying, and scheming, the root of all evil seems to be poverty, and the desperation that comes from the internalized scorn of others and the desire to improve one’s condition at any cost.

Reminiscent of Fall on Your Knees (probably my favourite Canadian novel), not just for it’s east coast setting, but focusing on the dark secrets of an entire town rather than just one family, Mercy Among the Children is similarly gut-wrenching, but essential reading. It is the best Giller winner I’ve read in a long time (which interestingly shared the Giller in 2000 with Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost – which in my opinion, can’t hold a candle to Mercy). Should it be the book that all of Canada Reads? It seems comparing this to Fruit or The Book of Negroes is like comparing apples and oranges, and I’m glad I’m not on that jury. I’m sure that Sarah Slean will champion it well – at the initial announcement she had the conviction of Sydney Henderson and was the most prepared of all the champions. And so, unable to champion one Canada Reads book,  I’ll actually end the post with my own championing of the talented Ms. Slean, and the last track off her new album, The Baroness, called “Looking for Someone” which I think is a beautiful anthem for the lonely, but hopeful:

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Well, this last spot would have been the hardest to pick if I hadn’t left my favourite for last. I’ll admit I’m cheating on this one, because although the lyrics are by Leonard Cohen (whose lyrics and poetry are perhaps indistinguishable and equally loved by me), I do prefer the Jeff Buckley cover – it is fragile yet powerful and completely haunting.

Certainly these lyrics are not the only version of the song.  Cohen’s writing often has multiple versions, and apparently this song gave him particular difficulty. He said “I filled two notebooks and I remember being in the Royalton Hotel [in New York], on the carpet in my underwear, banging my head on the floor and saying, ‘I can’t finish this song.” I can imagine that this is a song that is very hard to leave behind. The version I’m posting here is the one that many of the cover artists have sung and has the most emotional resonance for me, but a quick search can generate some of the additional verses.

And so, song #5…Hallelujah

Well I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this :
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah…

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
And she tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah…

(Yeah but) Baby I’ve been here before
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor, (You know)
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah…

Well there was a time when you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show that to me do ya
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Hallelujah…

Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelu…
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelu…
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Listen to Buckley’s cover :

and the Cohen original (with a german introduction):

Anyway, this brings me to the end of my Canadian songwriting series, but I wanted to take the time for some honourable mentions I’d still have on my desert island playlist: “Helpless” by Neil Young, “Both Sides Now” but Joni Mitchell,”Left and Leaving” by The Weakerthans, and “Bobcaygeon” by the Tragically Hip.

If you’ve thought of your top 5 (or 9 or 10), join the discussion!

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This one is another simple song, but one that lifts my spirits like no other. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that her albums get more playtime on the Jpod than any others. This song also lends its name to my apartment, for reasons that will only be too clear after listening to it.  Of course it’s also a point of pride that this talented songstress hails from my hometown.  So without further adieu, Ms. Sarah Harmer…

The Hideout

Look at that green
Out through the screen
After a quick rain came
So fast that
There wasn’t time
To roll up the windows
And pull the clothes down off the line
But i don’t care
It was so dry
And the grass is happy
And i think ‘so am i’
‘Cause i’m through thinking about you

For now i’m out at the hideout
Far enough outside of town
You can come
You can stay
If there’s something you need
To get away from

Look at the day dropping away
Hear the traffic pass along
A distant sideroad down the way
I think the dust has settled on me
But i don’t care, it was so calm
I knew i wouldn’t stay forever
Knew i’d get some things together
And move on

But for now i’m out at the hideout
Far enough outside of town
You can come, you can stay
If there’s something you need
To get away from

I just thought of you
And what you said
Laid out on the pullout
Did you forget
You said you wouldn’t forget

Look at that green
Out through the screen
After a quick rain came
So fast that
There wasn’t time to roll up the window
And pull the clothes down off the line
But i don’t care
It was so dry
The grass is happy and i think ‘so am i’
‘Cause i’m through thinking about you

And for now i’m out at the hideout
Far enough outside of town
You can come out
You can come out
When there is no one around
All out at the hideout
Far enough from being found
You can come, you can stay
If there’s something you need
To get away from

For the full experience: (apologies for the crappy video quality)

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