Compilation

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:05 am

Can I join the club too?

I love the gentle brushing on the drum that sounds like shingle being dragged down the beach by the retreating surf.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:28 am

Excuse me while I digress here a minute, Henning. Was your 'oral sex' interpretation of that line based upon its being the manner of sex that will not produce a child? 'Killing' by omission? Pretty innovative interpretation. If I have to take more of a conceptual leap than that, however, I'm liable to fall into the ravine. If it's not my guess, then please explain. It's too intrigueing to just let it pass by. However, if it makes you feel any better, I initially thought that "Love Itself" was an account of an afternoon tryst

. Talk about taking something to its polar extreme

.

". . . rhythm rolls like the flow of time" ~ True

.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:53 am

Linmag ~

I know our terms vary, but here a shingle is a piece of roofing material. Is it the same there?

~ Lizzy

margaret · Post by **margaret** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:16 am

Lizzy
The British meaning of shingle is the coarser, bigger grains of sand on a beach, not quite big enough to be called pebbles . As for what goes on top of roofs, we usually have tiles .

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 4:28 am

Aha ~ thank you, Margaret. Now, I'm trying to 'picture' the sound that Linmag's describing, although it seems all I really need to do is listen to the record

[after Allison Crowe's

Tidings

finishes]. As for tiles, I believe they make for better roofs than shingles, anyway. They're at least more attractive.

Courtois · Post by **Courtois** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 3:16 pm

tom.d.stiller wrote:Try this link: http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/buzz.html

I feel antiquated for browsing like a librarian through stacks of Intensity while the poem in question is (as of course it would be) glaring off a page on this search-engine-equipped website. It's like speculating about the availability of Leonard Cohen films and failing to do a search on Amazon.

Best,
Courtois

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:43 pm

Henning...I used to think of the melting clocks or flexible clocks as something to do with 'relativity'....time itself bending, stretching, contracting and expanding. But 'flow' of time as flow of a river with 'melted liquid clocks' is interesting too. Danke Schon.

As for the rest you do have an interesting imagination.

Juan · Post by **Juan** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 12:08 am

The music of Undertow reminds me of some autumn nights by the seaside, those very dry windy days with stars on the sky, you could even see the Milky Way spiral...

The music sounds really interesting and the melody just hangs or ascends or goes and goes (it doesn't solve to the tonic) like a constant flow.

Dear Heather is a great work. I wonder if a "clean" production would do any good to the songs. Probably it would ruin the whole album.

Anyway, the best Cohen line from his latest version of Take This Waltz:

"And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
my cheap Casio-synth and my cross"

This lyric is very difficult to analyse, so I leave that for the scholars...

- Juan

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 4:53 pm

Yes, Henning ~ I am caught in the grip of "Undertow" ~ when it comes on, I flow out into the warmth of the sea. It just did. I just did.

Floater · Post by **Floater** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:23 pm

Henning wrote:Who is interested to help me install an "Untertow" fan club ? Who else is fascinated by that song ?

Since the first time I heard it I thought there was something really brilliant and mounful about the song. Maybe I'm wrong but I'll join the club.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:54 am

Juan ~ I love the album, as is, and agree with you on the "clean production" notion.

Floater ~ You're surely not wrong.

~ Lizzy

Henning · Post by **Henning** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:08 pm

So welcome to the club all who have joined so far. We won't have any rules in here, no monthly fee to pay, no cashier, no president, just a free and new interpretation each day of what an untertow is. I had never heard that word before. We never had an untertow in our English lessons at school. Except for that blonde girl in the last row .... it's long ago... I forgot her name.

For men only: Just imagine this. The party has been long and boring as always. Thank god it has come to an end now. It's three in the morning and the DJ is your friend. He has promised to play the final two waltzes that you have requested to him. The woman that you had an eye on the whole party long is still among the few guests. You walk up to her, you say: "I have saved the last two dances just for you". And then Tom Waits sings Jersey Girl before Leonard closes the party with "Untertow". Oh - Morning Glory !

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:34 pm

My dictionary here in work defines undertow as;

Undertow n Current below sea-surface moving in contrary direction to surface current.

Which is the same as an undercurrent.

Undercurrent. n current flowing below suface or upper current; (fig.) suppressed or underlying activity, force etc.

Rob.

tom.d.stiller · Post by **tom.d.stiller** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:50 pm

WordWeb gives an additional meaning for undertow:

An inclination contrary to the strongest or prevailing feeling
"his account had a poignant undertow of regret"

and for undercurrent

Subdued emotional quality underlying an utterance; implicit meaning

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 5:12 pm

.....and just as a matter of passing interest, here are the lyrics to the Suzanne Vega song "Undertow".

http://www.123lyrics.net/s/suzanne-vega/undertow.html

Rob.

Compilation

Re: Undertow earlier poem