Re: The Water List So Far (You've All Done Very Well!)

[Alan McKendree <amck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:18:16 -0400
> From: "Jim M" <petenotped@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Excellent.  While you're at it, put this one on it (please):
>
> Use (abuse?) the words like flowing river touches
> Embraces parting hard steel surfaces revealing pages
> Beneath the water skin broken like ice flows
> Smashed by iron bows in the back of the whale.

That is indeed how it's listed in the lyrics, but I still think "ice 
floes" is correct.  Floes are broken up almost by definition and ice 
doesn't flow.  I'd like to check this with Pete if you could have him 
return the call.



> Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:02:16 -0400
> From: "Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> First, it certainly is not just *my* show.  I invited everyone to chime
> in with examples & discussion when I first proposed this project.

OK, thanks.  You're doing the work so I didn't want to tell you how 
if it wasn't welcome :-).

> So, *should* ice & wetness & snow be considered water images?  Or tears, as
> some have suggested?

If we're going to include tears we might as well include champagne 
and anything else that's liquid.  See below.

> Should each image be judged on a case-by-case basis?  Do we want to put
> *that* much work into this?  With lobbying, voting, etc.?  You tell me.

I'll drop in, but I'm going on vacation Saturday so my ongoing 
contribution will be vastly curtailed soon.

> For example, I would argue that, in this line from "Another Tricky Day,"
>
> 	You know how the ice is / It's thin where you're skating
>
> one would be hard-pressed *not* to imagine an ice-skater on a frozen pond or
> lake, skating around with the possible danger of falling through at some
> point.  To me, that's a strong water image, even though water in its liquid
> form isn't even mentioned.

I certainly imagine the skater, but I don't get the water image at 
all.  The imagery he's going for is "hazard", not water. The "water" 
image I have in mind is flowing, large volumes of wudda, enough to 
physically wash away dirt, float a person or boat, slake a thirst, 
echo the tides of the Universe & humanity, etc. etc.  None of that is 
at play in a warning to be careful...he could just as well write 
"You're up on a tightrope" which not only evokes the same emotion but 
scans :-). I'm sure he chose ice for a reason but that's for ice 
imagery, not water.  IMO.

> But this line from "Music Must Change" might not deserve to make the cut:
>
> 	Sometimes at night I wake up & my body's like ice
>
> I don't envision water or even ice for that matter in this line.  I just
> imagine a cold, shivering person.

I certainly don't think it belongs in a water list but we seem have a 
good start on an ice list, which is interesting...ice as solidified 
water, the healing cleansing properties gone and replaced by a solid, 
possibly jaggedly dangerous object, symbolic of repressed emotions 
perhaps? the opposite of flowing -- either rocklike or 
brittle/fragile, according to circumstances.  "My body's like 
ice"...probably meant to evoke "cold" but interesting to think of as 
a metaphor for emotional repression and hoarding rather than 
eliminating dirt/problems/guilt.

> Finally, let me say thanks to all who have contributed so far.  Many of
> your examples are from Pete solo songs I never cared for & hence rarely
> listen to.  So without your help, they may have escaped my notice.

This may already be in there but I didn't find it in what I think's 
the most recent comprehensive list:

Just like a sailor heading into the sea/There's a gale blowing in my face
and
I don't care if the ocean get rough/Just a little is enough
 -- A Little Is Enough

Cheers,
--
Alan
"That's unbelievable, if that's true"
   -- Howard Stern, 5/25/00