Song Poems 4: Metallica, Joni Mitchell, R.E.M. Losing It

Metallica, Joni Mitchell, R.E.M.

"Haven't you ever lost anything doctor Bronx? Your purse? Your car keys? Well, it's rather like that: Now you have it and now you don't." - Sean Connery, Medicine Man

Loss of humanity, loss of your core sense, loss of your personal defenses in a relationship. Profound in each their own way.

Dalton Trumbo's powerful book, 'Johnny Got His Gun,' had been made into a film, in 1971, which won numerous awards. It depicted the inner nightmare of a young man, blown up in a war, losing both arms, both legs and his entire face. When Metallica made their video they bought the rights to the movie rather than license it. 'One' had already become one of their most popular songs.

One, by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich 1987 from "... and Justice for All" Metallica, 1988

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel the scream
This terrible silence stops it there

Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
That there's not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, help me

Back in the womb it's much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, wake me
Now the world is gone I'm just one
Oh god, help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

Joni Mitchell's singer-songwriter genius found it's greatest non-commercial expression in "For the Roses" from 1972. "Judgement of the Moon and Stars," her paean to Beethoven, explores his progressive deafness as both a curse and a challenge masterfully overcome. Beethoven first experienced the affliction as tinnitus (ringing in the ear), which began in his mid-twenties; by forty-one he was totally deaf. During this period he wrote much of his most important works (including Symphonies 1 through 6); many others were written after he'd lost all hearing (such as Symphonies 7, 8 and the glorious 9th). Mitchell's song is masterful in depicting the isolation imposed on Ludwig, as well as his rebellious shift from the Classical to Romantic style. Mitchell's metaphor for piano, "broken trees and elephant ivories," evokes perfectly the image of the young composer savagely beating the keys so he could hear the notes. Beethoven, who died at 57, never stopped composing.

Judgement of the Moon & Stars (Ludwig's Theme), by Joni Mitchell, 1971, from "For the Roses" 1972.

No tongue in the bell
And the fishwives yell
But they might as well be mute
So you get to keep the pictures
That don't seem like much
Cold white keys under your fingers
Now you're thinking
That's no substitute
It just don't do it
Like the song of a warm, warm body
Loving your touch

In the court they carve your legend
With an apple in its jaw
And the women that you wanted
They get their laughs
Long silk stockings
On the bedposts of refinement
You're too raw
They think you're too raw
It's the judgement of the moon and stars
Your solitary path
Draw yourself a bath
Think what you'd like to have
For supper
Or take a walk
A park
A bridge
A tree
A river

Revoked but not yet cancelled
The gift goes on
In silence
In a bell jar
Still a song ...

You've got to shake your fists at lightning now
You've got to roar like forest fire
You've got to spread your light like blazes
All across the sky
They're going to aim the hoses on you
Show em you won't expire
Not til you burn up every passion
Not even when you die
Come on now
You've got to try

If You're feeling contempt
Well then you tell it
If You're tired of the silent night
Jesus, well then you yell it
Condemned to wires and hammers
Strike every chord that you feel
That broken trees
And elephant ivories
Conceal

Peter Buck's mandolin riff forms the creative core of the song for which the group is most famous. Stipe, the lead singer, explains the song is about unrequited love. The term "Losing My Religion" is Southern US for loss of temper, or, in this case, loss of defense and the resulting vulnerability to the heartless object of one's affection: "The lengths that I will go to the distance in your eyes ... oh, no, I've said too much."

Losing My Religion by R.E.M. [Peter Buck, Bill Berry, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe] 1990, from "Out of Time " 1991

Oh, life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I've said too much
I've said it all

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour
I'm choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt, lost and blinded old, fool
Oh no, I've said too much
I've said it all
Consider this
Consider this hint of the century
Consider this slip
That brought me to my knees pale
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
And now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

That was just a dream
That was just a dream

That was just a dream
Try, cry, why, try
That was just a dream
just a dream, just a dream...

It is becoming clear we have the same taste in lyrics

Did you have a prefference of these three?

I love all of these! My favorite of these songs is Losing My Religion...but lyrically Joni Mitchell's For The Roses is perfectly profound...

I remember reading Johnny Got His Gun in high school...I think Metallica's One is a great rock song...but didn't do justice to the raw emotion of Dalton Trumbeau's book...

Thanks for reminding us that our favorite musicians are also talented poets!