These Days
This song hits me hard, cuts me deep and does lots of other things to me that I'm feeling too tired to think of an original way to describe. A great many rock writers seem to have become old quite young. Jackson Browne wrote this song at fifteen. There are two words that I'd have edited out if it was my song. Do any words strike you as extraneous? Anything you'd change? Does it work for you?
THESE DAYS
Jackson Browne
Well I've been out walking
I don't do that much talking these days
These days--
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
For you
And all the times I had the chance to
And I had a lover
It's so hard to risk another these days
These days--
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losing so long
I'll keep on moving
Things are bound to be improving these days
One of these days--
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 6:12 PM
7 Comments:
I love this song too. Could hear Jackson Browne singing it in my head as I read the lyrics.
BTW, which two words would you edit out, and why?
I'm guessing the two words you'd edit out are "to ten" -- why stop counting at ten?!
Have a good Shabbos, Neil.
Would change the had to have. The last part feels like the present, so why had? Gee, I feel like I'm doing a Rashi...Have a great Shabbos.
Pearl - I see the possiblility of taking out "to ten." But I like the image of counting to ten, it means something different to me than just counting.
Bob - I paused on the had, but I think it's interesting as it is, sounds emotionally real even though gramatically wrong.
Mirty - You remind me of Yoda. Very wise. Us or parts of us that age young. Yes. Thunder Road sounds perfect to me. This has one blemish.
Maayan - Thank you. Thank you.
Drumroll please......
FOR YOU
It sounds to me like the first stanza is broad. He's thinking in general about mistakes and regrets. Then in the second stanza it gets specific, about a lover he had. But I wouldn't mention her in the first. (Sort of like how in Big Yellow Taxi you don't hear about the man leaving till the very end).
You're welcome.
I like your take on it; and I also love Joni Mitchell.
Here's my take: I think I might delete MY FRIEND. I'm reading the lyrics like they are a poem, both standing on it's own- within the line it's on- as well as into the next line. Read with the next line: DON'T CONFRONT ME WITH MY FAILURES, doesn't work for me since it's my closest friends who are the ones, who with love do do that.
Of course Jackson Browne may not have meant it to be read that way.
Perhaps he's purposely switching off. In the first stanza he says "for you" - so he's addressing his ex. In the middle stanza he speaks of her in third person ("I had a lover"), and he's thinking to himself, looking out for an answer. Then in the third stanza he is addressing this one person, who he's not with, but who he will always think of as his friend. And he thinks of her and says to her in his mind and song that he's aware of the time gone by, of the opportunity lost. Yet he tells her that if they ever meet again, she should kindly not remind him of the pieces that were his fault, because however it may seem from his decisions and his tone, even in those moments that sound self assured, it's not that he's ever forgotten his own failures.
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