This essay and your accompanying photography really moved me today. I, too, can get overwhelmed by too much color, too many shapes, too much too much. The simplicity of tones is a balm to our over-worked nervous systems. I also enjoy closing my eyes. My ears have such a delightful relationship with the world but are second fiddle when my eyes are open. Shutting out sight, the world becomes part of me and I become part of it. Boundaries fade. A soft intimacy with life emerges.
Thank you so much for your reply. The noise of life can show up in all our senses, can’t it? I love the idea of “a soft intimacy with life emerges” —perfect!
Earlier this summer the public TV network here in the U.S. made available for streaming the Dylan 30th Anniversary Celebration concert you refer to. I was unfamiliar with this concert, and it was shocking to see the crowd turn on O’Connor. Who were these people? Did they not appreciate that these were musicians Dylan himself had selected to do his songs, or realize they were robbing the future of her performance?
Fortunately a rehearsal version was available to include on the remastered live album. Ironically the song is “I Believe in You,” and would have been the only overtly Christian song of the night.
This is one of Dylan’s loveliest slow songs, addressed to an unnamed “you.” The 2nd person voice in poems and song lyrics is often a source of mystery and ambiguity because of the different things “you” can mean: is it someone being addressed (God? a loved one?), or is it the singer themself, perhaps an earlier or inner self? I think a good way to think of O’Connor’s version is that all possibilities are there:
Thanks for your links and comments. It’s shocking to watch, that concert. A strange half booing, half cheering sound. She was so young. So courageous. Yet no one can stand that kind of animosity and not be reduced by it in some way. She would have had such a complex relationship with religion after all her experiences, like many who have suffered at the hands of the brutality and cruelty that religious representatives can mete out. I don’t know what Dylan’s reaction was to the that moment but he must have been a little crushed.
Absolutely love this share & the images you captured. You’re right about the stripping things back, there you can find the clarity. I feel inspired to take some black & whites over the next few days, when you remove the colour you’re able to see the more delicate detail, the finer points instead of the glaringly obvious ♥️
This essay and your accompanying photography really moved me today. I, too, can get overwhelmed by too much color, too many shapes, too much too much. The simplicity of tones is a balm to our over-worked nervous systems. I also enjoy closing my eyes. My ears have such a delightful relationship with the world but are second fiddle when my eyes are open. Shutting out sight, the world becomes part of me and I become part of it. Boundaries fade. A soft intimacy with life emerges.
Thank you so much for your reply. The noise of life can show up in all our senses, can’t it? I love the idea of “a soft intimacy with life emerges” —perfect!
Earlier this summer the public TV network here in the U.S. made available for streaming the Dylan 30th Anniversary Celebration concert you refer to. I was unfamiliar with this concert, and it was shocking to see the crowd turn on O’Connor. Who were these people? Did they not appreciate that these were musicians Dylan himself had selected to do his songs, or realize they were robbing the future of her performance?
Fortunately a rehearsal version was available to include on the remastered live album. Ironically the song is “I Believe in You,” and would have been the only overtly Christian song of the night.
This is one of Dylan’s loveliest slow songs, addressed to an unnamed “you.” The 2nd person voice in poems and song lyrics is often a source of mystery and ambiguity because of the different things “you” can mean: is it someone being addressed (God? a loved one?), or is it the singer themself, perhaps an earlier or inner self? I think a good way to think of O’Connor’s version is that all possibilities are there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C7tAp5X6Zo
“I believe in you even though I be outnumbered / Oh, though the earth may shake me /
Oh, though my friends forsake me”
Complete lyrics here:
https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/i-believe-you
Thanks for your links and comments. It’s shocking to watch, that concert. A strange half booing, half cheering sound. She was so young. So courageous. Yet no one can stand that kind of animosity and not be reduced by it in some way. She would have had such a complex relationship with religion after all her experiences, like many who have suffered at the hands of the brutality and cruelty that religious representatives can mete out. I don’t know what Dylan’s reaction was to the that moment but he must have been a little crushed.
We moved to Spain from the U.S., the change in perspective has been eye-opening! :) Very poignant tribute to SO, must watch that documentary...
Absolutely love this share & the images you captured. You’re right about the stripping things back, there you can find the clarity. I feel inspired to take some black & whites over the next few days, when you remove the colour you’re able to see the more delicate detail, the finer points instead of the glaringly obvious ♥️