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Subject: Ever On discussion

Author: DB

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 18:45:10 03/01/06 Wed In reply to: The Ombudsperson 's message, "Florence on Ever On Forum" on 14:10:19 03/01/06 Wed This is the first part of the Ever On Forum Discussion which led to the discussion of Florence Warner. It is entitled "Dan songs with personal meaning": ____________________________________________________________ OK, I don't remember discussing this particular question before, even if the issues raised have been discussed. And if the question has been discussed before, it was so long ago that it is OK to disuss it again. Recently, Alvin posed the trivia question about what Dan had said his mother's favorite song written by Dan was. And the answer was "Be On Your Way." Now, that song is nowhere near what I would call my "favorite" of all the many wonderful songs that Dan has written. However, "Be On Your Way" just might be the song that somehow, I associate with something that happened in my life more than any other. Once upon a time, many, many long years ago, before your sun burned hot in space, uh, well, maybe not quite that long ago, but it sort of seems like that, anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, long ago, there was a girl that I dated for nearly 2 1/2 years. After a little over two years, I knew she was not the woman for me to marry (I also thought I was too young to be married, but for the right woman, that wouldn't have stopped me), but I loved her, and she seemed to want to marry me. And "Be On Your Way" was the song that went through my head as I thought about how I was going to end the relationship. But I couldn't pull the trigger. I think she did, however, pick up some subtle, and some not-so-subtle, hints that I wasn't really interested in marriage to her. And, seeing that I wasn't necessarily so intent on marriage, when a guy at her work was displaying serious interest, she started dating him. Since after nearly 2 1/2 years she started dating another guy behind my back, it was really easy to break up, and I didn't even really have to be the one to break up. That didn't mean that it felt OK after 2 1/2 years, but playing "Be On Your Way" on the stereo or on the piano helped me feel better, because I knew it was right that we had broken up. Nearly two years later, a few months after I had started dating the woman I eventually did marry, she had moved 400 miles away, and a friend of mine and I visited her at the apartment where she lived with the guy she had dated behind my back. And I saw the way she treated him. And it triggered memories of how she treated me. And I was so glad our relationship had ended. Hearing or playing "Be On Your Way" always makes me think of that relationship and how right it was for that relationship to end. In terms of Dan song lyrics, it has more personal meaning for me that any other Dan song. "Paris Nocturne" is the other song that has personal meaning for me, because it comes from the Twin Sons album, Brett and I are twin sons of different mothers (just as Brett, Alvin, and I are triplet sons of different mothers, although I'm confused about how both can be true), and it was the song from the planned movie, "A Man, a Woman, and a Duck," which represents Brett, Alvin, and me (not necessarily in that order), and just recently, Alvin goosed me to get a duck sound and subsequent echo out of me (sorry, Alvin, I hope surgery was able to correct the damage I did to you after that). No, wait, I was kidding about all of that last paragraph (well, at least kidding in part, and I do hope you are recovering, Alvin). I've discussed "Paris Nocturne" and its meaning for me before, but I'll repeat it here. "Paris Nocturne" makes me think of a woman I dated briefly in between that "Be On Your Way" girlfriend and my wife, because, although she didn't really know Dan, she liked the song "Paris Nocturne," which at that point, I didn't really know because I didn't really listen to my "Twin Sons" album up to that point. It seemed incongruous to me, I liked Dan, she didn't know Dan, but she loved a Dan song and I didn't really know it. And her fondness for the song inspired me to listen to it and learn to play it on the piano, and I still enjoy playing it on the piano to this day. That poor woman really liked me and never understood that I wasn't quite the person she thought I was. I would have been wrong for her, and she would have been wrong for me. She didn't give up on me until I told her I was seriously dating the woman I would eventually marry. Unfortunately, she then married a man who was even more wrong for her than I ever would have been, a drug addict who eventually strangled her to death when she was pregnant with what would have been their second child. And I can't hear or play "Paris Nocturne" without thinking of her. So, my question to EVERyONe is, what Dan songs have a particular personal meaning for you? You know my answer, what's yours? Bob T. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> [> Subject: Ever On discussion's next four posts

Author: DB [ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 20:21:04 03/01/06 Wed 1. SONGS WITH DEEPLY PERSONAL MEANINGS - 2/8/06 12:16 pm by ota Many midnights now I have travailed with this subject: How to write something very personal about my life as told in Dan's music, and which songs do I write about first? There are truly so many, and I can't, or won't, tell the stories behind some of them so long as the children of the people involved are still alive, so, I guess tune back in to this station in 90 years. I'll have the Perpetual Executors of My Estate publish the good stories then, and, yes, it will be only on Ever On. "Wysteria" was, is, and always will be special because of the special young lady in my life about that time, the one everyone thought was the Wysteria about whom Dan wrote. It was quite a surprise to us when Dan wrote and/or said in an interview that it was about "a dead woman, a ghost", because we were certain that it was about her. The words fit. Everything fit. From the Italian Street Fair right on down to the paper fans to hide her secret. And the staying "too long to save his heart,"... ah, the memory. And a bit of my heart is still there... We weren't surprised when Dan said he got the name in a "head shop". Then when I first heard "Drawing Pictures" in 1974, it also reminded me about The Wysteria Lady. I wasn't over her yet, and, again, the storyline of our lives fit the lyrics. Dan didn't write it about her, though; I believe it may have been written about the artist who recorded it in 1974. I was happy when Dan released it on Full Circle. I wish he'd record and release the other songs he's written... Maybe some day _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. DRAWING PICTURES - 2/16/06 at 3:47 am by ota You can hear Florence Warner singing Dan's "Drawing Pictures" by clicking here . It was on her 1981 LP Another Hot Night , along with Dan's "Love Gone By" and other non-Dan songs. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. FASCINATING - 2/23/06 at 1:14 pm by bt So a Dan song was recorded and released by someone other than Dan over 2 decades before Dan released a recording of it himself? For some reason, I find that to be a fascinating little tidbit. And it only took me a week to notice that post! ______________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. I'M FASCINATED, TOO - 2/23/06 at 7:14 pm by ota Actually, I've been fascinated with Florence for some time. She sang a song of Dan's on her 1974 self-titled LP which to this day remains one of the most sensous songs I've heard to date. I guess Dan couldn't sing that one on stage for fear of being mobbed by admirers. This is a great idea for a thread. Wish more posters would visit and respond. Maybe, like a few of my Dan songs, they're just too personal to share ______________________________________________________________________________________________