Arresting Lines
I mean lines in poems, songs, or just plain old prose, which I speak all the time, that stop me in my tracks.Lately a couple have hit me, and they are both from Fred Eaglesmith!
One is from "He's a Good Dog", and it is the lovely "I think he actually knows some things that actually I don't." Those two "actually"'s are so brilliant - they make that line so much better than it would have been with either of them missing. And that line leapt out at me when I first heard the song many years ago.
Saturday night I heard, for the first time, "30 Years of Farming". While I could not get the complete lyrics (Eaglesmith's diction could be better - say like James King's - I will add James King's youtube embed), one devastating line just jumped to the foreground when I heard it -"Oh, my daddy stopped talking the day the farm was auctioned, there was nothing left to say." I am no major romantic about dying industries - I often think we should just put them away quickly, rather than, as we are now doing, wallowing in slowing a death that should be faster.
But that great line captures the problem with this view.
Thanks, Fred! You challenged me in just the right way.
And for better diction!
posted by Alan Adamson @ 4:17 PM
2 Comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUwTdqPkluY
The best version is her album with Chuck Brown, but this is pretty good
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