Defying Gravity- EC's Fallen

[Jack of All Parades]

SONNET 97- William Shakespeare

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer's time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

_________
“Autumn Leaves”- Johnny Mercer trans.

The falling leaves drift by my window
The falling leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall


“Fallen”- Declan McManus


All the leaves are turning yellow, red and brown
Soon they'll be scattered as they tumble down
Although they may be swept up so invitingly
I never did what I was told
I trampled though the amber and the burnished gold
But now I clearly see how cruel the young can be
You can convince yourself of anything
If you wish both hard and long
And I believed that life was wonderful
Right up to the moment when love went wrong
I gaze up at the tree-tops and laugh
I need somebody to shake me loose
I want to know what happens next
'Til I don't care at all
There I go
Beginning to fall



How true the notion in the three lyrics which catches that distinct feeling of absence[and the chill it leaves in its absence]; I was absent from you in the summer[warmth]; yet it seemed like winter[chill]. Autumn is a widow bearing posthumous children to a dead father[mother earth]. Birds do not even sing and the pallor caught in the leaves is most revealing. The human mind is quicksilver in its mutability; for the active mind there is no point of rest.

Mutability, being shaken, changing seasons both meteorological and emotional is hard to balance. Change is unstable. Love even more so . All three lyrics beautifully attest to this instability. PD, a while back, speculated that it takes a sizable hubris to tackle a standard. Could not agree more. That is why it must be so satisfying when you pull it off. EC does here and it has always been a ‘pin drop’ moment for me. That its sister song, “I’m In The Mood Again”, was revisited last night was a pleasant surprise. Had it been coupled with this I would have been ecstatic. I take great enjoyment in the notion that he has added to the lyrical tradition with this song. The chill that filled the air last night only heightened my sensitivity to these three lyrics, something EC's song has always echoed for me.

[Poor Deportee]

Great insights, Chris. While I tend not to like 'concept' albums and have mixed feelings about North as a whole, I always felt this was a major EC song and worthy of its principal referent (the great 'Autumn Leaves,' one of my favourite songs in the entire American Songbook). In particular I love the final passages:

I gaze up at the tree-tops and laugh
I need somebody to shake me loose
I want to know what happens next
'Til I don't care at all
There I go
Beginning to fall

Something happens here, a swooping shift in perspective, such that we go from observing the leaves to actually being one of them - a vertiginous transition only implicit in Mercer's great song - and the resulting sense of being swept into space is profoundly ambiguous: a letting go, a loss, but also, possibly, a hopeful letting go (or a prelude to falling in love, again?). Part of the appeal of these lines is in the dream-like way they realize a fancy many of us have probably had, looking up into the treetops and imagining ourselves up there. You're spot-on to pinpoint this tune, and the closer, as keys to the entire album.

It's songs like this that make Tony Bennett's contempt for songcraft in the 'rock and roll' era so misplaced. He should be trying his hand at something like this. Equally frustrating is EC's commercial marginalization, which makes songs like this, so deserving of an audience and of being covered, relative obscurities rather than the significant entries in contemporary music, which they deserve to be.

[jardine]

thanks both chris and p.d. THIS is why I love this board. reading through those poems/lyrics slowly, even when they are familiar, all three slowing me down just he right way, like that leaf, here i go, and yes, it fits, falling in love. fabulous. thanks and thanks again. I want to insert autumn in new york by billie holiday...almost.

I know Sinatra had that contempt and voiced it often. Bennett too? I just watched the vid w. amy winehouse for his new duets--body and soul. makes the sadness even deeper about her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OFMkCeP6ok&ob=av3e

and i agree, too, that Fallen, i'm in the mood, and others on North show that "the great American songbook" is not closed. It really is a wonder how rarely e.c.'s songs like this are covered. Bennett would do a fabulous job of this song, I think

[Jack of All Parades]

Seasonal change, gravity[been studying my Newton of late], the impending release of a new album from Ron Sexsmith have all brought this topic back to me and I cannot believe I forgot this one when this thread was first offered from the album "Blue Boy":
Fallen

The leaves have lost hold of the branches as always
And leave us with gold and wine colored pathways
In the same way I've
The same way I've fallen for you

You opened your arms like a school door to summer days
And opened my heard to the rumors of a higher place
Now where was I
Baby I've fallen for you

Love is always on the go
It never stays in one place
Day by day it changes and it grows
But you always recognize its face

Day by day it changes and it grows
But you always recognize its face

The leaves have lost hold of the branches as always
And leave us with gold and wine colored pathways
In the same way I've
The same way I've fallen for you

Like the star in the night
Baby I've fallen for you

Ron Sexsmith

http://youtu.be/QuYhNW3s0do

as performed at The Junction in Cambridge- last year.

I think I like this version by KD Lang better-

http://youtu.be/tswU4W-I9Zs

I think I much more prefer EC's effort- I am always pulled gravitationally to that sudden abandonment of fear and despair towards a fresh start that he provides in his same titled song- the parting and coming together he captures so well in his lyric. Ron's tropes are too tame- the gold and wine colored pathways, that open school door and star in the night are too obvious. Not one of his better efforts for my eyes to scan. Wistful enough which I suppose accounts for the comments on the you tube page.

[wardo68]

I adore "Fallen". That is all.

[bronxapostle]

I adore "Fallen". That is all.

i'm with you...ON THE WHOLE LP! what a masterwork.

[wardo68]

I was a fan from the first play, and it was one of my go-to 'it's chilly and dark out and I've just cracked a bottle of wine' albums. I realize I've been too preoccupied this fall to revive that tradition. We'll see what happens before the night is out.