CD: The Age of Miracles by Mary Chapin Carpenter (Tracks 7-9)
What am I doing? The introduction’s here.
Track 7: Mrs. Hemingway
Like 4 June 1989, this is a first-person narrator song. The inspiration this time is Hadley Hemingway, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway.
Here, the verses set the scene, but the chorus really brings through the spirit and heart of the remembrance. She’s recalling their earlier years together, with Paris as the backdrop. Chorus:
Living in Paris, in attics and garrets
Where the coal merchants climb every stair
The dance hall next door is filled with sailors and whores
And the music floats up through the air
There’s Sancerre and oysters, cathedrals and cloisters
And time with its unerring aim
For now we can say we were lucky most days
And throw a rose into the Seine
That’s gorgeous right? Come on, she rhymed Paris and garrets, oysters with cloisters, aim and Seine. These make me happy.
This one is sung in Mary Chapin Carpenter‘s classic confessional lower register. It has an exquisite musical arrangement that features an alluringly plaintive piano. It makes me close my eyes and luxuriate as it plays.
Track 8: I Have a Need for Solitude
And this is seriously why I feel such a kinship with her.
I have a need
For solitude
I’ll never be
Safe in crowded rooms
I like the sound
Of silence coming on
I come around
When everyone has gone
Amen.
I really have a need to be alone. If I don’t cocoon in my cave regularly, I feel like I start losing myself. That solitude lets me regenerate and become able to deal with the social world out there.
The bridge here is wonderful musically, but it also serves to let us know that there are special people allowed into her silence. The speaker is stating how she is, but she’s also explaining and hoping for understanding. She’s there. She’s yours. But if you don’t leave her alone when she needs it, she’ll go crazy and become even more “hard to love/Harder now to keep.”
Once again… Amen.
On the MCC SAT front, I had to look up verdant, which she uses in this song. Also, intrude and solitude form another great rhyming pair.
Track 9: What You Look For
I go back and forth on this song. I certainly enjoy it much of the time, but if I had to choose, I’d say that this is the weakest song of the album. There are great moments in the lyrics and a really singable chorus, but it is more generically rah-rah than the other offerings. It encourages the listener to live bravely and consciously. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Send it out into the Universe
A humble plea, a wish, a broken verse
It works with The Age of Miracles message of the album. If we continue to be open in the darkness, “[the sun] shines back.” I know that all sounds great, but this is a theme that she also revisits over multiple albums, and I’ve heard better.
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