Mastodawn

ProfWhatsHerName 1d ago

impermanen_ 🕊️

I was on the road today when Jackson Browne's 1973 song "Doctor, My Eyes" came on the radio. I'd never listened closely to the lyrics. Musically, it's this fast, upbeat shuffle. But the poem is a song of desperation... about how we exile unwanted feelings, until a day comes that we can't feel anything at all.

I was in tears myself by the end. Because I've been feeling that numbness creeping up for quite a while. And he managed to touch it: that awful "prize" for learning how not to cry.

Moss Wizard 1d ago

@impermanen_ I saw an interview with Kris Kristofferson where he said he lived upstairs from Browne at that time, and he had to hear Browne writing and practicing that song all day and night for months. Said yes it’s a brilliant song but he didn’t enjoy hearing it on the radio.

Lisa Melton 1d ago

@impermanen_ Jackson Browne is a stunning lyricist and often underrated songwriter. It's a pity so many young people are unfamiliar with his work, especially his first five albums.

One of his songs, from his third album, that always hits me right in the feels is "For a Dancer." I want that one played at my funeral.

Kick Murder Squad Pleasurebot 1d ago

@lisamelton I don’t often boost the booster, but when I do, I boost Jackson Browne.

Lisa Melton 1d ago

@FinalGirl I just *knew* another writer (and poet!) would appreciate his work. You have made my day, sister. 🤗

@[email protected]1d ago

@lisamelton @impermanen_

I have always liked Jackson Browne, and for me my favorite is: That Girl Could Sing, which may not even be the title.

Lisa Melton 1d ago

@BillMcGuire That's the title! It's from his sixth album, "Hold On." It's just... maybe a hair misogynistic, but it's a good tune.

@[email protected]1d ago

@lisamelton @impermanen_

Well, she wasn't much good at sticking around, but that girl could SING! I actually had Late for the Sky when I was in the Army. At the time, I didn't think much of it, so I rarely played it. That's also how it was with the Fleetwood Mac album which I think was the first with Stevie Nicks & Lindsay Buckingham. I'm thinking 1974. Didn't get it, but after I'd left the Army it was 1978 & that LP had sold a million copies, I played it again. Took 5 plays for me to get it!

Lisa Melton 1d ago

@BillMcGuire It's funny how music comes back around on us like that sometimes. You just have to be in the right mindset for it to click.

@[email protected]1d ago

well, if you mean the Fleetwood Mac album, yes. We had just lost our infant daughter after a terribly long illness or unknown origin, and it became brutally apparent that I needed to take my Korean wife anywhere but College Station, TX, so I talked the head cheese for Wendy's in Ft. Worth/Dallas to hire me. He didn't want to hire me cuz he said I wouldn't stay. He was right, but for the wrong reasons.

Scooter8647 🇺🇦 🇳🇿1d ago

@lisamelton @impermanen_ "Of Missing Persons" that he wrote to Lowell George's 4-year-old daughter after her father died gets me every time I hear it.

Lisa Melton 1d ago

@Doppelganger75 Another one from "Hold Out". The man had a way of cutting at his own soul to let the emotions flow as words. Talent and skill.

martin lentink 🇪🇺 🇺🇦📎1d ago

@lisamelton @impermanen_
I wanna know who the men in the shadows are
I wanna hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight and to die

martin lentink 🇪🇺 🇺🇦📎1d ago

@lisamelton @impermanen_ From "Lives In The Balance"

Wandering Hermit 1d ago

Between the current world situation, and the fact that I just had eye surgery, this song has been living in my head for a couple of months.

cognitively accessible math 1d ago

@impermanen_ Oh, dthat song does the total earworm thing for me. But, yea.

@impermanen_ decades ago there was an article (in "Atlantic Monthly"?) titled "Doctor My Eyes" . It described dozens of medically inexplicable cases of blindness among Hmong people who had resettled in California after fleeing their home country. The conclusion was that these Hmong had witnessed and suffered such unspeakable trauma that they were rendered unable to see. The story haunts me still. At the time I immediately recognized the connection with Browne's lyrics.

@impermanen_ I learned how not to cry at 6 years old. At the hands of my big sister's boyfriend. If I'd cried I would have died. And then I lived like a dead person until i COULD cry and talk.

impermanen_ 🕊️17h ago

@Lizette603_23 oh, that’s awful. I’m glad you’re safe today and can talk and cry again.

@impermanen_ I'm nearing 77 now. That was a long time ago. A long journey. But it can be done and it does get better and life can feel free and safe and good. Testament to it is my life. Never give up on YOURSELF!

CynBlogger ❌👑16h ago

@impermanen_
Wow! Thanks for posting!