1. Restless
1.a. Drink Yer Glasses Empty
3. Only Love Would Know
4. Wild Strawberries
5. Waiting for You
6. Ring them Bells
7. I'd Rather Press On
8. Welcome to Try
9. Fading Away
10. I'll Prove My Love
1. Great song; combines GL's common themes of nature and love. Shows him at a maturing time of life, still restless and wanting to be the roaming minstrel (perhaps with the roaming eye as well), but more settled and always pulled back by the tug of home and family ("I can feel the restless yearning of those geese as off they roam/Then trade that for a warm bed in a place I can call home.") I seem to recall, vaguely, a Phil Ochs song that also used a flock of geese as the inspiration for musings on this kind of theme; was it called something like "The Final Song of My Returning?
1.a. Fabulous song, would be #1, with one glaring problem--the refrain, "There's one less cause in the world to be leaving for"--it's kind of a clunky verse, ends in a preposition, and what exactly does it mean? The rest of the song is marvelous.
3. Only Love Would Know--although his voice is strained at times, I love the Push-Pull of the music and the words, the tension and uncertainty, and some of the lyrics are top-flight ("My imagination/Tells me I'm a pent-up fool/In the deep end of the pool").
4. Wild Strawberries. How could you not like a song that has "polka-dot underwear" in it? As I've mentioned in another post, I like the duality of the song--daily grind, everyday worries, "world on the slide", "when does the fun begin?", juxtaposed with the fantasies of escaping to a world of freedom--out in nature, picking strawberries and crabapples, escaping on any form of transportation--boat, plane, all the way to a "rainbow ride".
5. The title track has a lot to offer; it's a big song, big vision, wide-open-spaces Canada. There's not much closure to it, however ("Waiting for you to say 'Let us begin'"). Good, rather than great song.
6. Good Dylan song, nicely done. Since it's not a GL original, I'll put it at the beginning of the second tier.
7. I'd Rather Press On--I like the melody, and it starts out well. There is some clunky and forced phrasing, however (too many syllables on "Have it any way you will", for example).
8. Welcome to Try--Quite autobiographical, but not very melodic, and the end is downright jarring and a bit screechy ("If they want to preach..."). OK song, but not one I'd play more than once in a row.
9. Fading Away--I don't mind the more "rocking sound", actually love the electric guitar riffs. Could be 7, 8, or 9 interchangeably with the two above it.
10. I never really connected to this song (I'm sure B'stone is ready to strangle me); it seems kind of generic and syrupy, a variation on "ain't no mountain high enough" or even "I will follow him /he is my destiny" from the early '60s ("there isn't an ocean so deep/A mountain so high it keep me away"). It's too generic and vague in its expression. ("I will prove my love to you/In everything I say and in all I do"--like what, for instance? Compare it to a song with a similar theme, such as "Whisper my Name", and I think you'll see that the latter is a much better song. "I'll Prove My Love" is the one song I sometimes skip on a CD I otherwise truly enjoy.
Those are my takes; feel free to disagree.
DQ
[ September 20, 2006, 12:49: Message edited by: Don Quixote ]
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