This summer I stumbled across a free downloading of Bonnaroo songs c/o Spin magazine. At the time, I was chasing down tunes by Tinariwen — and how I got there is a mystery. And actually immaterial. As often happens, my immediate reaction to new music rarely lasts. Stuff I like immediately wears thin. Occasionally there is a song that I find myself enjoying and I am unaware that I have heard it before. So it was with the Bonnaroo stuff. I had unchecked a song by Mumford & Sons but have since become somewhat of a fan. And The National has become a group I appreciate even though the meaning of "Bloodbuzz Ohio" is up for grabs. But as the old iTunes shuffles through my large music library, I found myself enjoying a song from the download that is over-the-top country, complete with steel guitar.
The song is by Jamey Johnson and when I ask the iTunes genius to create a mix starting with this song, it nominates artists such as Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakum, Waylon Jennings and Lyle Lovett. I love this song yet it's full of contradictions. First, it sounds a little like Jimmy Buffett and the first verse reminds me of Joe Walsh "Life's Been Good" about living the kind of life possible from great fame and wealth. But there are only two verses which leaves an entire third of the tune with twanging guitar and humming. And here's the kicker, the verse that is lodged in my mind:
Place Out On the Ocean
I been riding down a two-lane highway
For pretty much all of my life
Trying to do things my way
Wondering if I'll ever get anywhere but where I came from
I hope I'm sane by the time I'm done
Many of us live with the fear that someday we will be uncovered as frauds. I don't mind the reminder that for all I may try to do, in the end I may end up very close to my roots. But with that rueful admission, there is the clear wish to not go crazy at the end. "Dear Lord, if your plan is for me aspire to someplace big and wonderful but ultimately drag my ass back to the equivalent of my dull hometown, at least when you do that, don't take my sanity from me." That's how I interpret this verse.What really puzzles me is the meter and rhyme here. It absolutely works and is lovely. But when I try to unpack it, I'm lost. The "scheme" might be ABACC which apparently has no formal label. Who doesn't feel badly for "life" being left to dangle at the end of line 2, never to hitched to another? OR, if the line breaks after "anywhere" to cause the last two lines to rhyme then I think this becomes ABACDD. But probably not since I have little idea why I'm writing about.
No real moral here except perhaps to realize that some things can be really good for reasons we cannot fully explain.
