Quanti anni sono passati non lo so, o forse non lo voglio sapere. Roma, una sera di luna, sicuramente, il concerto è appena finito. E io sono li, la aspetto vicino all’autobus che la riporterà in hotel. Arriva, si avvicina a me, mi ero promesso di farlo, di dirle quelle parole, ci avevo tanto pensato. I sui capelli lunghi, il suo sguardo di tenera cowgirl (passatemi il termine) sospesa fra la terra e la luna, si avvicina e mi guarda, sento qualcuno dietro che mormora: “your fan is waiting for you”. E io si che la stavo aspettando. Per vederla, per parlarle. Ma la scimmia della mia timidezza decide ancora una volta di saltarmi addosso e guastare tutto, perciò, con uno sguardo che immagino fra il beota e l’insulso, riesco solo ad osservarla in silenzio salire sull’autobus, mentre lei mi lancia nell’aria la dolcezza di un sorriso, fra il riconoscente e il compassionevole.
Margo Timmins, where are you tonight ? prendendo a prestito uno dei titoli dell’album.
Una delle voci più eteree e sensuali di tutta la storia della musica, e non esagero.
Saper accendere la dimensione del sogno, trasformare l’esistente, è quello che ho sempre cercato nella musica. Sentirsi trasportati in un’altra dimensione, in un mondo parallelo. E ci sono tante forme di musica che mi hanno dato accesso a questo, anche molto diverse fra loro. Fra di esse c’è la dolcezza mai stucchevole di questo gruppo canadese, che sa dipingere con grande intensità emotiva note dai colori languidi e soffusi, ma sempre veri, con ritmi morbidi e pacati, che si sintonizzano magicamente sulle frequenze dell’anima, del corpo, della natura, del mondo, come pochi hanno saputo fare. Perché il ritmo della terra, il nostro ritmo, è brachicardico, questo è certo. Poi noi possiamo farlo accelerare quanto vogliamo, iniettarlo di adrenalina, ma tutto ciò non è sostenibile, è un artificio.
L’apertura di questo doppio CD live è la splendida cover del brano Blue Moon di Elvis (che è a sua volta una reinterpretazione di quella che è una vera e propria popular song), dove il basso e l’armonica sono l’humus sonoro nel quale si materializza il calore sinuoso della voce di Margo che sussurra:
Forse nel nuovo sole di maggio
il mio bambino torna tra le mie braccia
lo terrò accanto a me
Rivoglio il mio bambino con me
perché è il mio vero amore
A seguire, Two Hundred More Miles, delicata ballad che ci narra di un lungo sogno inseguito, verso un obiettivo forse inesistente per gli altri, ma non per chi lo vede, ed è pronto a raggiungerlo, in fondo ad un viaggio notturno, lungo 200 miglia di pioggia asfaltata:
Dicono che sono pazzo
ma non cambierei tutti i tuoi domani d'oro
per un'ora di questa notte
spaventato o morto e infreddolito
ma ho sentito che c'è una luce
mi trascina a raggiungere una fine
Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning è il risveglio il giorno dopo un addio, in bilico fra la constatazione amara della perdita e l’ineluttabilità di una scelta necessaria, e il sole sorge ancora, dritto negli occhi.
Where are you tonight ? è una dolcissima nenia librata nel cielo di un mondo in cui la speranza riesce ancora a volare, oltre ogni cima, e il sospiro di Margo ci soffia ancora il tema del sogno, della ricerca di ciò che ci liberi, della volontà di non arrendersi alla mediocrità del normale:
Quando ti ho lasciato nei miei sogni la scorsa notte
mi hai promesso che ci saremmo liberati
Dove sei stasera ?
Mi racconti delle strade secondarie
e come guideremo tutta la notte
come i giorni svaniranno e la luna rimarrà sospesa per sempre
e la nuvola di polvere che solleveremo rimarrà come una canzone
E crescerà il mito sui due che hanno rifiutato di arrendersi
La cover di Sweet Jane di Lou Reed è un serpente che si avvita inesorabilmente sui tuoi pensieri, o su ciò che credi essi siano, incurante del fatto che lui ti sta lentamente portando la luce, o la morte (la differenza in effetti non c’è), mentre Lost my driving wheel ci racconta che quel viaggio (si è lo stesso), si è improvvisamente interrotto, ma per una ragione ben precisa:
La mia macchina si è rotta in Texas
si fermò di colpo sui suoi passi
Ho chiamato solo per dirti che ho bisogno di te
Ho chiamato solo per dirti come mi sento
Mi sento come un vecchio motore che ha perso il volante
Un vecchio motore che ha perso la ruota motrice
Misguided angel forse ci svela qual’era l’obiettivo, qual’era la missione, inseguita miglia dopo miglia:
Angelo fuorviato che pende su di me
Cuore come un Gabriele, puro e bianco come l'avorio
Anima come un Lucifero, nera e fredda come un pezzo di piombo
Angelo fuorviato, ti amo finché non sarò morto
Un incedere suadente, ipnotico, malinconico, a volte catatonico, narcolettico, alternato ad alcune più distese cavalcate sonore, nelle quali i Cowboy Junkies dimostrano ancor di più il loro pregevolissimo livello di fini musicisti. Slowcore, lo chiamano quelli bravi. E quando nel 1994 i Low, tra i padri fondatori di tale stile, pubblicano il loro primo album capolavoro “I could live in hope”, dove basso e chitarra si attorcigliano in una spirale vorticosa che illumina i 9:46 minuti di pura ipnosi sonora di Lullaby, allora i Cowboy Junkies avevano già tracciato la strada, i maestri sono loro. Nel dipingere un’umanità che vive, soffre, ama, e ricuce gli strappi del dolore con la tensione del sogno, con la forza evocativa del pensiero, seguendo l’onda magica di una vibrazione lenta, che riporta i battiti all’essenza, a ciò che la semplicità ci dona, a quell’atto di spontanea e calda empatia che si sprigiona dal sorriso di un essere umano.
Come il sorriso di Margo.
Elenco tracce e testi
03 Murder, Tonight, In The Trailer Park (00:00)
Murder tonight in the trailer park
Mrs. annabelle evans found
With her throat cut after dark
Her pockets turned inside out
Her dresser drawers turned upside down
Anna's neighbour, peg, identifies the body
Lets out a hollow kind of sound
Homicide is tying yellow ribbons
Around her silver airstream
Red cherries slashing up the night
Cutting through that cordoned crime scene
There's been a murder
In the trailer park tonight
Murder tonight in the trailer park
Pack your things ann marie,
We're heading west
We're going to make a fresh start
I've been saving pennies,
Been looking forward to this day
No time for questions are you coming
Or are you going to stay?
Crosstown at the waterton
George evans is sitting tall and tight,
Buying drinks for all the regulars
Bragging about how them bones
Danced for him tonight
There's been a murder
In the trailer park tonight
Murder tonight in the trailer park
Faceless man counting crumpled bills,
Hotel neon fights the dark
Tv set in the corner, they're talking murder
On the late-night news
He turns down the sound,
Waits for the sports,
He only wants to know,
'did I win or did I lose'
There's been a murder
In the trailer park tonight
Murder tonight in the trailer park
04 200 More Miles (00:00)
Atlanta's a distant memory
Montgomery a recent birth
and Tulsa burns on the desert floor
like a signal fire
I got Willie on the radio
a dozen things on my mind
and number one is fleshing out
these dreams of mine
I've got 200 more miles of rain asphalt in line
before I sleep
But there'll be no warm sheets or welcoming arms
to fall into tonight
In Nashville there is a lighter
in a case for all to see
it speaks of dreams and heartaches
left unsung
And in the corner stands a guitar and
lonesome words scrawled in a drunken hand
I don't travel past, travel hard before
and I'm beginning to understand
That I've got 200 more miles of rain asphalt in line
before I sleep
But there'll be no warm sheets or welcoming arms
to fall into tonight
They say that I am crazy
my life wasting on this road
that time will find my dreams
scared or dead and cold
But I heard there is a light
drawing me to reach an end
and when I reach there, I'll turn back
and you and I can begin again
I've got 200 more miles of rain asphalt in line
before I sleep
But there'll be no warm sheets or welcoming arms
to fall into tonight
I've got 200 more miles of rain asphalt in line
before I sleep
But I wouldn't trade all your golden tomorrows
for one hour of this night
Atlanta's a distant memory
Montgomery a recent birth
and Tulsa burns on the desert floor
like a signal fire
05 Me And The Devil (00:00)
Early this morning, he knocked on my door
Early this morning he knocked on my door
I said "Hello, Satan, I believe it's time to go"
Me and The Devil are walkin' side by side
Me and The Devil are walkin' side by side
Well, I'm goin' to beat my man until I get satisfied
He says I don't do him right
That I dog him around
Well, babe, you know you ain't treating me right
He says I don't do him right
that I dog him around
Well, it must be this old evil spirit
So deep down within the ground
You may bury my body down by the highway side
...oh, babe I don't care what you do with my body
You may bury my body down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride
Early this morning, he knocked on my door
Now me and The Devil are walking side by side
Side by side
06 State Trooper (00:00)
New Jersey Turnpike
Riding on a wet night
'neath the refinery's glow
Down where the great black river flow
Licence, registration:
I ain't got none
But I got a clear conscience
'bout the things that I done
Mister State Trooper
Please don't stop me
Please don't stop me
Please don't stop me
Maybe you got a kid
Maybe you got a pretty wife
The only thing that I got's
Been bugging me my whole life
Mister State Trooper
Please don't stop me
Please don't stop me
Please don't ya stop me
Well, in the wee wee hours
Your mind gets hazy
Radio relay towers
Gonna lead me to my baby
Radio's jammed up
with talk show stations
It's just talk, talk, talk, talk
'til you lose your patience
Mister State Trooper
Please don't stop me
Please don't stop me
Please don't ya stop me
Hey, somebody out there
Listen to my last prayer,
Heigh-ho Silver oh,
Deliver me from nowhere
08 Oregon Hill (00:00)
(Michael Timmins)
The hoods are up on Pine Street,
rear ends lifted too
The great-grandsons of General Robert E. Lee
are making love with a little help from STP
Their women on the porches comparing alibis
Greasy eggs and bacon,
bumper stickers aimed to start a fight,
full gun racks, Confederate caps,
if you want some 'shine
well, you can always find some more,
but what I remember most is the colour of Suzy's door
And Suzy says she's up there
cutting carrots still
And Suzy says she's missing me
so I'm missing Oregon Hill
A river to the south
to wash away all sins
A college to the east of us
to learn where sin begins
A graveyard to the west of it all
which I may soon be lying in
'Cause to the north there is a prison
which I've come to call my home,
but some Monday morning no country song
will sing me home again
And Suzy says she's up there
cutting carrots still
And Suzy says she's missing me
so I'm missing Oregon Hill
Sunday morning, eight A.M.,
sirens fill the air
Sounds like someone made the river
Sounds like someone being born again
Me, I'm just lying here in Suzy's bed
Baptists celebrating with praises to the Lord,
rednecks doing it with gin
Me and Suzy, we're celebrating
the joy of sleeping in
because tomorrow I'll be home again
But Suzy says she'll wait there
cutting carrots by the window sill
And Suzy says, 'Always think of me
when you think of Oregon Hill'
11 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel (00:00)
It's the kind of night that's so cold, when you spit
it freezes before it hits the ground
And when a bum asks you for a quarter, you give a dollar
if he's out tonight he must be truly down
And I'm searching all the windows for a last minute present
to prove to you that what I said was real,
for something small and frail and plastic, baby,
'cause cheap is how I feel
Half moon in the sky tonight, bright enough
to come up with an answer
to the question why is it that every time I see you
my love grows a little stronger
But your memory leaves my stomach churning,
feeling like a lie about to be revealed,
but I'll horde all this to myself
'cause cheap is how I feel
It's not the smell in here that gets to me it's the lights
I hate the shadows that they cast,
and the sound of clinking bottles is the one sure thing
I'll always drag with me from my past
I think I'll find a pair of eyes tonight, to fall into
and maybe strike a deal
Your body for my soul, fair swap
`cause cheap is how I feel
12 Sweet Jane (00:00)
Anyone who's ever had a heart
Wouldn't turn around and break it
And anyone who's ever played a part
Wouldn't turn around and hate it
Sweet Jane, Sweet Jane
Oh Sweet, Sweet Jane
You're waiting for Jimmy down in the alley
Waiting there for him to come back home
Waiting down on the corner
And thinking of ways to get back home
Sweet Jane, Sweet Jane
Oh Sweet, Sweet Jane
Anyone who's ever had a dream
Anyone who's ever played a part
Anyone who's ever been lonely
And anyone who's ever split apart
Sweet Jane, Sweet Jane
Oh Sweet, Sweet Jane
Heavenly widened roses
Seem to whisper to me when you smile
Heavenly widened roses
Seem to whisper to me when you smile
La la la la la la la...
Sweet Jane
Sweet, Sweet Jane
16 Hunted (00:00)
Emma's in a part of town
where she doesn't recognize the streets
named for famous native sons
and out of every crevice comes creeping
a threat in her direction
Lucy's outside her home
heading towards her corner store
she stays on well-travelled paths
and is always making sure
that she doesn't develop patterns
There are trap lines
running up and down Main Street
wire snares thirsting for your neck and feet
Susan doesn't like the way her curtains
are blowing in the wind
She swears she locked that window
before she went out dancing
she stands frozen in her doorway
Judy hears a sound coming from the other room
she knows she should be alone
'cause the kids left at noon
to go visit their father
Quick to your phone dial 911
invite a strange man into your home
who'll be carrying a gun
Leslie's working late
she's got a deadline to meet
In walks her boss,
upon her desk he puts his feet
and says alone at last
Reanne's got a new boyfriend
and they're getting along
until he locks the door and says don't struggle,
I'm stronger than you are.
Just one question I'm dying to ask, you said,
do you know what it's like to be hunted?
17 Lost My Driving Wheel (00:00)
Just came up on the midnight special
Hey, how 'bout that
My car broke down in Texas
she stopped dead in her tracks
Just called to tell you that I need you
Just called to tell you how I feel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
They took my money on the night train north
What a terrible thing
I gave my promise that I will be there with you
by Saturday night
I want to tell you that I need you
I need to tell you how I feel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
You can't say much in a phone call, babe
You know how it is
I have to tell you one sure thing
Oh, won't you listen to this
I want to tell you that I love you, babe
I want to tell you just how I feel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
Some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
I feel like some old engine that's lost my driving wheel
19 Misguided Angel (00:00)
I said "Mama, he's crazy and he scares me
But I want him by my side
though he's wild and he's bad
and sometimes just plain mad
I need him to keep me satisfied"
I said "Papa, don't cry cause it's alright
And I see you in some of his ways
Though he might not give me the life that you wanted
I'll love him the rest of my days"
Misguided angel hangin' over me
Heart like a Gabriel, pure and white as ivory
Soul like a Lucifer, black and cold like a piece of lead
Misguided angel, love you 'til I'm dead
I said "Brother, you speak to me of passion
You said never to settle for nothing less
Well, it's in the way he walks,
it's in the way he talks
His smile, his anger and his kisses"
I said "Sister, don't you understand?
He's all I ever wanted in a man
I'm tired of sittin' around the T.V. every night
Hoping I'm finding a Mr. Right"
Misguided angel hangin' over me
Heart like a Gabriel, pure and white as ivory
Soul like a Lucifer
Black and cold like a piece of lead
Misguided angel, love you 'til I'm dead
He says "Baby, don't listen to what they say
There comes a time when you have to break away"
He says "Baby there are things we all cling to all our life
It's time to let them go and become my wife"
Misguided angel hangin' over me
Heart like a Gabriel, pure and white as ivory
Soul like a Lucifer
Black and cold like a piece of lead
Misguided angel, love you 'til I'm dead
20 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (00:00)
Hear the lonesome whippoorwill His song's too blue to fly The midnight train is a-winding low I'm so lonesome I could cry I've never seen a night so long When time keeps crawling by The moon is gone behind the clouds To hide his face and cry Have you ever seen a robin weep When leaves have turned to brown? Like me he's lost his will to live I'm so lonesome I could cry The silence of a falling star Lights up a purple haze and as I wonder where you are I'm so lonesome I could cry
21 Walking After Midnight (00:00)
I was walking after midnight
Yeah, out in the moonlight
The way we used to do
I'm always walking after midnight
Searching for you
I'm always walking after midnight
Searching for you
I stop to see a weeping willow
Crying on his pillow
Maybe he's a-crying for me
and as the skys turn gloomy
The night winds whisper to me
I'm lonesome as I can be
I'm always walking after midnight
Searching for you
I walk for miles along the highway
Well that's just my way
of saying "I love you"
I'm always walking after midnight
Searching for you
I walk for miles along the highway
Searching for you
I'm always walking after midnight
Yeah, out in the moonlight
Hoping you may be
Somewhere a-walking after midnight
Searching for me
I'm always walking after midnight
Searching for you
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