Dylan's Nobel Acceptance Speech

Jane Siberry with k.d. lang: Calling All Angels

Well, I owe Jane and k.d. a bit of an apology. In a comment on that recent post about Leonard Cohen's death, I described this song thusly: "...a duet of which the lyrics were mostly the names of female saints. It's probably meant as a feminist-lesbian thing, but whatever, it's really beautiful." Of the three parts of that description, only the third is accurate. I'm embarrassed that I described this beautiful prayer as a socio-political statement. I don't know why I didn't remember that the saints' names were only an intro, or why I thought it was only female saints. I suppose I made the lesbian-feminist assumption first because of the mistake about the saints, and then because k.d. lang is a lesbian and I had some vague notion that Siberry might be, maybe because she has an album called When I Was a Boy

Anyway. Never mind all that. At least I got the "really beautiful" part right, except that it's kind of an understatement.

 

Siberry wrote the song. She's an artist to whom I 've wanted to return for a while. Back in the late '80s I was introduced to her by a co-worker who lent me several of Siberry's LPs. I liked them, liked them quite a lot actually, and bought my own copies, but with one thing and another, including not having a good turntable for a long time, and being generally overwhelmed with the amount of music available to me for the past 15 years or so, I've only heard them once or twice since then. Time to dig them out of the closet. 

Comments

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You should definitely seek out the album Shadowland by kd lang, Mac. I still find it sort of amazing and have been listening to it for years. I've seen she and her band four times since some time in the early 90s, and each time at some point in the show I weep a little from the emotion which wells up inside by hearing her voice live. She is truly amazing. Once Margo and I were in the first row!

I'm waiting eagerly for Pandora to announce its new streaming service based on the technology they bought from Rdio when it shut down. Then I'll be able to hear a lot of stuff that I don't necessarily want to buy, at least not unheard.

You really SHOULD be ashamed of your rash comments. This is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. And I’m not gay or lesbian.

Well, I did apologize. And I should add that "lesbian/feminist" is not a very strongly negative description from me, more just taxonomy, though I find the appropriation of female saints for those causes a little annoying.

But I have to say your comment is rather disappointing, not through any fault of your own. See this post:

https://www.lightondarkwater.com/2017/06/52-albums-week-24-the-walking-jane-siberry.html

As related there, the person who introduced me to Jane Siberry was named Robin but I don't remember her last name--we were co-workers briefly in the late '80s. And I've always been grateful to her for that. When I saw that someone named Robin had left a comment on a Jane Siberry post I thought "How wonderful! Robin has happened across my post! Now I can thank her for introducing me to that music." But I guess you aren't that Robin.

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