The post title is the title of a 1913 Christian hymn sung by Cat Stevens that I often listen to on my morning walk/run. I had to look up the lyrics in the second verse because as Stevens sings it — and I've listened closely, over and over — it sounds like this:
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from HeavenBut there can't be a cue ball in Eden!
Like the first cue ball on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass
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91 comments:
Egg McMuffin time.
Every congregation of every denomination I've played for loves this song, knows Cat Steven's interpretation, and sings it heartily.
Dew drop, I think you know.
I love the song. I've never heard "cue ball" for "dew fall", but it drives me crazy he says "recreation" for "re-creation"
First dewfall in Eden.
Dew. Dew ball
I don’t think he has gone by Cat Stevens for a long time. Yusaf now. Are the old songs still credited to his former name?
I always knew it was "dew fall". Love that song.
"Just brush your teeth before you leave me, baby"
-- from 'Angel Of The Morning '
'Dewfall,' I believe.
I used to play that for my two children when they were young, to wake them up. I alternated between that and "Here Comes the Sun." That's a good way to start the day.
Not to be morbid, but I think "Morning has Broken" would be a wonderful song for a funeral, if the deceased believed in the resurrection.
I’m trying to think who I heard sing it, because I always heard “like the first few fall.”
I hear it as "dew fall".
Dew fall?
Joan Baez screwed up the lyrics to a Band song. What's with these folkies and their faulty memories.
It's "dew fall", right? (In my head, no idea what Cat sings.)
I suspect that "cue ball" is a mistake from a person who tried to get the lyrics from listening to the record. The Methodist Hymnal has "like the first dew fall on the first grass." Which makes more sense.
'Dew-fall'? Fits.
What a worker in a Brotherhood of Ball Bonders and Widget Workers T-shirt said to me today...
"Cat...is for pussies!"
I don't know about that but he was clearly paranoid with that moonshadow following him around everywhere and all...
Dew fall...
But there’s at least one from Wisconsin - according to the great and greatly minimalist Tom Waits song “Diamonds on My Windshield"
And a Wisconsin hiker with a cue-ball head
He's wishing he was home in a Wiscosin bed
But there's fifteen feet of snow in the East
Colder then a welldigger's ass
And it's colder than a welldigger's ass...
JOB
dew fall
dew fall
dew fall
in the heavenly Eden there will be no misunderstood words.
just the Eternal Word, fully known.
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
"Excuse me, while I kiss this guy"
--Jimi Hendrix
The call doesn't look like impeachment material to me...and apparently there's no campaign violation either. I'm now more curious what the Biden's were doing though...
If God wanted there to be a cue ball in Eden, there would have been a cue ball in Eden.
Ann, it's "dewfall" not "cue fall" in the 2nd verse:
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Ann, it's "dewfall" not "cue fall" in the 2nd verse:
Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Dewfall. At least, that's how the hymn goes...
"dew fall"?
I had no idea that song was an old hymn. I had that album in high school.
I saw Cat Stevens at the Royal Albert Hall in Londom in the mid seventies. His entrance on the stage was part of a magic show. I think he stepped out of a box that was first shown to be empty.
Show was okay but he didn’t seem happy. He brought attention to the empty seats and then started talking about a Paul Simon performance he'd watched. He said PS was a much more polished performer.
Time to name the animals.
Cat Stevens' brogue turned "dew fall" into 'cue ball' the same way Tuesday becomes Choose-day for some British speakers.
How the devil could have gotten a pool table into Eden without having hands or feet is a profound mystery worthy of serious contemplation.
Ummm, I think you are mistaken on the cue ball part.
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
A Mondegreen! "Cue ball" for "dew fall." The misheard lyric that stuck with me the longest was "...there's a bathroom on the right" in CCR's Bad Moon Rising. I still hear it.
But there can't be a cue ball in Eden!
I'd always heard, that Thunder was the Angels bowling; so, there (in MY theology) are Bowling Alleys in Heaven, and MOST (earthly, anyway) Bowling Alleys have Pool Rooms...
So, the Only Real Question is: How'd they fall down to Eden?
Dew fall
a 1913 Christian hymn sung by Cat Stevens
1931
When I saw the post title, I thought of another hymn with the text, “When morning gilds the skies...”
- Krumhorn
Isn't it "dew fall"? But I love "cue ball."
Post links to the lyrics, but thanks to all who got it right, “dew fall.”
Does dew fall?
Dew doesn’t fall but it seems to since it won’t appear under a covering.
Well, scientifically it condenses from the air, but poetically it falls.
And don't get us Boomers started on "Louie, Louie."
Good point, dew forms (condensates), it does not fall.
I say that any boob can take
And shove a ball in a pocket.
And they call that sloth...
I say that any boob can take
And shove a ball in a pocket.
And they call that sloth...
Morning breaks at the crack of dawn.
Dew does not fall. It condenses.
I hate dew with a passion. It is a huge problem for telescope observing. I spent Monday observing in northern Wisconsin and the dew was heavy. Fogs up the optics, which you deal with batteries and dew heaters. Quite the rigamarole. Over time it degrades the mirror coatings, which you deal with by recoating the mirrors. Expensive and quite the rigamarole. And you spend the next day drying everything off before you can pack it away. Right now my observing kit and telescopes parts are all over the living room. Quite the rigamarole.
Fuck dew.
Dew condenses
Was Socrates a troll?
Yes, "dew fall" is such a thing.
dewfall
n. The formation of dew.
n. The time of evening when dew begins to form.
n. The falling of dew; a fall of dew.
More at Wordnik from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
Does dew fall?
Technically, no. IIRC, it condenses directly from the cool, moist, morning air onto leaves and grass and other surfaces. But “falling dew” has been the poetic idiom since forever.
BTW, an hour or so ago I listened to Cat Stevens singing this song on YouTube, and perhaps I am conditioned from knowing the lyrics, but I thought I heard “dew fall” pretty distinctly.
"Does dew fall?"
Oh, fer crying' out loud! Now you're just baiting us!
@AA,
Does dew fall?
At least poetically it does.
Eleanor Farjeon, the author of the hymn, no doubt would have known the Advent Latin prose Rorate caeli desuper, which is translated into English (and used by the Anglican liturgy) as "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just".
There's no "dew" dropping in the Latin, but it does in the English.
The New Yorker had a great piece on the science of mondegreens just a few years ago.
https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/science-misheard-lyrics-mondegreens
Dew Drop Inn
As for artists being selfish a-holes. Supposedly Stevens heard his piano player playing the riff in that song, and the piano player said he was working on it for himself and didn’t want to give it up. Stevens took it anyway.
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
That rendering may or may not be closer to the original meaning, but I'm sticking with the King James version:
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
More poetic. Transcendantly so.
Water vapors condense on condensation nuclei
"My pony plays the mamba, listen to the radio ..."
Little known fact. Cue Ball Cat from Tom & Jerry was originally Dew Fall Cat, but Hanna misheard Barbera. True story.
River City wasn’t the first place that faced an attack of Pool.
I got dark at 7:30 last night. I'm ready for summer weather to be over, but I'm not ready for it to be dark at 7:30 yet.
In Psalm 110 dew is what is like the vast volunteer Army that the Messiah leads in battle to crush His enemies as under His feet.
There was a time when any road trip across the states of Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota and the UP, you'd pass by a number of Dew Drop Inns (as well as Mom's restaurants).
As a general rule, I expect artists to have stupid politics and I don't hold it against them, but I can't hear a Cat Stevens song without thinking about the sad fact that the author of "Peace Train" defended the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie and later lied about it when it became inconvenient to his career.
Though much overwrought in Guardians of the Galaxy II, Father and Son was a really nice song and a nice touch in that movie.
Yes, "dew fall" is such a thing.
dewfall
n. The formation of dew.
In the 1969 Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI, the official Latin text reads, "Haec ergo dona, quaesumus, Spiritus tui rore sanctifica," which is properly translated into English as, "Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall."
Note that the Latin ros, roris is "dewfall." Why the first English translation of the 1973 Missal omitted "like the dewfall" is left for speculation; nevertheless, the new English translation of the 2011 Missal is clearly more accurate to the original Latin text.
Blogger dustbunny said...
I don’t think he has gone by Cat Stevens for a long time. Yusaf now. Are the old songs still credited to his former name?
How about “the cat formerly known as Stevens”?
Blogger Roughcoat said...
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
That rendering may or may not be closer to the original meaning, but I'm sticking with the King James version:
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
More poetic. Transcendentally so.
King James Version is the best. Back in the 70s everything had to be changed. We lost poetry and gained ... words that white trash could understand?
"I'm ready for summer weather to be over, but I'm not ready for it to be dark at 7:30 yet."
We're down to 12 hours of daylight where I live, sunset just after 6:30pm. I'm with you, don't miss the summer heat (high in the upper 60's today) but shorter days are a bummer.
"I got dark at 7:30 last night. I'm ready for summer weather to be over, but I'm not ready for it to be dark at 7:30 yet."
I am so ready for observing beginning at 8:30 (when astronomical twilight ends right now). Waiting until 11pm (i.e the solstice) sucks.
When Adam awoke and espied the freshly made Eve little did he know he was from that moment behind the celestial infinity ball.
Excuse me while I kiss this guy.
Though heralded with naught of fear,
Or outward sign or show;
Though only to the inward ear
It whispers soft and low;
Though dropping, as the manna fell,
Unseen, yet from above,
Noiseless as dew-fall, heed it well,---
Thy Father's call of love!
John Greenleaf Whitter, whose poetry I found to be exceptionally beautiful when I was a child. That moment passed.
The OED notes dew-fall, dewfall ('the formation or deposition of dew; the time when this begins, in the evening') in 1622, so not necessarily an ancient word.
As Fernandistein points out, the antiphon (from Isaias 45,8) Rorate caeli desuper... does in fact contain 'dew' i.e. that is what the verb roro, roravi, roratum (to let fall, drop, or distil dew) means, in this case the plural imperative rorate.
The difference between Cat Stevens and Paul Simon:
One became a violent Islamist fascist.
The other was testy with Art Garfunkel.
After hearing "Morning has broken", I always mentally follow it up with "somebody fix it!"
after the dew forms, cant it fall, as in drip off/down?
and does it also 'go up', when it evaporates?
are we 'Snoping' lyrics now, along with jokes?
"All of which is to say I understand why dewdrop is such a profound religious symbol."
I'm doubling down.
Fuck dew. And the horse it rode in on.
Sweet the rain’s new fall
Sunlit from Heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where his feet pass.
I went to a record shop in Saudi Arabia in 1983. The first thing that struck me was how many of the album covers had female flesh covered with a black sharpie. Not only no bosom was allowed, but arms were covered with black ink. I wish I could remember the albums, but oldies like Ella Fitzgerald come to mind. The two other things I remember: the massive amount of Arabic music and the shelf that had Cat Stevens albums.
I also remember that about 20% of the shelf space were CD's. Things were changing.
We were doing our business keeping an eye on the Iran/Iraq war. We got their number in a fight, we don't have a clue about their culture.
One of my first albums from the local mall. Beautiful memories I shall never forget.
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