About "Volare (Nel Blu, DiPinto Di Blu)" — "To Fly (In Blue, Painted Blue") — he writes:
You get the mental picture, Utopia, and it’s painted blue. Oil paint, cosmetics and greasepaint, frescoes with blue slapped on, and you’re singing like a canary. You’re tickled pink and walking on air, and there’s no end to space.... Supposedly it’s about a man who wants to paint himself blue and then fly away. Volare, it means, “Let’s fly away into the cielo infinito.” Obviously, the endless sky. The entire world can disappear but I’m in my own head.
About "Blue Suede Shoes":
These shoes are not like other shifty things that perish or change or transform themselves. They symbolize church and state, and have the substance of the universe in them, nothing benefits me more than my shoes.... They neither move nor speak, yet they vibrate with life, and contain the infinite power of the sun. They’re as good as the day I found them. Perhaps you’ve heard of them, blue suede shoes. They’re blue, royal blue. Not low down in the dumps blue, they’re killer blue, like the moon is blue, they’re precious. Don’t try to suffocate their spirit, try to be a saint, try to stay as far away from them as you possibly can.
There's other blue in the book — singing the blues, "Blue Bayou," "Blue Moon," "Blue Moon of Kentucky," blue veined, blue blooded, baby blue eyes, Bobby Blue Bland, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes...
Posts
21 comments:
Blue, Green, and a season of frost.
Baby blue. Baby pink? It's no wonder that girls are singing with emojis.
The lyrics to "Volare" translated into English:
I think, that dream does not come back ever again.
I painted my face and hands blue.
Then suddenly I was being kidnapped by the wind.
And I began to fly in the endless sky.
Flying, oh, oh!
Singing, oh, oh, oh, oh!
In the blue painted blue.
Happy to be up there.
And I flew, I flew happily to the heights of the sun.
As the world slowly disappeared out there,
A soft music was playing just for me.
Flying, oh, oh!
Singing, oh, oh, oh, oh!
In the blue painted blue.
Happy to be up there.
In the blue painted blue.
Happy to be up there.
Dylan says: "THIS COULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE FIRST hallucinogenic songs, predating Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” by at least ten years."
The singer paints himself blue, then is captured by the wind and taken into the sky. The world disappears and soft music plays for him alone and he's in ecstasy.
I remember when the song was a big hit. It was 1958! So I was 7. I remember a kid in our school was able to sing it — in Italian. I don't know what grade he was. We had first grade through 6th grade all in one building back then. Anyway, this boy got up and sang the song like an Italian singer on TV. It was weird seeing and hearing that from a kid. The entire school was enraptured by this performance... enraptured but not swept up into the sky by the wind, of course... because we had not painted ourselves blue.
"we had not painted ourselves blue" = we had not taken hallucinogens... yet... later, I remember, there was "Blue Cheer" LSD.
Paint it black... where all your burdens disappear in a hole... who h/t NAAC in generational profit... epiphany.
The original version, in Italian by the guy (I can't recall his name), was a great record. The Bobby Rydell version in English, ummm, not so much.
Volare is a song that everyone knows but knows nothing about. Until now. Thanks again Mr. D.
The bass play in "Its all over baby blue" is Spike Lee's father, 0ver 90 and still kicking.
"Utopia, and it’s painted blue... You’re tickled pink and walking on air."
Eden, Adam, and Eve, tells a tale of coming of age and love.
Yes, that's the version I remember, particularly "away from the maddening crowds". Huh? I guess "madding" wouldn't have fit the meter.
Does he really sing "maddening crowds"?
The Thomas Hardy book title is "Far From the Madding Crowd."
The adjective "madding" means "Becoming mad; acting madly; frenzied" — so the crowd is behaving as if it is mad.
If you say the "maddening crowd," you're saying that the crowd is making *you* mad.
Thomas Hardy uses the adjective "maddening" in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles": "There never was such a maddening mouth since Eve's!"
Anyone wanting more blues should seek out Gass's On Being Blue. It pairs well with Garth's version of "Mr. Blue." Or Joni Mitchell's Blue. Or "Blue Monday." (Are these all the same color? Anyone read the Lakoff book Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things? Which blue is the bluest blue ever blown? I vote Garth.)
"Sound And Vision"
Don't you wonder sometimes
'Bout sound and vision?
Blue, blue, electric blue
That's the colour of my room
Where I will live
Blue, blue
Pale blinds drawn all day
Nothing to read, nothing to say
Blue, blue
I will sit right down
Waiting for the gift of sound and vision
And I will sing
Waiting for the gift of sound and vision
Drifting into my solitude
Over my head
Don't you wonder sometimes
'Bout sound and vision?
I just remember the line "Blue, blue, 'lectric blue," and had no idea what the rest of the song was about or that it was David Bowie.
Electric blue is actually a color. Something to to with cyan and ionized argon gas, blah, blah, blah ...
On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry is a book by William Gass. Another book I will never get around to reading.
I love reading and hearing Dylan’s takes on music.
He’s a few generations ahead of me and when I started listening to his music and trying to find out more about him, I really liked how he was an artist who didn’t spout off about stuff away from his music. His interviews were like Bill Belichick. He didn’t want to talk but knew he had to say something because fans want to hear what you have to say. And what he had to say outside his music was I’m not talking about other stuff or even my music but I’ve done my marketing job by talking, unhelpful to you it may be.
The helpful stuff Dylan sorta talked about was other music.
And I appreciate he now is in a place where he can expound about music more. It’s not unhelpful but is often inscrutable. And always delightful.
"I can't take the way he sings
But I love to hear him talk"
Not low down in the dumps blue
It’s no coincidence blue is the color of lonesome and the color of freedom too — when you ain’t got nothin you got nothin to lose.
The lonesome sigh of a train going by
Makes me want to stop and cry
I recall the day it took you away
I'm blue, I'm lonesome too
When I hear that whistle blow
I want to pack my clothes and go
The lonesome sound of a train going by
Makes me want to stop and cry
In the still of the night in the pale moonlight
The wind, it moans and cry
These lonesome blues I just can't lose
I'm blue, I'm lonesome too
When I hear that whistle blow
I want to pack my clothes and go
The lonesome sound of a train going by
Makes me want to stop and cry
Surprised nothing about "blue on blue". Bobby V!
When the 1967 movie of "Far from the Madding Crowd" came out, both my 12-year-old eye and my 12-year-old ear made "madding" into "maddening," just as they turned John Hersey into John Hershey."
The versions of Volare that I have in iTunes are by Dean Martin, Domenico Modugno and the Gipsy Kings.
MOfarmer said...
Surprised nothing about "blue on blue". Bobby V!
And what about Bobby's Blue Velvet?
She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet was the night
Softer than satin was the light
From the stars
She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet were her eyes
Warmer than May her tender sighs
Love was ours...?
She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet was the night
Softer than satin was the light
From the stars
She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet were her eyes
Warmer than May her tender sighs
Love was ours...
By the way: does Dylan mention "Pierrot le Fou," which ends with Jean-Paul Belmondo painting his face blue, wrapping a string of red & yellow dynamite sticks around his head, lighting the fuse, changing his mind and trying to put out the fuse, and vanishing in a fire ball? I can't hear "Volare" without thinking of it.
Post a Comment