Winterlong

I waited for you, Winterlong
You seemed to be where I belong.
It's all illusion anyway.

• Winterlong - Pixies live cover
• Set Fire to the Third Bar - Martha Wainwright and Snow Patrol

Fleetwood fucking Mac

Fleetwood Mac was enchanting! I saw them two days ago at the Air Canada Centre for their tour. Stevie looks 15, Mick Fleetwood looks like Santa and Lindsay Buckingham looks more kick-ass than ever and they all performed wonderfully. Their last song was Silver Springs which is my favourite; a sweet surprise.

• Dreams
• Silver Springs
• Never Going Back Again
  

(hard to find decent sounding clips)

Do not say the moment was imagined

By Shotgun Serenade

Even though she sleeps upon your satin;
Even though she wakes you with a kiss.
Do not say the moment was imagined;
Do not stoop to strategies like this.

As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music. Alexandra laughing.
Your firm commitments tangible again.

As someone long prepared for the occasion;
In full command of every plan you wrecked –
Do not choose a coward’s explanation
That hides behind the cause and the effect.

And you who had the honor of her evening,
And by the honor had your own restored
–Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving;
Alexandra leaving with her lord.

- Leonard Cohen
(One of his most beautiful; an adaptation of a Lorca poem)

• Alexandra Leaving - Leonard Cohen
• Selah - Lauren Hill

She Hangs Brightly

I found this album by Mazzy Star (1990) at a used record store after this. I have no choice but to use the term "wicked" for this one. She Hangs Brightly is like a mellow, shoe-gazing 90s Velvet Underground. Whenever I find a Mazzy Star CD, the slaes clerk and standers-by make sure to re-assert how awsome it is.

• Halah (video)
• Give You My Lovin'
• Be My Angel

Part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time

If we look closely, it seems there may be fragments of Leonard Cohen lingering in Joni Mitchell's music. I read about it here. Who else could she be referring to in The Gallery?

Lady, please love me now,
I am dead, I am a saint, turn down your bed
I have no heart, that’s what you said
You said, I can be cruel
But let me be gentle with you

Maybe even A Case of You (my favourite)

Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said "constant in the darkness, where's that at?"
...
Oh I could drink a case of you
And I would still be on my feet

I thought I would also post this video I found of Joni on the Johnny Cash show singing
I Still Miss Someone

She was an unknown legend in her time

by iNeedChemicalX

She's been running half her life
The chrome and steel she rides
Colliding with the very air she breathes

You know it ain't easy
You've got to hold on
She was an unknown legend in her time
Now she's dressing two kids
Looking for a magic kiss
She gets the far-away look in her eyes.

• Unknown Legend - Neil Young
  

Rituals

"There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice--patched, retreaded and approved for the road."

- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

• Happy Phantom - Tori Amos