Lucinda Williams another music mystic

[Jhanananda]

Lucinda Williams is surely one of the great genius singer-song-writers of our time, yet most people have never heard of her.  Nonetheless, many of the famous musicians of country and folk music have done one or more of her covers.  I discovered her when I was traversing my protracted dark night of the soul.  Most of her music is dark.
Pineola 2001
Drunken Angel
Something About What Happens When We Talk
Side of the Road
Sweet Old World

Some of her music is truly inspired
What If? reveals that she is full blown delusional in a good way, just the way a mystic would be.
Blue is where I go when I meditate.

[Michel]

I very much liked listening to the music of Lucinda Williams.

She has much to say about the world, and certainly expresses herself well through her music.

Expressing oneself through art is often the only road open to someone like her, all other forms of expression being frowned upon, and even forbidden in this age of darkness.

I especially enjoyed "Drunken Angel" and "What If". Drunken Angel reminds me of how I also turned my back on my own music for the bottle. Her song "What If" is a bunch of hypothetical ideas that the world could be be a different place, for better or for worse. It's about possibilities. It's all upside down, inside out. It's nonsense that makes sense somehow. I take it to mean that the world could go in any direction at any moment, nothing is permanent, there are so many variables. See lyrics below.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS LYRICS

"Drunken Angel"

Sun came up it was another day
And the sun went down you were blown away
Why'd you let go of your guitar
Why'd you ever let it go that far
Drunken Angel
Could've held on to that long smooth neck
Let your hand remember every fret
Fingers touching each shiny string
But you let go of everything
Drunken Angel
Drunken Angel
You're on the other side
Drunken Angel
You're on the other side
Followers would cling to you
Hang around just to meet you
Some threw roses at your feet
And watch you pass out on the street
Drunken Angel
Feed you and pay off all your debts
Kiss your brow taste your sweat
Write about your soul your guts
Criticize you and wish you luck
Drunken Angel
Drunken Angel
You're on the other side
Drunken Angel
You're on the other side

[SOLO]

Some kind of savior singing the blues
A derelict in your duct tape shoes
Your orphan clothes and your long dark hair
Looking like you didn't care

Drunken Angel
Blood spilled out from the hole in your heart
Over the strings of your guitar
The worn down places in the wood
That once made you feel so good
Drunken Angel
Drunken Angel
You're on the other side
Drunken Angel
You're on the other side
Sun came up it was another day
And the sun went down you were blown away
Why'd you let go of your guitar
Why'd you ever let it go that far
Drunken Angel Drunken Angel

“What If”
 
 I shudder to think
 What it would mean
 If the president wore pink
 Or if a prostitute was queen
 What would happen then
 How would the world change
 If thick became thin
 And the world was rearranged
 If the rains brought down the moon
 And daylight was feared
 And the sun rose too soon
 And then just disappeared
 If dogs became kings
 And the Pope chewed gum
 And hobos had wings
 And God was a bum
 If houses became trees
 And flowers turned to stone
 And there were no families
 And people lived alone
 If buildings started laughing
 And windows cried
 And feet started clapping
 And out came inside
 If mountains fell in slivers
 And the sky began to bleed
 And blood filled up the rivers
 And prisoners were freed
 If the stars fell apart
 And the ocean dried up
 And the world was one big heart
 And decided to stop
 If children grew up happier
 And they could run with the wolves
 And they never felt trapped
 Or hungry or unloved
 If cats walked on water
 And birds had bank accounts
 And we loved one another
 In equal amounts

 

[Michel]

In the suttas, music is one of the sensual pleasures that are to be overcome. But music is a means of communicating important ideas, as Lucinda Williams, and many others do very well. How does one reconcile the two? I have tried my best to completely abandon music. I am a skilled guitarist, with 50 years of experience, and play many genres of music from renaissance, baroque, classical, ragtime, flamenco, modern, blues to folk, and have written my own compositions for solo guitar. I could easily fall back into music's seductive grasp, frittering away precious time. I feel an unhealthy sense of guilt whenever I play, and I play for 15 minutes or so a day when I'm too tired to do anything else. My passion for music is dying a slow death. Music, like sex and other forms of sensual delight, is a distraction to my contemplative practice. Overcoming desire for sense pleasures is at the core of the teachings, but the ideas embodied in the many genres of music are a powerful means to understanding the human experience. So, how does one reconcile this paradox?

[Jhanananda]

I am glad you like Lucinda's music. While the suttas reject music, Islam rejects pictorial expression, as it is considered a "graven image," which is an injunction from the Bible; I am a visual artist, and I have enjoyed visual art, dance and music for decades, and I have found some visual art, dance and music inspiring.  Therefore I see no problem with visual art, music or dance that is inspiring, and/or delivers wisdom. So, instead of ending your 50 year music career, Michel, see if you can transform your music into an inspiring message of wisdom.

[Jhanananda]

I forgot to mention that Emily Maguire's Believer reminds me of Lucinda Williams' What If?.  Both songs seem manic-delusional in the same way, but both delusions have quite a bit of insight and wisdom in them.

[Michel]

I like these lines from Maguire's "Believer:

...if only

 I’d seen the light of a thousand suns
 Rising high above the sea
 And I’d held the hand of a holy man
 If only I believed
 Believer

For me 'the light of a thousand suns' is the Pali Canon, which is the great, perennial truth of all things, it is the ancient wisdom of the mystics, which shows the path one must follow leading to the practice and mastering of the religious experience - culminating in liberation. And 'the hand of a holy man' are all of the wise mystics. She may have meant something very similar, or parallel to this, I think. But maybe not. If she were in front me now, I wouldn't even ask her what she meant. I would merely smile in delight of her presence.