At a Mill Wheel Grinding
Look at the photo above and you'll know exactly how I spent my 4th of July holiday. What started off as roughly four hundred pieces of particle board, dowels, screws, hinges, and bolts consumed my entire day, save for the few early morning hours when I was able to start Steve Yarbrough's The End of California.* Soon enough, my reading turned from literary to technical, from clear and consice to confusing and confounding, from beautifully written passages to poorly drawn illustrations. Who the hell do they hire to come up with the manuals for putting together prefab furniture? Seven hours after I began, about the time Kim Jong-il was tossing his Taepodong-2 missile over the Pacific in a big "Up Yours!" to the West, I put the last screw in the dresser and proclaimed victory over the forces of evil instruction writing. Baby Marlie now has a place to sleep and some drawers for her clothes and I have two fewer pieces of furniture to put together.
So another year goes by that I didn't compile my "Music for Fireworks" compilation. Not only that, but I didn't have the energy to go see fireworks. I settled for watching the pundits blame each other's party for North Korea while the neighborhood kids shot off barely legal pyrotechnics a block or so away. However, there was one song I hummed all day. Fitting in many ways, I think. The version I'm offering here is Johnny and June Carter but this song has been done by dozens of folks over the years. Enjoy and check back later today or tomorrow when more regular randomness will return.
+ "If I Were a Carpenter" by June Carter and Johnny Cash
If I were a carpenter and you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway, would you have my baby?
If a tinker were my trade, would you still love me?
Carrying the pots I made, following behind meSave my love through loneliness
Save my love for sorrow
I've given you my onliness
Come and give me your tomorrowsIf I worked my hands in wood, would you still love me
Answer me, babe, yes, I would, I'd put you above me
If I were a miller at a mill wheel grinding
Would you miss your colored box, your soft shoes shining?
_______________________________________________________________
*Any book with a picture of a Piggly Wiggly on the cover automatically goes to the top of the TBR pile.
If you get the chance, check out Leonard Nimoy's version of IIWAC...now that's music.
Posted by: Jimmy Beck | July 05, 2006 at 12:51 PM