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        Pete Atkin >> Words >> The Wine and the Flowers
        
(Message started by: Pete Atkin on Today at 17:57)

Title: The Wine and the Flowers
Post by Pete Atkin on Today at 17:57

Well, as reported in the Gigs strand, Sarah Moule's if I may say so truly terrific new CD is out now and readily available from www.redramrecords.co.uk. It has at least a couple of tracks of special interest to members of this parish. Those familiar with the Midnight Voices CD will also have the chance to reacquaint themselves with some other friends. But I presumptuously thought that Sarah's exquisite version of The Flowers and the Wine might need a thread of its own.

To quote from the other strand (saving you the bother of seeking it out), Jan said that

Quote:

".....Another night you've been to visit me and him comes to an end." You wondered how this was going to work. It did work beautifully, turning the song inside out and adding a whole load of possible new interpretations. Leslie has just mentioned one possibility. I would suggest another, the partner's friend, invited initially because he's lonely, new to the area, ...

And Kevin said

Quote:

While I agree that Sarah's version of The Flowers and The Wine is very fine indeed, I have to say the version as written contains within it a few more interesting possibilities than the amended version does. For example, there is the possibility that the whole affair is in the mind of the speaker, that he thinks that the lady in question is arranging tête-à-têtes, when in fact she merely trying to keep a friendship going. There is also the possibility that she is something of a femme fatale who enjoys having more than one admirer at a time. Both of those interpretations, and indeed others that suggest themselves, make the protagonist a more interesting - not to say more disturbing - character than he is in the revision.

I think that the idea of the whole affair being in the mind of the speaker could still apply in the switched version, couldn't it? The femme fatale idea, too, might be said to have an equivalent in the character of the male visitor. But some may remember a whole range of possible interpretations that were discussed in the old days of the e-mail MV list. Who knows how many new ones may apply now?

The business of switching genders is an interesting one. I'm thinking most of Naomi's version of An Empty Table, where the only line that proved not to work from a female POV was "with your lovely shoulders bare." But there were several songs on The Lakeside Sessions which were written as from a female POV, where I don't think I ever had to change more than the odd personal pronoun, and sometimes not even that. However, the attitude might have been a giveaway here or there. But then again, since no one ever commented - not here, at any rate - I guess the increased emotional liberation of these days meant I was covered.

Anyway, I'm just thrilled that Sarah wanted to do it. Give it a listen, if you haven't already.

Title: Re: The Wine and the Flowers
Post by Richard Bleksley on Today at 20:54

on 04/27/08 at 17:57:07, Pete Atkin wrote :

But there were several songs on The Lakeside Sessions which were written as from a female POV, where I don't think I ever had to change more than the odd personal pronoun, and sometimes not even that. However, the attitude might have been a giveaway here or there. But then again, since no one ever commented - not here, at any rate - I guess the increased emotional liberation of these days meant I was covered.

As I mentioned on my "Nice little earner" post a little while back, Early Days has always struck me as pretty obviously a woman's song. but then, as a bit of a folkie (a musical world where the singing of gender-oppo songs has always been taken for granted) it never bothered me at all, nor seemed to call for any comment.