Recorded: 1969
Released: 1970
About a
book named for the song.
And will you gather daydreams
Or will you gather wealth
How can you find your fortune
When you cannot find yourself
The mysterious last two verses:
The answer is not easy
For souls are not reborn
To wear the crown of peace
You must wear the crown of thorns
If Jesus had a reason
I'm sure he would not tell
They treated him so badly
How could he wish them well
The parlor now is empty
There's nothin' left to say
My father has departed
My mother's gone to pray
There's rockets in the meadows
And ships out on the sea
The answer's in the forest
Carved upon a tree
John loves Mary
Does anyone love me
Top
Canadian Singles of All Time
October 13, 2005
Added Nov 2008: after
re-reading this, I am struck again by what a remarkable song it is. I
heard it first as a teenager living at home in the late 1960's, and what I
most vividly remember was the unexpected last line, the sneakiness of it--
what does it all come down to, after all? What is it that really
matters? What is the distance between my parents and myself? Does
anyone love me?
I mentioned that Christ rejected his family. For all
the "family values" preached by the religious right, would it really
surprise you to find that the Bible doesn't really support something called
"family values"? It
doesn't. When Christ's family approaches him during his ministry,
demanding some kind of acknowledgement of family obligation, Christ declares
that his followers, his disciples are his real "family". He warns that his
message will tear families apart. He clearly places a priority on the
kingdom against the requirements of kinship. He even says that a
person who is not willing to reject his family to follow him is not worthy
of the kingdom.
In
fact, the last verse of "Sit Down Young Stranger" gives you a better sense
of Christ's view of the family than all of the ranting and raving you will
ever hear from James Dobson.
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But then, fake religion never embraces heartbreak. |
[updated May 2008]
Gordon Lightfoot made the
top 50 essential Canadian singles for a mediocre song about a stereotypical
slut who hung around his back stairs. If he had to be on the list--
and I don't quibble with that-- it should have been for "Early Morning
Rain", "That's What you get for Lovin' me" or something else. How
about "Sit Down, Young Stranger"?
For all the songs written
about the generation gap in the 1960's, "Sit Down, Young Stranger" is one of
the most touching, and the most diligent. It's not a lazy lyric (like
"Sundown")--
there's some thought in a phrase like "my love was given freely and oft-times
was returned" (even if the "oft-times" is hackneyed).
Not always, but often. The son's
encounter with his parents parallels his encounter with an imperfect world,
in which he is lonely, at times, but satisfied with his dreams.
It's the weirdness of the
song that I like. Lightfoot seems to be struggling to express a real
experience and real insight instead of a cliché about rebellion. There
is real pain in the distance between father and son. The son's ideals
are somewhat inchoate and fanciful, and his father is harsh but not
mean. "How can you find your fortune if you cannot find yourself?"
It sounds more real than Cat
Stevens' "Father and Son" which sounds schematic and
contrived in comparison. There is some sympathy for the father, and
understanding, and some distance from the mother's unconditional and perhaps
smothering love. The song is full of little edges that scrape like
sandpaper: "not knowing where to sit", "my father looms above me/for
him there is no rest", "my thoughts are all in spin", "I never questioned no
one and no one questioned me".
The last verse is a mystery
to me. Logically, it is the son responding the father of the previous
verse: "I wait for your reply".
The answer is not easy
For souls are not reborn
To wear the crown of peace
You must wear the crown of thorns
If Jesus had a reason,
I'm sure he would not tell
They
treated him so badly,
how could he wish them well?
But it almost
sounds like the father speaking at first-- it is the wisdom (or foolishness)
of age that only violence (thorns) can lead to peace. But then I think it is the son, observing that
the mystery of Christ is that he didn't have a reason for his actions-- I
presume his self-destruction-- in the human sense.
And the son doesn't see the divine in Christ's rejection of his own family--
just silence ("souls are not reborn"). But it's hard to tell if this is a rejection of Christ or acceptance.
[added November 2009]
I missed the possibility that it is a narrator
who speaks those lines. It makes some sense-- it is an observation
that might be made by a third party: to wear the crown of peace... Is
it a narrative voice telling us that this thorny distance between father and
son, between the generations, can only be traversed in blood?
These
last eight lines are among the most poetic every inscribed by a Canadian
song-writer-- and among the most haunting.
It's a puzzling verse.
There is no doubt about the
meaning of the poignant last phrase, though. All the searching and questioning
comes down to one thing, that shattering, heart-breaking last line:
The answer's in the forest,
Carved upon a tree.
John loves Mary,
Does anyone love me?
All contents copyright © 2005 All Rights Reserved Bill Van Dyk
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