Part 1 dealt with the themes of alienation and aggression in the songs of David Nields, either written solely by him or in conjunction with Nerissa. How the collaborative writing process actually works between the two of them, including the matter of who contributed what to the writing of which song, will have to remain a mystery until David and Nerissa themselves are willing to go on record and spill the beans. I'm sure that there must be many fascinating stories which remain as yet untold re: the genesis of many Nields songs. The songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney comes to mind as another writing tandem, whose stories would be fascinating to know as well, WRT how each of the Beatles songs came to be written, from start to finish.
Part 2 is devoted to the wistful side of David Nields: Be My Little Cowgirl, Blue Shoes, Sweet Holy Grail, Cowards, Cary, Nebraska, Innertube, Forever, I Still Believe In My Friends, and All My Pretty Horses all seem to fall more or less into this category.
But first a quick digression from the wistful, to the whimsical. Was ever alienation this much fun, as in the song Blue Room? Shades of Peter Sellers in "Being There"! :) Blue Room, from Live at the Iron Horse, sounds quite a bit like Peter Paul & Mary's "I'm In Love With a Big Blue Frog," for you Nookers who have never heard it.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled lonesome wistful.
Be My Little Cowgirl is one of the Nields Apocrypha. Like Cary, Nebraska, SHG, AMPH, and the Hank Williams cover I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, it evokes a Country and Western flavor of night sky on the wide open spaces of the prairie, unhurried by the hustle and the bustle of the frenetic pace of city life. Austin City Limits? :) Nerissa's In the Hush Before the Heartbreak fits this mold too. This sub-genre within the corpus of Nields Music adds a welcome change of pace occasionally from their more uptempo poppy songs and their out-and-out rockers.
Blue Shoes, another one of the Nields Apocrypha, is something of a lark, a yarn spun by a daydream believer, a whimsical reverie, which like Boys Will Be Boys is built on the alternation of two chords. In Blue Shoes, the constant repetition of the two chords lends a dreamy trancelike quality to the song. It is delightful!
Sweet Holy Grail, Cowards, Cary, and Nebraska have already been briefly alluded to under A for alienation, but all four of these songs exhude an almost childlike wistfulness. This is not the alienation of a Bullet Proof, a Snowman, or an Art of the Gun though; this is *tender* alienation. :) Nields fans love the understatement of Cowards from Greta and Abigail; they clamor for Cary from Mousse, of late with its Katryna recorder solo of such childlike innocence; and Play's Nebraska has been a quiet crowd pleaser for years as well. --- But this writer thinks the little-known Sweet Holy Grail from Live at the Iron Horse is the sweetest of the bunch, the "Sweet Holy Grail" of Nieldsdom, and maybe the most lyrical effusion of Nields Beauty in the entire Nields Canon. They just don't get any more wistful than Sweet Holy Grail! :)
But then came Innertube! And soon to come is Forever. Seems like an eternity, waiting for Forever: Forever cannot come soon enough! :)
I Still Believe In My Friends: will it be the next Nields Anthem, after Living It Up In the Garden? Eyes will be tearing for years to come, I'll bet, bringing back memories for some of us of those flicking of the bics at rock concerts in the 70's. Believe in your friends --- Keep the flame of love alive. "Keep the Home fires burning!" :)
And perhaps even more transcendental and affirming of what's most important in life is the lushly romantic yet wonderfully quiet All My Pretty Horses, written for a beloved Nields grandmother who passed away. Listening to this song in concert has been like hearkening in reverent wonder to the stillness of a fading sunset, or a forest scene mirrored in a still mountain pond at the break of day. It is a reflection of Infinite Peace. AMPH is a quiet forerunner of the Peaceful Easy Feeling feel-good Nields of recent times, and a mystical bridge to the otherworldly themes which have been surfacing in songs such as I'll Meet You in the Sky, Orphan Girl, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and Keys to the Kingdom. Nields Music is good for all time, and from here to eternity too!
The long and the short of it: there is way more to David Nields than just talent, brains, and devilishly handsome good looks! Beneath that sometimes clownish exterior and behind that onstage rock and roll persona, there beats a heart of gold as big as all outdoors. How lucky for Nerissa; and how lucky for all of us too, who love TN! :)
Bruce
© 2000