Saturday, January 2, 2010

looking for the heart of the first saturday night in 2010


Tokyo at Night by Day Seriani



This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists. It is also one of my favorite songs to sing. I thought of it hours ago and cannot get it out of my mind now.

A quasi-New Year's Resolution came to be as a result of my focus on this song, that being this:
I am going to look for the Heart of every day in 2010. 

The heart of some days might open easily, like gifts. It's possible I may simply stumble onto the heart of other days. More often, I suspect, meditation will lead to the source. Sometimes barrelin' down the boulevard, or the freeway, or the stretch of lonely road is the best way to blur out everything until the Heart of one thing appears and I have no reason to think that this would not apply to certain days.


Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night
-by Tom Waits

Well you gassed her up
Behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one
In your Oldsmobile
Barrelin' down the boulevard
You're looking for the heart of Saturday night

And you got paid on Friday
And your pockets are jinglin'
And you see the lights
You get all tinglin' cause you're cruisin' with a 6
And you're looking for the heart of Saturday night

Then you comb your hair
Shave your face
Tryin' to wipe out ev'ry trace
All the other days
In the week you know that this'll be the Saturday
You're reachin' your peak

Stoppin' on the red
You're goin' on the green
'Cause tonight'll be like nothin'
You've ever seen
And you're barrelin' down the boulevard
Lookin' for the heart of Saturday night

Tell me is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin?
Telephone's ringin'; it's your second cousin
Is it the barmaid that's smilin' from the corner of her eye?
Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye.

Makes it kind of quiver down in the core
'Cause you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
And now you're stumblin'
You're stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night

Well you gassed her up
And you're behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one
In your Oldsmobile
Barrellin' down the boulevard,
You're lookin' for the heart of Saturday night

Is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin?
Telephone's ringin'; it's your second cousin
And the barmaid is smilin' from the corner of her eye
Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye.

Makes it kind of special down in the core
And you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
It's found you stumblin'
Stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night
And you're stumblin'
Stumblin onto the heart of Saturday night



.

7 comments:

Rhiannon said...

I think this is a good idea...I think I'll work on looking for the "heart" in any and everything I run into for 2010...that way I won't be as negative and also more "quiet time" and meditate more also is something I've rather lost in the past 2 years...will work on that too!

Growing up in Los Angeles county, my best Girlfriend and I went into the city of angels, to check out the Major Art museum there...with some major showings of pencil drawings done by Picasso..plus we just loved going the the art museum and seeing such wonderful beautiful historical paintings. There was the park nearby (forgot the name of it darn) and there was a rather large cement stage with three or four steps up to it...poor musicians used to go up to the stage and get there guitars tuned and laid their hat or basket our for people to throw money in..then they'd sing their song for whoever would listen. That day there was a little crowd listening to this man with a scraggly moustache and beard and scranny king of guy playing the guitar and singing. As my Girlfriend and I walked by by I was intrigued by his style and his lyrics were very unique..so we stopped and listened for quite some time. I put some money in his hat and asked him his name. He said his name was Tom Waits. I thought to myself "this man has some real talent maybe one day he'll be well known"...well that was in the very early seventies...and I also remember Rikki Lee Jones ( I love her music) was hanging out on the sidelines there on the stage with him. I didn't realize until later when they both became well known that that was most definitely her on the side of the stage.

Just another chapter from one of Rhi's stories, "Growing up in Los Angeles county"...I have many...met a lot of famous people...including John and Yoko at a mall and Jim Morrison playing at my High School and meeting him from a girlfriend in my class that knew him. While in the middle of the concert at the Gymnasium they dragged Jim off and he just lay they passively being dragged along the floor.

Okay, all for now..you brought up some good memories. Tom Waits is so unique and the videos he made sure were also.

Hope your New Year is going well.

Speaking of heart..there is a song by Kate Bush on her Red shoes album titled "Constellation of the heart"...good song..

Rhi

Rhiannon said...

Oh my gosh! I came back here to reread the comment I wrote above. I'm so sorry Lydia, I made so many typos in it! And my dyslexia is no excuse...must be the "lovebug" that's got me...sorry about that...:o)...and I don't even drink!..:o(

Rhi

Lydia said...

@Rhi- Silly, I didn't even notice typos because I was so interested in your story! That is a unique moment in your life when you met Tom Waits with Rikki Lee Jones standing nearby. It's great that you paid real attention to his name...many people wouldn't have filed it away in their brains as you did. I also love RL Jones and have one early album of hers. I guess she has a strong cult following but never major name recognition - and she seems like the type who just might want it that way.

I hope you and your "lovebug" have a good Sunday together. :)

Jennifer said...

Happy new year, Lydia!

I think this is a wonderful goal and a way to be mindful, in the moment, in the day. I love the idea of opening the heart of each day like a gift (just the imagery of it is nice) but also agree that meditation is the more likely path.

Great song, too, by the way. Dave gave that CD to me early on in our relationship. Tom Waits is a talented soul.

Kristin - The Goat said...

What a delightful idea. I have been trying to see hearts out in the world each day. So far I haven't been too successful, but I hope to get better by the end of the year :)

I think that anything we can do, mindfully, to connect us to our world, to our thoughts, to our blessings, is something we should all do. Your idea of the heart is such a beautiful one. I wish you all the best.

Kim said...

This is also one of my favorite songs. I like the version done by Shawn Colvin.

What a great concept! I hope this way of thinking brings more great blog posts our way.

Lydia said...

@Jennifer- Happy New Year to you and your family, including that husband with such marvelous taste in music! :) You and Kirby both mentioned being mindful in the new year; I like that!

@Kirby- See that you and Jennifer both mentioned being mindful in 2010. It's something so powerful that doesn't take that much from us, really. I'm going to be practicing it along with you. :)

@Kim- Great to share a favorite song with you, and I'll def. look for the Shawn Colvin cover at youtube.
You have challenged me to keep up looking for the heart of the days ahead and to possibly blog about some of them!

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