Whenever I want to revitalize myself, I buy new music. A few months ago, Marianne introduced me to the group Hem, through our music guru Kelly, and so I purchased a few of their albums, and started out with Funnel Cloud. Track 12, titled "Reservoir," is so filled with that strange expatriate's longing for home, even while not longing to live there again, that it makes my insides swell with something close to tears.
For anyone who's been to Pittsburgh and knows those iron hills, how the sometimes beautiful, sometimes plain and downright ugly houses cling to the rocks, how the trees manage to grow where the houses can't and force liminalities of forest amongst the inner city spaces, how the rivers create the downtown and the hilltops make the parks, how the years of soot stain the old churches and factories like watermarks and the streets zigzag over and under and through and around each other like a tangle of gum bands, how the lights at night in the bowls of the hills under the overcast sky are softer than almost anywhere else, this song brings it all back. If you've never been there, go.
Late last night
I missed my train
Walked back to the car and drove home again
Just outside of Pittsburgh
It's really not that far
I saw a light come shining 'cross the reservoir
The sun in California
It drops right into the sea
I took a coupla pictures, they don't mean that much to me
Just outside of Pittsburgh
I saw it from my car
The light shines to the bottom of the reservoir
The starless night
come fall around me
Over all
we left undone
I know a light
that shines forever
Howsoever we may run
The moon hung on a hillside
In eastern Tennessee
With rows of honeysuckle blooming over me
But the iron hills of Pittsburgh
Where all my memories are
Gather in the light around the reservoir
The starless night
come fall around me
Over all
we left undone
I know a light
that shines forever
Howsoever we may run
Howsoever we may run
Incidentally, since all of my accompanists turn out to be tremendous disappointments, within the next year I have a new goal of buying, and learning to play, the guitar. The lead singer's voice is right in my range.
2 comments:
When I first heard that song I felt like crying.
Pittsburgh has a hidden beauty that only certain people can see and appreciate. I thought about moving away this winter, but when it came down to it I just couldn't do it.
I don't think I can live anywhere else. This city's spell over me is strong.
I ride into work there everyday, and right now I can't see the beauty... but I seem to remember thinking it was kind of enchanting at one time. Maybe that will come back.
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