January 8 - Write About a Song

I was 16 years old when Tigerlily came out.

Write about a song and a feeling it invoked in you. 

Go west, paradise is there, you’ll have all that you can eat of milk & honey over there. You’ll be the brightest star the world has ever seen, sun-baked slender heroine of film & magazine. Go west, paradise is there, you’ll have all that you can eat of milk & honey over there. You’ll be the brightest light the world has ever seen, the dizzy height of a jet-set life you could never dream. Your pale blue eyes strawberry hair lips so sweet skin so fair, your future bright beyond compare, it’s rags to riches over there.

San Andreas Fault moved its fingers through the ground, earth divided, plates collided, such an awful sound. San Andreas Fault moved its fingers through the ground, terra cotta shattered and the walls came tumbling down. Oh, promised land, what a wicked ground. Build a dream, tear it down. Oh, promised land, what a wicked ground, build a dream and watch it all fall down.

I loved Natalie Merchant from her 10,000 Maniacs days. So of course I was eager for her solo album. I was 16-years-old when Tigerlily came out. I remember hearing that crisp, angelic voice coo “oooo ooo oooo” from the first track on the album—my favorite— “San Andreas Fault” almost like it was yesterday.