|
BROKEN HEARTED BLUES
"This is a song that I wrote when I was young
And I called it the broken hearted blues
The air on that night was tempered like a knife
And the people wore the face masks of a clown
Don he was long, mis-shaped and forlorn
And his woman ran away without a smile
Days of the earth are unbroken changeless turf
But the faces of the men are something else
Jason Wind as a boy was a special sexual toy
But baby now he's a toothless baggy man
When the hills of the sun make you feel that you are young
Get good now and face your face into the wind
This is a song that I wrote when I was young
And I called it the broken hearted blues"
Marc Bolan - Tanx
It is quite contradictory to have a song titled "Broken Hearted Blues" that was supposedly written at a young age but this is typical of Marc Bolan's way of saying things. He also sang later on in "Pain and Love" that "Once in youth the wisdom crouched / Deep inside my bedroom" as if indeed youth could provide a privileged vision upon the reality of this material world. A most cynical vision, one must immediately add.
"The air on that night was tempered like a knife
And the people wore the face masks of a clown
Don he was long, mis-shaped and forlorn
And his woman ran away without a smile"
Marc starts with a Fellini-esque image to set the stage for his realizations. Life is a huge circus and here he chooses to play with the ultra conventional and contradictory image of the clown: a clown makes us laugh; on the other hand, the clown is always sad and only sad things do happen to him. Thus the mis-shaped and forlorn Don who is left alone and broken hearted when his wife runs away.
"Days of the earth are unbroken changeless turf
But the faces of the men are something else"
Time flies, one may also say and nothing can escape the passing of time on this planet and its effects on us. "But the faces of the men are something else" Once again we are reminded that the soul will transmigrate through 8,400,000 species of life in this material universe before being eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. From these, 400,000 species are of human nature and thus so many roles and characters will be "played" by the same individual soul during its journey. Marc has said the same thing in A DAYE LAYE: "Every dawn of our lives a heart is forged". In this present song, Marc is even more cynical as he uses the image of "the face masks of a clown" to describe the various characters.
"Jason Wind as a boy was a special sexual toy
But baby now he's a toothless baggy man"
Marc Bolan has always been open minded and this allowed him a clear vision. He may have got involved in excesses in sex, drugs and alcohol, still he wasn't deluded regarding the temporary pleasures obtained while engaging in these activities; moreover, he was always conscious of the limited time available to do so. Sooner or later, time catches up and the material body grows old and "now he's a toothless baggy man". A simple law of Nature. But one who doesn't care and isn't willing to consider the inevitable may end up in frustration and greed: a "toothless baggy man" sure isn't as sexually attractive... and this frustration of not being able to satisfy the senses and the desires, leads to greed, from greed comes anger, and "from anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool." This is again taken from Bhagavad-Gita (II, 63).
"When the hills of the sun make you feel that you are young
Get good now and face your face into the wind"
Marc Bolan speaks out of experience. He is not a preacher. He isn't nostalgic about life. "When the hills of the sun make you feel that you are young" Marc uses the present tense, when you come to your senses, meaning a clear consciousness, you do feel that you are young, for the soul is eternal. Marc doesn't say the past will vanish nor that your body will change and get back to its prime. Here, the most important word is "now", the Hindu and Buddhist concept of "Be Here Now", the eternal actual moment: "Get good now and face your face into the wind" Look ahead from now on, no need to look back. And it is also a good advice: "Don't waste your time, waiting !"
"This is a song that I wrote when I was young / And I called it the broken hearted blues" And such is the material world. Man is born, grows old and dies. Attachment and identification to this temporary body and its pleasures are the main ingredients of this "broken hearted blues". And to be aware of it is a real privilege as it will help the soul to indeed "Get good now and face your face into the wind".
|
|
