Brandi Carlile – You and Me On The Rock
From Joni Mitchell to Brandi Carlile…
I shared in the last email a selection from Mitchell’s “Archives, Vol 2…” album, a live version of “California” that she performed in London before she recorded the studio version for her album “Blue.”
Speaking of “Blue,” when Brandi Carlile first heard Joni Mitchell, she wasn’t impressed. A friend played “Blue.”
In the album’s opening track, “All I Want,” Mitchell sings:
I wanna talk to you, I wanna shampoo you
I wanna renew you again and again
Carlile says that verse bugged her. Cheesy rhyme. Weak woman.
Carlile got over that view, thanks to a girlfriend who insisted that Joni Mitchell was, in fact, a strong woman and…
…the lyrics in that and other Mitchell songs are brilliant.
And once Carlile saw the light, she bathed in it.
She adores Joni Mitchell and counts her among her greatest influences. And eventually, Carlile met and became close friends with Mitchell.
A few years back, with Mitchell’s blessing, Carlile performed the entire “Blue” album live, in a theater in LA, with Joni Mitchell in the front row.
That would have been something to see!
And on her latest album, Carlile has a song that she proudly admits is her “channeling Joni Mitchell.”
It’s a song about the healing power of love, and it is…
Today’s Song
Title: You and Me On The Rock
Artist: Brandi Carlile
Album: In These Silent Days (2021)
YouTube Link:
youtu.be/42NkasQSPA4
Lyrics
They build wooden houses on frozen ponds
In the summertime when the water’s gone
Diagonal lines in their rolled-out lawns
And the sage always smells so pretty
But nobody cares where the birds have gone
When the rain comes down on Babylon
The stonemason’s phone rings all day long
And you gotta get back to the city
I build my house up on this rock, baby
Every day with you
There’s nothin’ in that town I need
After everything we’ve been through
Me out in my garden and you out on your walk
Is all the distance this poor girl can take
Without listenin’ to you talk
I don’t need their money, baby
Just you and me on the rock
You and me on the rock
I built paper planes when I learned to fly
Like a 747 fallin’ out of the sky
I folded ’em crooked and now I’m wonderin’ why
I could always end up in the water
But nobody’s askin’ why she lookin’ so thin
Why she’s laughin’ too hard, why she drinkin’ again
A falling star, she’s a paper plane
And she was goin’ down when you caught her
I build my house up on this rock, baby
Every day with you
There’s nothin’ in that town I need
After everything we’ve been through
Me out in my garden and you out on your walk
Is all the distance this poor girl can take
Without listenin’ to you talk
I don’t need their money, baby
Just you and me on the rock
It’s an earthquake, it’s a hard wind
It’s a record-breakin’ tide and it is rollin’ in
It’s a big sea, but it can’t touch you and me
It’s just a water view
And what a view
I don’t need their money, baby
Woo
I build my house up on this rock, baby
Every day with you
There’s nothin’ in that town I need
After everything we’ve been through
Me out in my garden and you out on your walk
Is all the distance this old girl can take
Without listenin’ to you talk
I don’t need their money, baby
Just you and me on the rock
I don’t need their money, baby (I don’t need their money, baby)
It’s you and me on the rock (it’s you and me on the rock)
You and me on the rock
Here are the Playlists:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3xYKtYparrdJRYAjBj9kjx?si=eb6c3ebc30484204
Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/ware-house-concerts-song-of-the-day/pl.u-Ggz26cZlAVLj
