2000-12-22
River, posted at 03:50:19
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com The song that I'm listening to lately - that is my current music obsession, as Kelly likes to refer to it - is an odd one. It's on the Ally McBeal Christmas Album, and it's a cover of the old Joni Mitchell song "River". And it's by actor Robert Downey, Jr.The song has always been my favorite Joni Mitchell song - a moving, metaphorical ode to loneliness, sadness, and the holidays. It's Christmasy in theme, and it's message of hope is distinct.
Here are the lyrics:
It's coming on Christmas / They're cutting down trees / They're putting up reindeer / And singing songs of joy and peace / Oh I wish I had a river / I could skate away on / But it don't snow here / It stays pretty green / I'm going to make a lot of money / Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene / I wish I had a river / I could skate away on / I wish I had a river so long / I would teach my feet to fly / Oh I wish I had a river / I could skate away on / I made my baby cry
He tried hard to help me / You know, he put me at ease / And he loved me so naughty / Made me weak in the knees / Oh I wish I had a river / I could skate away on / I'm so hard to handle / I'm selfish and I'm sad / Now I've gone and lost the best baby / That I ever had / Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on / I wish I had a river so long / I would teach my feet to fly / Oh I wish I had a river
I made my baby say goodbye
It's coming on Christmas / They're cutting down trees / They're putting up reindeer / And singing songs of joy and peace / I wish I had a river / I could skate away on
I've heard a lot of wonderful versions of the song before. Emily Saliens from the Indigo Girls does a sweet acoustic guitar version of it. Tori Amos does a tortured reading of it. Joni Mitchell's version is plaintive and sweet - she sounds so lonely while singing it. But Robert Downey, Jr.'s version of it makes the song more moving than I've ever heard it before.
He recorded the song before he was arrested in the most recent time for drug abuse. Still, to me, it sounds like he's singing about addiction. He wants the river to take him away from his problems. He wishes he could skate away on it. He wants to quit this crazy scene. It's destroyed everything he had - his baby, his wife, his son. He sings about being selfish and sad.
With this reading of the song, Downey has done just what a cover of a song should do - make it distinctly his own. It's incredible. He's got a great voice, and makes the song intensely personal.
Everyone has degrees of loneliness around the holidays, and this song really sums it up well. I love this song - it's now #2 on my all-time favorite Christmas song list after John Lennon's "So This is Christmas".
By the way, I found it heartbreaking when Downey was arrested for the umpteenth time for drugs. It's so sad. And, unbelievably, our society will probably solve this victimless crime by throwing him in jail yet again. All he is doing is hurting himself, yet our society decides we must be the moral police and make him go to jail, whether it works or not. Did you all know that Downey was smoking pot regularly with his parents at the age of 6?