Keep sayin' no to her since she was a baby
Keep sayin' no to her, not even maybe
Why?
Why?
You say there's a limit there, she can't go past that
She don't believe you, she don't think that's where it's at
Why?
Why?
Say she can't change that, it's the way you've always done it
She don't care about that, she thinks you've just begun it
Why?
Why?
You say it's a dead old world, cold and unforgiving
I don't know where you live but you're not living
Why?
Why?
Keep sayin' no to her since she was a baby
Keep sayin' no to her, not even maybe
Why?
Why?
Keep sayin' no to her, not even maybe
Why?
Why?
You say there's a limit there, she can't go past that
She don't believe you, she don't think that's where it's at
Why?
Why?
Say she can't change that, it's the way you've always done it
She don't care about that, she thinks you've just begun it
Why?
Why?
You say it's a dead old world, cold and unforgiving
I don't know where you live but you're not living
Why?
Why?
Keep sayin' no to her since she was a baby
Keep sayin' no to her, not even maybe
Why?
Why?
1. Why -- The Byrds
(Original mono 45 rpm release version), 1966
2. Why --The Byrds
(Instrumental backing track -- fun!), 1967
2. Why --The Byrds
(Instrumental backing track -- fun!), 1967
One can't but admire the remarkable sartorial (?) restraint.
ReplyDelete"Why" always made me want to ask "why".
(It was the B-side of the British single of "Eight Miles High"... I guess that would be why.)
I remember hearing Why for the first time (as the flip of Eight Miles High) when I was at a summer camp in Maine on a little record player. It's a cool number, I think, and really prompts great memories. McGuinn and Crosby could never write lyrics like Gene Clark, but somehow this works for me, even the parts that don't work so well. The picture of Secretary Clinton in the odd get up with the mad expression somehow made me think of the song. No one will ever, I think, write the book about her that needs to be written. Her achievement/non-achievement spectrum is at once so mundane and so very, very odd, but talk about grabbing a ticket to ride and never ever letting go. She's a creature of her time, certainly, but I imagine would have disrupted and made some sort of indelible mark on other times also. At my last corporate job, I learned a great deal about business and legal life in Arkansas. When I visited there, which I liked to do a lot, I felt further away from the U.S. than I did when I was in China. The former president's ambition and energy level, supplemented surely by his wife's, can only be considered formidable. The presidential library they built for him in Little Rock is quite something, with a private apartment that's like Hernando's Hideaway. Curtis
ReplyDeleteHernando's Hideaway -- now there's a tune I flipped for. In fact, the chorus here is doing a charming pre-dawn rendition right now. Thanks for the memories, Curtis.
ReplyDeleteIt's a wonderful song. I know Arkansans of both political parties who have had an opportunity to visit the former president's inner sanctum at the library (private dinners for various charities are organized there; in Little Rock, people do seem to "sit down and visit" in ways they don't do in, say, New York or Philadelphia) and they all report back saying "wow." Maintaining living quarters in presidential libraries violates the rules governing such institutions, but presidents tend to be "rules are made to be broken" sorts. I listened to Why again this morning. I guess this must have been recorded around the same time that the Beatles recorded Rain. There's a Beatles/Beach Boys element to this Byrds song. I've gotten stuck in that groove for the moment. Curtis
ReplyDeleteCurtis, that is/was indeed a great groove. I think of Hokusai's Great Wave Off Kanegawa. All the old sound equipment is buried in cobwebs à la Miss Haversham's chamber, but returning to a Great Wave is always possible in the Mind. (By "always" I mean in rare moments like this; I do believe you are the only remaining tubular inhabitant of the great groove; or perhaps I should say the only one with consecutive brain cells left intact. Rain, Ray, Why and Gene Clark Forever.)
ReplyDeleteThank you. I just paused to learn (ahead of taking our cat Eddie to the vet for dental work; Caroline feels great trepidation, but I think everything's fine) that Why was written, recorded and released ahead of Rain, which I found interesting. Apparently, part of the song's musical genesis was David Crosby's attendance (as a spectator) at a Ravi Shankar recording session in LA, which makes sense. Just absolutely amazing how groups like the Byrds were able to put Why together at 2:45 and the Beatles got Rain down at 2:59. While exercising yesterday I listened to Eight Miles High -- all 2:59 of it -- and traveled far and wide, fast and slow. Right now in PA, everything's moving at treacle speed. I never noticed the ponderous heat when I was a student, but my life then involved more moving around at will than being tied to a desk waiting for phone calls and (reluctantly) placing them. Curtis
ReplyDelete