Now while Crying Tree could fit in with the "Glass & June" part of the story, it could stand alone as a non-specific love song. Non-specific in the way that the song is addressed to the all-ambiguous 'you.' Having just thought of all the people he could be addressing with that 'you,' a new interpretation springs to mind. That Billy isn't singing to a person, he's singing to the fans, the listeners. There are reasons to back up that claim, such as when he says 'you and you and you and you,' as if pointing to the crowd. Other songs on Machina have decidedly real-world, band-referencing lyrics as well, so it's entirely possible that Billy is singing to the fans.
I personally detest that idea. Crying Tree is the most desperate failure song in Billy's epic catalogue. Having it be to a huge group of listeners rather than just one object of affection cuts the emotion down to nothing. The music surrounding the song is made bored by that interpretation, the solo made out of necessity rather than desperation.
This use of music as a tool to further the emotions behind the words is one of the reasons I would say Machina works as a concept album. As the characters in the story fall apart, so does the music. It becomes raggedy and gritty, full of static and apathy. But below that sheen of noise is one man trying to lead his band through that noise to the sunshine beyond. As the story goes (and how real life turned out, too), the band behind the man just didn't have it in them.
When I first heard the song, I really didn't like it because I thought the Machina-sheen just got in the way. Really placing the song in context with the rest of the album was one thing that helped me to enjoy the song. The other was hearing the solo piano version of the song, which you can hear here: Crying Tree of Mercury (thanks Ozphoria, I hope it's okay I linked that). This version has nothing but Billy, and opens the song up to show itss guts and feeling.
No comments:
Post a Comment