Leaving the light on
Now that we’ve turned the clocks back—boy, it’s getting dark earlier.
And it will be getting dark even earlier before it starts reversing itself. That’s one of the things I dislike about this time of year, and here up north it’s accentuated. Of course, that only makes it sweeter when the days get longer again.
Yesterday I was in the car listening to the radio, and a song came on with a lyric about leaving the light on, and about the fall season and loss. It was by a woman, but I missed the announcement of the artist’s name. I figured that I’d just Google the lyric when I got home and it would pop up. I’ve been so spoiled by Google that I automatically assume this will happen; I’m no longer used to the frustration and mystery of not knowing. But this time, no dice. No song.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of songs about leaving a light on—for somebody else, often someone whose gone but who the singer wishes would return. And I know a couple of classics, like this yearning one:
Jesse come home
There’s a hole in the bed
where we slept
Now it’s growing cold
Hey Jesse, your face
in the place where we lay
by the hearth, all apart
It hangs on my heartAnd I’m leaving the light on the stairs
No I’m not scared – I wait for you
Hey Jesse, I’m lonely, come home…
Or this more bitter one, by the person leaving:
And it ain’t no use in turning on your light, babe
The light I never knowed
And it ain’t no use in turning on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road…
Maybe someone out there knows the one I’m looking for. As best I remember it, the refrain was “I’ll leave the light on for me,” followed by something like “I think somebody should.” Any takers?
Meanwhile, here’s another of my recent photos of fall. This one was taken during a trip to the Hudson River near West Point:
[NOTE: On the theme of fall, you also might like to revisit this post on poetry.]
That was one of mine!
“Jesse” was written by Janis Ian
My favorite version was sung by Joan Baez
on her “Diamonds and Rust” album.
Nice photo.
“This is our lordly Hudson hardly flowing
under the green-grown cliffs
and has no peer in Europe or the East.
Be quiet, heart! Home! Home!”
— Paul Goodman
A nice poem.
dont think there is music for this, but what the heck..
Change One Light to Green
Change one light to green in a visible location-on your porch, in your home, or at your office-and keep it glowing every day as a symbol of appreciation and support for our veterans. Then, share your support by taking a picture of your green light and posting it using the hashtag #greenlightavet.
http://www.greenlightavet.com/
Try this search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22leave+the+light+on+for+me%22+lyrics&num=25&safe=off&complete=0&tbs=li:1
mf:
Thanks, but that turns up songs similar to the search I did. The peculiarity of the song I’m looking for is that it’s “I’ll leave the light on for me…”
Ring Out Solstice Bells – Jethro Tull
Now is the solstice of the year,
winter is the glad song that you hear.
Seven maids move in seven time.
Have the lads up ready in a line.
Join together beneath the mistletoe.
by the holy oak whereon it grows.
Seven druids dance in seven time.
Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming.
Praise be to the distant sister sun,
joyful as the silver planets run.
Seven maids move in seven time.
Sing the song the bells call, loudly chiming.
Ring out those bells.
Ring out, ring solstice bells.
Ring solstice bells.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Time, time, time
See what’s become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a Hazy Shade of Winter
Hear the Salvation Army Band
Down by the riverside
It’s bound to be a better ride
Than what you’ve got planned
Carry a cup in your hand
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a Hazy Shade of Winter
Hang onto your hopes my friend
That’s an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Look around
Grass is high
Fields are ripe
It’s the springtime of my life
Seasons change with their scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won’t you stop and remember me?
STEELEYE SPAN Marigold
When the marigold no longer blooms
When summer sun is turned to gloom
See the forecast winter snow
See the evergreen that lonely grows
Move close to the fireplace
Neglect the garden
See the ground harden
At a ghostly place
The golden summer sun is silver now
The fruit has fallen from the bough
The season moves to chestnut time
Toffee apples, treacle and mulled wine
Quilts and furs and woolens gay
You wrap around you
But the cold confounds you
On an autumn day
Stout and strong the walls of home and hearth
Curtains drawn against the draft
The rake has reaped, the blade has mown
Nights draw in to call the harvest home
The quiet of a heart at rest
In peace abounded
By love surrounded
Here the home is blest
Harvest Home:
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home
All be safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin
God, our Maker doth provide
For our wants to be supplied
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home
neo:
And nothing comes up with that except your post:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22I'll+leave+the+light+on+for+me%22+lyrics&num=25&safe=off&complete=0
Telling me that it does not exist with that exact phrase which means you’re going to have to come up with a better phrase. Using the verbatim google searh as I did (use my URL and substitute the search terms directly in the URL) is more likely to be succesful. I threw in the term lyrics to be more generally specific. notice that I use quotes around the phrase so that the search I made definitely indicates that the phrase as you quoted does not exist on the internet, at least for google.
“Daylight savings” where the dark becomes sooner.
It’s American logick, like the magick of Affordable Obamacare.
neo:
Could this be it:
https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Grace-Weber/Leave-the-Light-On
It’s a girl and I changed the search phrase
neo:
Grace Weber – Leave The Light On – Official Music Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYpLs0rF_wQ
Monte Meals: I’ve got a Janis Ian’s first LP!
You are blessed to experience autumn in New England.
I know of no song with the lyric you mention, but there are plenty of songs about leaving the light on. Chris Smither has a tune titled Leave the Light On. The last line in the chorus is “Don’t wait up, but leave the light on, I’ll be home soon.”
Not sure what the song was. Could you hum some of it?
Better yet, keep a music recognition app handy on your cellphone.
Roberta Flack’s take on Jesse (from her “Killing Me Softly” lp) is my go-to version.
My French is long gone. But I do recall a song with the words something like the Chanson d’Automne, by Verlaine.
Was used to indicate the start of the festivities at Normandy, but may have other virtues.
I loved the photo accompanying this post. It looks as if it were taken off the Old Storm King Highway but I suspect it is the “new” 9W. Thanks for posting it. I grew up on the Point and am feeling homesick for the geography these days. Thanks.
JayDee:
I don’t remember the exact road, but it was very near Storm King. I was driving from West Point to Storm King.
Yes, West Point and the Hudson Valley are magnificent, and glorious in the fall.
Hitchcock’s great pre-James Bond thriller about espionage and mistaken identity in the early Cold War, “North By Northwest” contained a number of geographical reference points – logically enough, since the title references the direction of escape by compass points.
I was sadly disappointed that the film staged not only the train journey out of NYC, up the Hudson – NOT! And not even Rapid City, SoDak. (Still, the sound stage era prevailed then, in 1959? something which was soon to change.)
It’s a nice riff, neo, about fall and changing season’s light.
I’m fortunate to have lived at 45 degrees North, 35 degrees North, as well as 40 degrees North.
In the Middle West, Fall and Spring are too ridiculously short – as brief as three weeks! In Alabama, those equinoxal times last, last, and last four months!
But like the story of the Three Bears, 40 degrees North and three months is just right.
I hope to live in the tropics soon. I expect I’ll hate the absence of seasonal changes – hurricane season and the monsoons, only. No energizing leaf-growing times, nor burnt autumns to take in, visually and externally dunned to reflect on life, death, seasonal change.
One wonders with the Baron Montesquieu if latitude does not ENERGIZE civilizations to explore, discover, and innovate, since the tropics do not, and still lag in their respective achievements?
Barack Obama parted the seas. Rodham will stop the Sun from setting.
Sound fantastical ? Not really, they both are demiGods, anything is possible.
I can’t wait 🙂
They certainly are dhimmis.
Neo,
Have you considered calling the station and asking them what they were playing? I’ve done that in the distant past, and it worked.
Waidmann
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