Sunday, February 25, 2007

Where I Like It Best

Last Saturday, Bobbers and I enjoyed seeing Rickie Lee Jones in concert at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre. It's a great venue, built in 1870 as a memorial to the Harvard students who lost their lives in the Civil War. In the lobby of the building, on marble tablets, you see lists of those killed at Gettysburg, Antietam, Vicksburg...as well as every war since then.

And yet the music created there is sublime. The acoustics are fabulous and its one of our favorite places to enjoy a show. Last weekend was no different.

Rickie Lee is on tour to support her newest album, "Sermon on Exposition Boulevard," reviewed quite well by Jetison himself. A bit of my favorite song (Where I Like It Best) is below.

"How do you pray in a world like this
You know, I see the people on TV
And they close their eyes and they bow their heads
And they say "Let us pray"
And it feels so cold and meaningless
And I wanted to pray
And I said
Tell me father
Tell me mother
Heavenly mother
And they said

When you pray
Pray alone by yourself
In the secret room of your heart
Don't go out into the church filled with people and pray
God hears every secret that you say
See all those people praying on TV and the churches
They like to make a big parade out of what they're doing
They think God hears them louder if they say it
Over and over and over and over and over again

But I say, God, but I say this
You are the prayer
Your eyes are the prayer
Your hand on your cheek
You are the prayer
Those words you want to speak
They are the prayer
That dance you make
When you're by yourself
Just before your mother calls you on the phone
You are the prayer
I tell you what
You gotta take it back from them
Because the prayers belong to you
All you gotta do is say hey hey
I'm down here too, I'm down here too
I'm down here too
And I hear you in the trees
And I hear you
And I'm near you
I wonder why there's so much suffering?

I want to say thank you, thank you
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
I wanted to say thank you, thank you
I wanted to say
I wanted to say
You are where I like it best
You are where I like it best
You are where I like it best

That's the Lords' prayer
"You are where I want to be"
So, amen, just amen
Amen, all by myself, amen, amen
I'm so lonely, just amen
And I'm rising, rising, just amen
You can look through my eyes
Hear through my hear
Look through my eyes"

Perfect lyrics for a Sunday - my own personal moment of reflection.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do believe that is the building we found when we visited you back in '89... at the time none of us could figure out what building it was but we all thought it was interesting architechiturally (if that's a word).

beckperson said...

Yes! You are right - now I remember that walk through Harvard Square with you guys. You don't forget a thing, do you? :-))