Quote:
Originally Posted by vivfox
You've mentioned this before so I want to comment. The 1991 war was callled Desert Storm. It was the first time American troops fought a war exclusively in a desert.
I was living in Phoenix when this was a new song, in 1991. I know how it feels there. I'm sure, knowing that you are a world traveler, you have been in a desert at some point. But to actually live in one, for many years, a realateable experience could be felt with the soldiers who are fighting a war in such extreme heat.
Living in the Phoenix area feels like a whole different planet than living in a place with four seasons. In NYC where you reside, if the tempertaure was 104 degrees you might be visiting the hospital from dehydration and extreme humidity. In Phoenix such a tempertaure is no big deal. It may feel like 80 degrees would to you. 115 degrees in Phoenix is hotter than hell, but a normal July day.
115 degrees in NYC and the entire populace would most likely die from the humidity. If not die, multitudes would be extremely close to it.
Also in another thread you or someone mentioned the lyric, "in a place the Indians call Paradise valley."
If you are lucky enough to ever visit the section of this town that Stevie lived in you will learn that Camelback Mountain holds a special grotto where some Tribal Indians from the past had a spiritual place there to pray to their God(s). It was a sacred mountain. And this mountain when viewed from above is shaped like a Camel.
There are many references in this song that perhaps only a Phoenician might truly understand, though I think she does a fine job in describing these, and their similarities to Operation Desert Storm.
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Again, I'm not criticizing her sentiments. I'm just criticizing the abject dearth of imagination conveyed in her choice of words. This is supposed to be poetry, not someone saying "Grrrl, I know what that feels like!" It's like the difference between saying "I'm in a car and I'm bored" vs. "You just found the hitcher, prisoner of the white lines on the freeway"- Joni Mitchell. Stevie should be painting the picture with words rather than just simply handing us the photograph. That's what poetry is about IMHO.
Whenever I have to suffer through one of those tortuous, endless 98°F 95% humidity days in New York, I always think of one of my favorite lines evah: "The day drags by... like a wounded animal" from Siouxsie & the Banshees "92°". That's so much better than saying "It's hot and I know what hot feels like."