about
And So It Is:
After the 14 days at the Veterans Hospital, Bill was put in an elderly care facility. He was gone then, nearly gone, I went to see him on New Year’s Day, there was nothing left of him…..he died a few days later.
Be Seeing You!
Dan
Nick's Liner Notes:
"And So It Is" represents a continuation of, or elaboration upon, the dying in the old person's home theme announced first in "5150" as it concerns the "the old man."
More details:
They put him in this big old place where every door is locked
They don't want no one getting out they might go for a walk
He's feeling sad and lonely now so far away from home
Not a single person there that he's ever known.
All of this is pretty much true or as it occurred. But the refrain is mostly made up:
They take him to the window to get a little light
Blind as a bat he don't know if it's day or night
But his face like a flower it turns to the sun
And so it is and so it is
Until his day is done.
The last part--until his day is done--is of course a metaphor with the word "day" standing in for the concept "life." But the other part seems to make an empirical or matter-of-fact claim: that he was "taken to the window" and that he was "blind as a bat." Maybe he was taken to the window to get a little light. I don't know, but I doubt it. He had a walker. I know for certain though that he was not blind as a bat. Though he was pretty blind, having suffered over a number of years ocular decay, resulting from something called macular degeneration. I am not sure what this is medically speaking. I only know its effects that one loses vision starting in the center of the eye. So right in the middle of what one should be seeing becomes a black hole which gradually expands taking up all vision except usually on the very periphery. One is left with enough peripheral vision to get about. So he was not blind as a bat.
I think his peripheral vision responsible for suggesting the line I like best in this song: his face like flower it turns to the sun... He walked, during our visit, into a large room, with light streaming at one end, and he cocked his head in a birdlike way, first to this side and then to that, trying to make out where was. He was using, I know, his peripheral vision, but to do that, he had to cock his head left and right as does a bird. Somehow his making that movement touched me. I couldn't figure out how to get a bird into the song, so I changed his face to a flower.
This I think fitting since as we age the more we regress back along the food chain, so that in end, some exist only in a "vegetative state."
lyrics
And So It Is
They put him in this big old place where very door is locked
They don't want no one getting out, they might go for a walk
He's feeling sad and lonely now so far away from home
Not a single person there that he's ever known
They take him to the window to get a little light
Blind as a bat he don't know if it's day or night
But his face like a flower, it turns to the sun
And so it is
And so it is
Until his day is done
All he's got now is the clothes upon his back
And the things he carries round in a little plastic sack
And all the fellas there, they are just like him
A bunch of crazy, dying, and demented old men
They take him to the window to get a little light
Blind as a bat he don't know if it's day or night
But his face like a flower, it turns to the sun
And so it is
And so it is
Until his day is done
God asks him questions nearly every night
Problem is he doesn't get any of the answers right
He's afraid he might fail God's final quiz
And if there's any mercy at all he don't know where he is
They take him to the window to get a little light
Blind as a bat he don't know if it's day or night
But his face like a flower, it turns to the sun
And so it is
And so it is
Until his day is done
credits
from
The Tingles,
released March 23, 2011
Nick Tingle: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion
Dan Tingle: Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Mandolin, Percussion
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