erstwhile
I’ve written about this before: How mishearing a song lyric can sometimes seem more poetic than the actual lyric. There are times when I’m actually disappointed with the real lyric and make an (often futile) effort to mishear it when I listen to the song. The song in question tonight I’ve actually written about as well, but not specifically about the lyric. A listen in the car on a quick trip to the grocery store earlier reminded me. The actual lyric:
you hold me just the same way
levon would play
and "the weight" is my favorite song
we’re gonna pull through
What I heard before I knew (and still try to hear):
you hold me just the same way
leave on a plane
and the weight is my favorite song
we’re gonna pull through
The actual lyric is a reference to a song by The Band called "The Weight" (a good song in its own right) and to the drummer, Levon Helm. The singer waxes nostalgic about a moment shared with her husband involving the song, and how that memory reinforces their bond and reminds them that they face the uncertainties of the future together. It’s a lovely way of articulating that sentiment, but my hearing of the song, I believe, adds another facet (though it might be a little out of context):
Emotions are always strong when lovers part, and nowadays that event often takes place in an airport (*leave on a plane"), and the sense of impending separation is always acute. Lovers hold each other in the moments leading up to the actual parting, and the memory of the physical closeness ("the weight" of another against you) can often be one of the most, if not the most, significant memory ("my favorite song," poetically speaking) from the event, the memory that tides the couple over and sees them through until their eventual reunion.
So take from that what you will. Anyone who knows me knows that I’ll be first in line to defend the original, fixed intent of the artist against the forces of deconstructionism, but in this case I think I can justify it as a deliberate mishearing of the song lyric, and not a deliberate reading into the actual lyric something that isn’t there, which is… kind of the same thing, just in a different sense. But I’ll always maintain, fundamentally, that the buck stops with the artist, no matter what pseudo-poetic lingistic gymnastics I foist upon the lyric. Maybe I just like "my" hearing of the song because it involves airports and by extension, airplanes. Yeah, that’s it.