December 7, 2008

Weekend Waxing - Bartering for Nettie Moore

Song: Bartering Time Again
Artist: Eric Dude
Game: Dragon Warrior II

An LG Chocolate 3 has netted me my first mp3 player. The CD Player in my car has been broken for probably a year now. As a result, I've spent this past year very far away from music, which is strange for someone who is a musician, I guess. I've filled my time with other hobbies and time commitments, but I always look at my dusty guitar and borrowed banjo in the corner of my room wondering if today's the day I pick it up again. Twenty four hours a day don't seem like enough anymore. I've got nearly thirty years worth of hours, but I don't seem to have traded them in as wisely as I should've.

One of the first CD's I transferred over to my Chocolate was Bob Dylan's Modern Times. It took only a few moments to realize how much I really missed music. But, I guess it hit me hard when it came to his song "Nettie Moore". This was a song that I had completely forgotten existed, but as soon as the chorus hit, I was singing along remembering the tragic life of poor Nettie.

Nettie Moore is a reference to a very old folk tune of the same name. During the time of slavery, poor Nettie was a slave and had fallen in love with another slave. This slave she loved is the author of the tune, and he also had fallen hard for her. By a little white cottage, he "often sat and listened... to the voice of pretty Nettie Moore." However:
one sunny morn in Autumn...
came a trader up from Louisiana Bay...
who gave to master money...
and then he took her off to work her life away.
Now, he sings of how much he misses her, telling everyone, "The busy days are long... for you're gone from our little cottage home."

Dylan throws two lines into the chorus:
I loved you then and ever shall
But there's no one here that's left to tell
Everytime "I miss you!" is screamed, with every expression of loneliness, and with every set of new ears willing to listen, the frail memories bloom again and the trail between now and then seems not so long. Unfortunately, one can phrase how much another is missed in only so many ways. When there's nothing new to say and no one new to listen, the memories fade and the world moves on.

Dragon Warrior II was a long time ago; 1990 to be exact. I don't want all of it back, but I need some of it. No one told me what was being left behind and what we could keep. I am in no way unhappy with where I stand now, but there's a lot I would trade in for just a little, if I could.

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Did he just say, "Blessed are the cheesemakers?"

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