Mike's filk: The Final Connection

[elisem]

Neil has this on his journal, which Mike wrote in 2003:

THE FINAL CONNECTION

Why are there so many songs about hearses?

The way to the uttermost side,

Hearses go fast, and traffic parts for them,

But who's in a hurry to ride?

Wagons and roads are an eloquent metaphor,

Gentling and straightening the way,

Everyone takes that last exit to Brooklyn,

Home at the end of the day

Remember the start of Magnificent Seven?

Steve and Yul drove to Boot Hill,

Just a small fable of folks being equal,

And going to sleep where you will.

Tickets and transfers and waiting for answers

At something so common yet strange,

Someday you'll ride it, the last train to Clarksville,

All classes, all stations . . . all change.

Look out the window and wave to the strangers

What do they see in the glass?

Up ahead, can you see, we've stopped for Emily,

There will be more as we pass.

Savor the journey, however you're going,

It's been your whole life to get there,

Someday I'll travel, without reservations,

I hope I've two coins for my fare.

-- John M. Ford, 2003


It's a lovely thing.

Comments

[pameladean]

I just purely love the stopping for Emily. P.

[elisem]

I know, right? Gets me every time.

[elisem]

Also that last train to Clarksville. :-)

[elisem]

Also also, I'm pretty sure that "All classes, all stations . . . all change." is a reference to the exhibit we saw at the Minnesota History Center right after it opened. (Surely you recall him referring to the MHC as magnificent example of Albert Speer architecture. I think he made soda come out of Victor's nose with that.)

It was an exhibit that had, shall we say, a liminal focus. It was in a special room, because there was music and a spotlight moving between artifacts and some projections and so forth, and places to sit and watch, with a gorgeous song. As we exited the little exhibit back to the main floor, we saw one of the people who worked for the MHC (builders? designers? anthropologists? who knows) taking their family through the Center. It was so new that there was a lot of that happening, and we got to recognize it, especially the eagerness to show what they'd worked on. This one said, heading towards what we had just come out of, "Oh, come here, you have to see the death exhibit!" Which made Mike and me smile, because of course it was, and that's part of why we loved it.

The song was Benard Ighner's "Everything Must Change." (We were the only ones in there, and sat through the show twice, because it was so beautiful. But of course it was the death exhibit. Of course it was. And Mike said later, 'They're playing our exhibit.')