The ballad of Lucy Jordan

Een prachtige ballade, gezongen door Marianne Faithfull.



The morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of Lucy Jordan
In a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban town
As she lay there 'neath the covers dreaming of a thousand lovers
Till the world turned to orange and the room went spinning round.

At the age of thirty-seven she realised she'd never ride
Through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair.
So she let the phone keep ringing and she sat there softly singing
Little nursery rhymes she'd memorised in her daddy's easy chair.

Her husband, he's off to work and the kids are off to school,
And there are oh so many ways for her to spend the day.
She could clean the house for hours or rearrange the flowers
Or run naked through the shady street screaming all the way.

At the age of thirty-seven she realised she'd never ride
Through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair
So she let the phone keep ringing as she sat there softly singing
Pretty nursery rhymes she'd memorised in her daddy's easy chair.

The evening sun touched gently on the eyes of Lucy Jordan
On the rooftop where she climbed when all the laughter grew too loud
And she bowed and curtsied to the man who reached and offered her his hand,
And he led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd.

At the age of thirty-seven she knew she'd found forever
As she rode along through Paris with the warm wind in her hair ...


DE VERSIE VAN DR. HOOK MAG ER OOK ZIJN,
KIJK EN LUISTER MAAR:



"The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" is a song by American poet and songwriter Shel Silverstein. Originally recorded by Dr Hook, the best known version is by the English singer Marianne Faithfull. Taken from her 1979 album Broken English, it was released as a single in November 1979.

The song is about a 37-year-old woman who lives in a "white suburban bedroom in a white suburban town", disillusioned with her life as a wife and mother and possibly undergoing a mental breakdown. Its ending is ambiguous. In the last verse, a man offers Lucy his hand and drives her off in a "long white car", offering her a romantic escape from the humdrum of her domestic life. The man may be illusory, the "long white car" could be an ambulance, and the line "on the roof top where she climbed when all the laughter grew too loud" may mean that Lucy commits suicide.

In an interview on ITV's South Bank Show aired on 24 June 2007, Faithfull herself said that the story she intended to put across was that Lucy climbs to the roof top but gets taken away by "the man who reached and offered her his hand" in an ambulance ("long white car") to a mental hospital, and that the final lines: "At the age of thirty-seven she knew she'd found forever / As she rode along through Paris with the warm wind in her hair ..." are actually in her imagination at the hospital.

(bron: Wikipedia)
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