We had a busy week and weekend (is there one person out there who didn’t?), and when the moment came last night to make the go/no-go decision on attending Best Coast, it was exceedingly easy to throw in the towel and instead gather with family to watch the (miraculous) victory of the American women in the World Cup we’d recorded and the day’s (horrifying) stage of the Tour de France (vive le Hoogerland!).  All of which led to this morning’s serious regret-hangover and yet another visage of creeping age and its creepy mindset (undoubtedly exacerbated by our current novel, “The Astral” by Kate Christensen, and its age-nauseum purview).  Add to that the fog’s recurring gray-bar imprisonment, and you’ve got a recipe for a dreadful morning.

And so what could come on our car’s CD player this morning but Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3‘s great cover of Bob Dylan’s aging-appropriate Not Dark Yet. Once again music and the mystery were having their way with us.  With his jangly melodies, stirring vocals and quirky lyrics (“Balloon Man,” etc.), we have been huge fans of Hitchcock since his 1984 album, I Often Dream of Trains. The combination of Hitchcock and Dylan’s soulful song can stop you in (and leave blood on) your tracks.  And so we were. 

Check out the song’s lyrics, the studio version by Hitchcock and a live rendering below.

Not Dark Yet

Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there’s been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind
I just don’t see why I should even care
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

Well, I’ve been to London and I’ve been to gay Paree
I’ve followed the river and I got to the sea
I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
I ain’t looking for nothing in anyone’s eyes
Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

I was born here and I’ll die here against my will
I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don’t even hear a murmur of a prayer
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3–Not Dark Yet

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Not-Dark-Yet.mp3|titles=02 Not Dark Yet]

And then the always-uplifting Soweto Gospel Choir came counterpointing onto the player and burned the figurative fog off with an ebullient reading of Dylan’s Forever Young. And the world was set right yet again.  Check the song out below their picture.

Soweto Gospel Choir–Forever Young

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/16-Forever-Young.mp3|titles=16 Forever Young]

Consider all of this just a long-winded encouragement to not give in to lethargy and to get up and out to attend the Gardens & Villa/Hosannas show this Wednesday at Soho.  Don’t give up the fight.