Whispering Pines

Sometimes I lose CD's - I put them in the wrong cases, and then it takes months to find them again. Just a few days ago I located The Band's self-titled album which I'd only listened to a couple of times around Christmastime.

It's a great album, with roots in Americana but still influenced by what was going on musically in the late '60s, and with some slightly odd arrangements. The best known tracks are "Up On Cripple Creek" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", both by guitarist Robbie Robertson, who was becoming The Band's dominant songwriter. But my favourite is lesser known, and its music was composed (mostly) by the group's pianist, Richard Manuel, with words by Robertson. It's called "Whispering Pines":

If you find me in a gloom, or catch me in a dream

Inside my lonely room, there is no in between

Whispering pines, rising of the tide

If only one star shines

That's just enough to get inside

The lyrics are a perfect match for the haunting music, conveying melancholy, beauty and hope. A key change leads to these lines:

I will wait until it all goes 'round

With you in sight, the lost are found

Further lines such as "Let the waves rush in, let the seagulls cry/For if I live again, these hopes will never die" weave together images of natural beauty with both the melancholy of loneliness and hope for love as spiritual redemption.

Manuel had a distinctive musical voice within The Band. For one thing, he was a pianist. The haunting chord progression in this song would not come naturally to a guitarist. His singing could also be heartrendingly emotional, and it definately is in this song. Unfortunately, his demons would soon neutralize him as a creative force and eventually destroy him (he committed suicide in 1986). Some would say that knowing this adds poignancy to a song like this but all I can say is that the shivers that went down my spine on my first hearing of this song had nothing to do with Manuel's biography - well, except that his inner emotional landcape no doubt spilled out into compositions such as this.

Lyrics quoted from "Whispering Pines", by Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson