Mexican Blue

My favorite song in the universe is...... (drum roll please, Jo Jones....)

Mexican Blue, as written and performed by Jolie Holland on Springtime Can Kill You.
The song is dedicated to Samantha Parton of the Be Good Tanyas. Jolie started out with the Tanyas in Vancouver but left to due to creative "differences" and moved to San Francisco where she started her solo career and resides to this day.

I don't profess to know the exact relationship of Jolie to Sam but doubtlessly this about the most affecting love song I've ever heard. Perhaps, a plea for her friend to simply take care of herself and not let hard times to press her down.
The song begins simply, stepping lightly, with Jolie's voice and a simple 4 chord sequence that continues to cycle through to the end. As it moves along, the underplayed coloring of the drums and bass fill it out and the magnificent tonal colors of Brian Miller's guitar bring just the right touch to the mood. Jolie's verses shift from poetic allusions to direct plea and back again and she rearranges the melody to fit the pictures her words paint; reaching high and plaintive or warm and settled.
If nothing else the song offers the listener an opportunity to relish, intimately, the beautiful glowing tones of Jolie's voice and the way she takes a word and ever so slightly draws it out and spins and flutters it, and let its melt off her tongue. Just the way she says, in her lovely drawl, "hydrangeas" is enough for me to hop the nearest train to SF and lay bouquets at her door. Ahh, but one must let go of what can never be and appreciate what's been given!

The song is the last on the album; number 12, and i wouldn't doubt that those flicking about, perusing the cuts, might never make it that far. Here is the Jolie recording of Mexican Blue as posted on myspace - thanks to the poster and long may it stay!

You're like a saint's song to me

I'll try to sing it pure and easily

You're like a Mexican blue

So bright and clear and pale in the afternoon

I saw you riding on your bike

In a corduroy jacket in the night

Past the hydrangeas that were blooming in the alley

With a galloping dog by your side

When I was hungry you fed me

I don't mean to suggest that I'm like Jesus Christ

Your light overwhelmed me

When I lay beside you sleepless in the night

And when you dreamed my guardian spirits appeared

And the moon stretched out across your little bed

They said they'd started to get worried about me

They were happy we had finally met

We had finally met

A mysterious bird flies away

Seemed to be calling your name

And bounced off the top of a towering pine

And vanished in the drizzling rain

There's a mockingbird behind my house

Who is a magician of the highest degree

And I swear I heard him rip the world apart

And sew it back again with his fiery melody, melody

When you were mad at me I didn't care

And I just loved you all the same

And I waited for the wind to push the hurricane

Out to sea, and the sun could shine again

Oh I don't mean to give you advice

Its just like Delia said, "oh, Jesus Christ"

Just don't get so high you leave the ground

Everything is so much better when you're around

Just don't float so high you drift away

Stand tall, with your feet on the ground

I love your songs, I love your sound

Everything is so much better when you're around

When the moon is as clear as an opal

And the amethyst river sings a song

I'll remember all your dreams and the mysteries

You have borne in your crystalline soul

That you sing from your golden throat

That you shine from your sparkling eyes

That you feel from the goddess in your thighs

You're like a saint's song to me

I'll try to sing it pure and easily

You're like a Mexican blue

So bright and clear and pale in the afternoon

In the afternoon