Vliegen, autorijden

Wie zijn dochter voorbereidt op het rij-examen, heeft het misschien al opgemerkt: dichtbij het examencentrum is er een Amelia Earhartlaan. Vijf jaar na Charles Lindbergh stak Earhart de Atlantische Oceaan over. Ze verdween tijdens een poging om als eerste rond de wereld te vliegen. Haar laatste boodschap werd gehoord op 2 juli 1937.

De wereld rondvliegen, of leren autorijden, het is allebei een beetje avontuur. Voor Joni Mitchell was "the drone of flying engines" een echo van haar wanderlust, in Amelia, dat verscheen op de LP Hejira in 1976. Ze legt een stukje van haat ziel bloot, Maybe I've never really loved (...) I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude, en het vervolg zou ze later schrijven, in 1982, in Chinese Café, over het pijnlijke failliet van het hippiedom, over haar dochter die ze afstond ("I could not raise her"), en die ze later nog zou weerzien, maar een happy ending kent het verhaal niet.

Caught in the middle

Carol we're middle class

We're middle aged

We were wild in the old days

Birth of rock 'n' roll days

Now your kids are coming up straight

And my child's a stranger

I bore her

But I could not raise her

Nothing lasts for long

Nothing lasts for long

Nothing lasts for long

______________

"Amelia" - Joni Mitchell

I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild & blue
It scrambles time & seasons if it gets through to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture post card charms
Oh Amelia it was just a false alarm

People'll tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you'll never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh Amelia it was just a false alarm

I wish that he was here tonight
It's so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams Amelia
Dreams & false alarms