When Ween rewrote "The Unquiet Grave" to become "Cold Blows the Wind", what was their mindset?
Well listening to "Cold Blows the Wind", a feel of uncertainly comes over me. This feel that they are sad but speaking in phrases that seem to be not as melancholy as "The Unquiet Grave" is one that brings your emotions to a figurative fork in the road.. Towards the end of song, I feel a beauty in the song that I didn't in the beginning. When someone is to read "The Unquiet Grave" they feel sorry for the man that his love has passed, but they realize that it sometimes takes a person passing to really miss them. When I read "The Unquiet Grave", I perceive the man as taking his love for granted until she was laid to rest. He then understands what being gone forever really is and then tries to make it up by staying by her grave for a year and a day.
Original vs. Modern
What makes these two ballads so different?
The big difference to me is the gender switch. Obviously, mourning seems to be different to a man and a woman. With "The Unquiet Grave", the woman speaks of her "cold clay lips" and her "earthy breath", while the man in "Cold Blows the Wind speaks of his "lily white lips" and "heavy and strong" breath. This, to me, seems to be backwards. Why would a dead man have lily white lips compared to a woman's cold clay lips? The man does say "my lips are as cold as my clay" but in general the differences are barely there until a few new verses are added in. The interesting lyrics come up when they say "Go fetch me a nun from the dungeon deep; And water from a stone; And white milk from a maiden's breast; That babe were never known; Go dig me a grave both long, wide and deep as quickly as you may". These are things that are all nearly impossible tasks. Altogether, the man in Ween's ballad is annoyed with the woman, whereas the woman in "The Unquiet Grave" seems to be warning the man that his life will be much shorter if he kisses her lips.
Why are these ballads so similar?
Obviously, Ween wanted the direct similarities to be there when they rewrote "The Unquiet Grave". Ween must have been so terribly moved by the words within the poem that they decided changing the ballad too drastically would take away the meaning that so strongly resonates from it. The similarities in lyrics are so easy to catch that when read at a quick glance, they seems to be identical in several instances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh3_SFVYAAw&feature=related
I agree with your comment about him taking her love for granted. He seems to sit on her grave in order to make up for lost time, but, ironically, wastes another year and one day in the process. The gender switch is also very interesting. I'm glad you brought up the lines about the tasks he wants her to perform. I think it is indicative of the impossibility of her situation. It's kind of like saying "While you're waiting for me to wake from the dead, why don't you try these other impossible things?" Be careful to re-read what you write. The first three sentences of this blog are confusing because of punctuation/spelling/etc. errors.
ReplyDeleteI like how you told us how you felt about "Cold Blows the Wind". How he wastes a year and a day seems strange, but its also weird that they made the gender change. Its weird that he thinks that she will appear from the grave.
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