i have been listening to "anniversary" a lot in the past few days. when i heard it for the first time, i did not really like it. perhaps because i had expected something different. something more catchy. something more sentimental. but the more i listened to it the closer it got and eventually the melody was circling in my mind just like "the wind whips round in circuitries" in the song.

it's hard to pin down what is so special about the song - i guess it's its distance. already with the title suzanne is creating a temporal distance to the event: a repetition, but displaced in time. one year later. two years later. three years later. however, it's not an emotional distance but a reflective one, a position that allows us to think about the events without underestimating the force of our own hatred, our own love - which can be the same thing, really.

the calmness of the song displays an emotional intelligence or intelligent emotions, it is not a tearjerker celebrating unreflected nationalism, trying to feed on the listener's overwhelming feelings faced with the wtc tragedy. i think the way it is recorded is perfect - each additional instrument would be too much. the simple complexity of the music is exactly what the words are about: it cautions you not to be tempted by 2nd grade terrorism such as propaganda, hatred, the childish division of the world into "good" and "evil", militarism and the restriction of civil rights. instead it stresses the strength that can be gained. and suddenly the expression "all your possibilities" with its optimistic and hopefull implications makes much more sense of this special date than any claims of having justice, truth and god on one's side.

i know these thoughts are probably a luxury that you can only afford if you haven't been involved directly, if you're standing on the side. i saw people jumping, but i knew they weren't my friends or relatives. and yet they were.

well, just my thoughts on a gray september mo(u)rning.

remember me,

philipp

dear Suzanne;
I love Anniversary...don't think I've heard you play it live before. anyway, would you consider putting it in the set when you guys get back from Europe?
thanks,
larryt

I was in New Orleans for the past few days and I went to the Virgin Megastore on Decatur (in the French Quarter) and they actually had a copy of the UK 2-cd Retrospective, so I paid the $30.99 + tax for it, and I have listened to "Anniversary", oh, like, say, maybe, 25 or 30 times in the last 2-3 days. Heaven. So beautiful. I need to get off my butt and get that Vigil CD. I watched several of the tv clips that the webmasters here have so thoughtfully and excellently put up, and I have to say that "It Hit Home" was also excellent. I bring that up b/c I believe they're both post 9/11 songs, not only chronologically but thematically. Leave it to Suzanne to be one of the few people to be able to make something so beautiful, thoughtful, and truly unique out of that event.

-M

I am not sure what to make of this song. As Melanie sings "save the past, because the future's a question". The first part of the song says it all to me. Even in the present "strangers intrude your private reveries". It happens all the time to me. And unresolved fantasies, yes, they are present in my life too. It seems to me very beautiful, very human and valuable.

And then it is description of defence against it all. I know what it means, because I did the same at certain point and it turned away my attention from my problem, but didn't resolve it! It brought only temporary relief.

I think, all depends on in which point of life you are. When event is fresh we have to turn away our attention, but while time is flying anniversary gets a special dimension. This is a day of reflection and calmness, the time of stopping against this crazy world.

I couldn't write anything else on 1st November....

be well

Anna Maria K.

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"like a shadow, I am and I am not"

While the anniversary in this song is actually about 9/11, you can attribute an anniversary to almost everything. Like now, I broke up with my boyfriend for 3 months now, and it seems like yesterday. Time flows like a river, and sometimes the past is the present is the future. Then everything seems connected what seemed unrelated at first.

This song feels like that sometimes to me, walking through the city, wind circling around, you can feel the ghosts and possibilities around the corner. A fresh breeze is about to lighten up your life.

The impression this song caused in everyone was tremendous.
I remember the japanese guy next to me had to clean his eyes, because he actually cried. And it was the only music in the Tokyo 31 concert that made the crowd be silent for 5 seconds before everyone started applauding in joy.
Yes, like Spikey says, it has quite a universal meaning. It can be applied to any war, any catastrophe, or any pain within our hearts, as it conveys the meaning that it will be reflected in every corner that we look at.

It became one of my favourite songs ever.

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- Are you serious?
- Yes, i am. I'm your guardian angel.
- Amazing!I've never believed in that.Am i dead?
- No. You're just hallucinating.

on the thread about "fat man and dancing girl" i attached this song to "anniversary" which i had also been writing about, saying that they tell the "story of a fall and the hope of rising up again".

"anniversary" is, of course, about 9/11, but, like so many, if not all, of suzanne's songs, it transcends itself and could have other readings. to me, it has always been about how you rise up after a very traumatic event, something you caused or happened to you, how you fill in the hole of your own interior ground zero. and this song has always given me so much hope and faith.

at the paradiso, suzanne struggled with its chords, started it but had to stop, since they weren't right. she didn't give up and continued the struggle until she was able to sing this song. and she changed its very last verse: instead of "make the time for all your future revelries" she sang "make the time for all your private memories". she said later on at the towie meeting that the discussion here on the message board made her want to change it. being "a song about remembrance", suzanne said, singing of "future revelries" was sort of inadequate.

though i completely understand, and actually agreed with you on the spot about this change, suzanne, i have to say both verses work. it all depends on how you want to end the song: pulling it into the future (and the last two stanzas already do it) or leaving it hooked on the power of memory. to tell you the truth, they both speak of the same to me, because without remembering something hard and dealing with it somehow you can't rise above it, and so "all your future revelries" are impossible without "your private memories". you have to go from one to the other until they both can coexist. you must look back to be able to look ahead and then you just look forward to.

thank you again for singing this song.

much love,
fátima

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chance is the only thing that doesn't happen by chance

This song is about rising up - yes.
This song is about remembrance -yes.

Isn't it about acceptance?
about being lost in thoughts - but not feeling sorrow, about being alive instead of suffering breakdown.

Acceptance is the powerful feeling. It's lack only causes trouble.

silent passion

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"like a shadow, I am and I am not"

Anniversary always reminds me a lot of something I read; "Hedonic Relativism and planning the good society" by Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell. They describe how people maintain a constant level of happiness thoughout their lives, despite the external forces that are constantly changing our life goals. Happiness for most people is a relatively constant state, regardless of how good or bad things get. This is what they call the hedonic treadmill.

Psychologists have observed this phenomenon in a variety of different situations: lottery winners, tenure achievers, recently handicapped, etc etc. Despite the massive shifts in standard of living or achievement of major life goals, after a very short period of time the happiness levels return to normal.

Sometimes I feel as if Anniversary is about our thinking-strategies to maintain a certain level of happiness.

Spikey

the remembrance i'm talking about has acceptance in it, because without it there's no healing. but what if you accept and others don't? and what if things are hard to accept? and what if it's hard to obey? "would/could i obey?"

i'm asking all these questions only because things don't come easy sometimes. you have to struggle to get to them, you have to overcome the "trouble" to achieve them and it's through that struggle that you get to a place where you can accept. things are very seldomly as black and white as you seem to put them.

love,
fátima

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chance is the only thing that doesn't happen by chance

ps: it seems we were posting at almost the same time, spikey. my post was a reply to anna's. but i must say that i'm not one of those people you mention. i don't believe in "a constant level of happiness". to me, there are only fleeting moments of it.

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chance is the only thing that doesn't happen by chance

But that's what I meant, fleeting moments. When something makes you happy, you soon return to sort of a neutral base state. Or something. I dunno.

Spikes

First note: I LOVE this song.....

I'm with Fátima on this one, though...I find that life has fleeting moments of happiness. Things that you just have to hold onto at the time, because they pass and then you are hit in the head with a 2 x 4 unexpectedly!

When all is running smoothly—well, that must be the 'neutral base'—nothing hideously bad, or nothing to be ecstatic about either. Seems I need to get my hands on that book of yours Spikes—I'd like to find out what this theory is all about. I'm assuming it's available in English, right?

Love, Catherine

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"If we don't change the direction we are headed,
we will end up where we are going."

—Chinese Proverb

I know that what I wrote seemed to be black and white. It is always controversial what to accept and what not. But what I had on my mind is:

You have to accept the past.

You should accept present having on mind potential of changes. Things are seldom changing from day to night although they can. This lead straight to accepting the past.

And the future is the question and considering that point of life it is hard to decide - accept it or not. I am not saying that we should take things as they go and be silent lambs. But it seems to me that there is no dream future if you are not accepting the past and present. Such acceptance leads to peace of mind and this is what I am trying to do and point out yesterday.

Of course there is acceptance and on the contrary tolerance. But this is definitely not black and white and individual.

be well

silent passion

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"like a shadow, I am and I am not"

ps. Well, English is a perfect language, isn't it.? Of course not in my edition :-) So many past and present tenses, but NO future tense in fact – only variety of constructions. The future is something vague, no point in accepting it or not – only dreaming is worth thinking of.

:-)
silent passion

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"like a shadow, I am and I am not"