Laughing Song

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 10 August 2015.

Laughing Song by William Blake

Thanks for the clarification. I envy how well-read you are! My dream this summer has been to lie on the beach with a stack of books for a few days on end. Hasn't happened yet! I think I'm relying to frequently on biases I formed a decade or two ago...when I got what I perceived as the big picture, I stopped looking at the details, to my discredit.

I really like the shift you made in "Hey Rome" toward the idea that Rome goes from the seat of the oppressors of Christ to the seat of his Church on earth, that Christ can use all of human absurdity and turn it into divine justice, mercy, and love, all of which appear absurd from the context of our own absurd perversions of these things.

Your discussion actually verges on two things I was hoping for a long time ago in the story: some sort of truth that Arthur White the character can deliver to mankind both in the story and through the project, and some sort of homage to medieval morality plays.

At this point, I don't think Arthur has to have some profound wisdom, but as an enigmatic and seeming focal point in the story, there should be something in him that consistently points toward God's grace. If there is a phrase for it, it's my favorite line from Revelations: Behold, I make all things new. Rome is one of the great emblems we have of Christ's words. In that regard, this album should point upwards and carry this message of the man-made collapsing and being transformed through Christ.

I see a few things happening here.

One is that Will, through decades of suffering, is in the process of reconsidering most of his assumptions and has the humility to encourage his brother to make the album completely on Arthur's terms to the point of bowing out of it if that's what Arthur wants. And then, to steal from The Wife of Bath's Tale, Arthur invites him in, so that Will plays a supporting role instead of a controlling one. I think "Centerstage" makes sense on this album within the theme of "Behold, I make all things new." My songs tend to rip on America, but they don't hit the personal enough. "One and Only" might also work.  By the way, "One and Only" is very Songs of Innocence to me: "In my dreams I heard the sweet song of a bird, and it left me reeling with a happy feeling."

LAUGHING SONG

When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;
When the meadows laugh with lively green,
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene;
When Mary and Susan and Emily
With their sweet round mouths sing ‘Ha ha he!’
When the painted birds laugh in the shade,
Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:
Come live, and be merry, and join with me,
To sing the sweet chorus of ‘Ha ha he!’