DBT Tracks #62: The Monument Valley

[John A Arkansawyer]

So this was shaping up to be perfect. Right as I was settling down to write this, Patterson Hood posted his note on "Buttholeville", a song about striking out from, and against, the non-comforts of home. He even used the same John Ford quote that he used in "The Monument Valley". And there, right up at the top of this thread, was last week's track: "Buttholeville".

Too good to be true, of course. Last week's track was "Life in the Factory". "Buttholeville" was at the top only because Patterson had just posted about it elsewhere. And therein he wrote (and I knew already, dammit), that "Buttholeville" wasn't about his own home but about the Buttholeville state of mind. Way to kill my buzz, dude. I'm writing this cold sober.

And I must admit up front that I know next to nothing about The Great Director, John Ford. I know more about the great playwright, John Ford, and a whole lot more than that about the great novelist, John Ford, but bupkis about the director and his movies, except that he created the western, and later on ended the western with The Searchers, only to have other directors create the western all over again. And I know from the career of the novelist John Ford that slotting art works into genre categories is a marketer's work and a fool's game. So I'm going to miss a lot of what's in this song, just like I miss a lot of what's in "Slapped Actress", the Hold Steady song about John Cassavetes, the one Craig Finn wrote to end an album, just as Patterson wrote this one to end an album, the two albums those two bands toured together behind on the tour when I first saw them.

But as a great man once said, it's too late to stop now. Onward:

It's all about where you put the horizon
Said the Great John Ford to the young man rising
You got to frame it just right and have some luck of course
And it helps to have a tall man sitting on the horse
Tell them just enough to still leave them some mystery
A grasp of the ironic nature of history
A man turns his back on the comforts of home
The Monument Valley to ride off alone

And when the dust all settles and the story is told
History is made by the side of the road
By the men and women that can persevere
And rage through the storm, no matter how severe
And whether it's a horse or a car or a train
There's gonna be some fine times and there's gonna be some pain
In the end it's a silhouette framed by the sun
And just The Monument Valley when the evening comes

It's a strong wind blowing on the open range
It's gonna be beautiful and it's gonna be strange
It's where to plant the camera and when to say action
When to print the legend and when to leave the facts in
And when to turn your back on the comforts of home
And wander round The Monument Valley alone

More than any other Patterson song, even more than "A World of Hurt", I'm needing to hear this one live. Let me take it apart. Probably I'm going to break it. But you have your own.

That first verse, it sets the song up. It gives us the frame to look through. But--"You got to frame it just right"--it being the horizon, right?--"It's all about where you put the horizon"--yes, you can frame the horizon, but really, you can't put it anywhere. Wherever you are, the horizon is Out There, always. It's the exact opposite of The Edge, which you only find by going over it. Personal knowledge. Experience. Gnosis. One goes over The Edge oneself, but one sees others go over the horizon. Are they going over? How can you know without being there with them? If they come back and tell you, can you believe it?

Tell them just enough to still leave them some mystery
A grasp of the ironic nature of history

Is that really how Patterson sings it on the record? I'm not where I can listen to it right now, but I don't hear "just" or "still" in my head when I hear that song. That first line stumbles, just a little, and then the second line fits onto the rhythm precisely, in a way more typical of Cooley ("They turned what was into something so disgusting even wild dogs would disregard the bones") or Isbell ("They said that he was moving at a federal level but they couldn't really make it stick"). No matter. It's a beautiful couplet no matter how that first line scans.

And then we get to the refrain:

A man turns his back on the comforts of home
The Monument Valley to ride off alone

That's what the director shows us. This first verse gives us the director explaining his art, and tops it off with those two lines. We see what the man sees, what the director shows us, The Monument Valley. That's the ending, but not yet the end.

The second verse drops us into the history

made by the side of the road
By the men and women that can persevere
And rage through the storm, no matter how severe

I don't like that last line. "Range through the storm" would be better. But I don't see any way around ending the line before with persevere, either, so let's let it lay and look at what's great about this verse. Look at the scope of it, how wide a field it covers! Those of us who, like the John Ford who directed The Searchers (I am told), have grown sensitive to those other heroes, those secret heroes of the western, the Indians, will find they, too, made history by the side of the road. It's universal, this part of the lyric, it contains multitudes, their fine times and their pains, and the refrain that shows us what they see, again, The Monument Valley.

And then that third verse. This is the writer, speaking to us direct. This is what he knows:

where to plant the camera and when to say action
When to print the legend and when to leave the facts in

When to roll the credits, how to revel in the everyday. This is what Patterson sees:

when to turn your back on the comforts of home
And wander round The Monument Valley alone

The "comforts of home" isn't some cheap-ass coked-up eighties irony. It's honest-to-god comfort, and it hurts to leave it, by a horse or a car or a train or a tour bus. And you must leave it and you may not make it back and even if you do it may not be there any more and even if it is it might have turned to shit while you were away on business. That's the mirror image, the negative of "Buttholeville". "Buttholeville" lets go and flees. "The Monument Valley" leaves slowly, regretfully, even as it grasps at what it can't hold.

This album, Brighter Than Creation's Dark, was different from the albums that came before it, less rocking, more meditative, certainly for Patterson. "Two Daughters and a Wife". "Daddy Needs A Drink". "The Opening Act". "The Monument Valley". The two albums that came after it were even more different from the albums which came before, including this one, grooving more than rocking (though indeed rock they can and do). They, too, "turn their back on the comforts of home". Right here is that turning point, that fulcrum, that place where the balance lies, or where the balance is ruined forever.

Damn. Seventeen minutes till I've missed my deadline to get this posted. No time to rewrite it. Somebody help us out here. Someone who doesn't need this song so much.

[bovine knievel]

The last verse of The Opening Act could fit nicely before the second to last verse... or maybe this belongs in the Things I Think I Hear thread.

And I’m driving north as the sun was rising over a Technicolor horizon
I reached out to touch you but you’re not there, a thousand miles away from here
I turned up the radio; heard some preacher talking salvation
My tank is half full and I reached over and changed the station

And whether it's a horse or a car or a train
There's gonna be some fine times and there's gonna be some pain
In the end it's a silhouette framed by the sun
And just The Monument Valley when the evening comes

It's a strong wind blowing on the open range
It's gonna be beautiful and it's gonna be strange
It's where to plant the camera and when to say action
When to print the legend and when to leave the facts in
And when to turn your back on the comforts of home
And wander round The Monument Valley alone

[Smarty Jones]

Beautiful write-up, John A Arkansawyer! I think this might very well be my second favorite track on BTCD, after Ghost to Most. You certainly did it justice. I really enjoyed your post. Thank you!

The only thought I can add on top of the pile (as someone who's a bit more acquainted with the work of John Ford, director) is this: When I hear the lines,

And when the dust all settles and the story is told
History is made by the side of the road
By the men and women that can persevere
And rage through the storm, no matter how severe

I always think of the Joad family in Ford's 1940 adaptation of 'The Grapes of Wrath.' The whole idea of the migrant families of the Dust Bowl forced to turn their backs on their homes and everything they once knew and persevering a hard life on the road to make it to California, where disillusionment, hardship and injustice awaits them, just seems to fit perfectly in with this verse and even the song in general (even though Patterson had more in mind an image of John Wayne riding off into the sunset).

[The Edge]

Wow, what more could I add?
Another great song off of this CD that had to grow on me considering I was still in denial about Jason leaving the group. I'm still hoping to hear it live, along with Perfect Timing.

I've been planning a west coast vaca. through Monument Valley and that area soon. I would imagine as I light up a big "fattie" rolling through that area this song will be in my player!

[Clams]

Love the sound and feel of this song, even if I don't completely get the story. Smarty, your Grapes of Wrath reference makes a lot of sense and helps. I didn't know that was a Ford film. As good as Neff's pedal steel and Cooley's subtle riffs are, Shonna's harmonies are my favorite part of the song. Mrs Clams and I went thru Monument Valley about 15 yrs ago and I can still remember everything about that day and night. Just a stunningly beautiful place. If I had to choose, I'd go back there before revisiting Bryce Canyon, Zion or the Grand Canyon which we also saw on that trip.

[mark lynn]

John A Arkansawyer...thank you. Great post man and way to "frame it just right. Love this song." One of my favorites for sure.

[beantownbubba]

Nice, John A, very nice.

Smarty, I'm not so sure PH didn't have the Joads in mind on that verse, but either way the reference is very on point.

[dime in the gutter]

beautiful song. perfect closer....sums up the whole record.

saw an interview with spielberg the other day. he told a story about meeting john ford for the first time at the age of 15ish. ford asked him to examine/explain a few still photogs on the walls. ford then yelled at him about not noticing or understanding where the horizon was framed in each pic. all spielberg "saw" was a tall man on a horse.

[lotusamerica]

This may be Patterson's most mature song. In any case, it's one I've turned to for inspiration and fortitude on several occasions in the past 3 years when life has required both.

Funny, my favorite lines are the ones John doesn't like.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Was reminded of this song this morning and just how much I dig it. Atmospheric, beautiful and the harmonies are perfect. Definitely a top tier Patterson song for me.

[John A Arkansawyer]

That's better written than I remember it being. (My post, not the song--the song just plain kicks ass.) Looking at the date, I see why. That was not a happy time for me, and it showed. I'm a lot better now, maybe even doing great. (My friends, now...) The larger y'all had a lot to do with that, so thanks to all concerned.

UPDATE: I might change just one thing about it, in retrospect. Somehow I'd add to the end of this:

And you must leave it and you may not make it back and even if you do it may not be there any more and even if it is it might have turned to shit while you were away on business.

that even if you do come back and it's still just like it was, you won't be. The rest is conditional; this part is certain.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Monument Valley in the Movies