Redtree Times

Edward Hopper –Early Sunday Morning (1926)

On the Sunday morning sidewalks
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned
Cause there’s something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone
And there’s nothin’ short of dyin’
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleepin’ city sidewalks
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down

==Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Morning Coming Down

Another Sunday morning. Coming into the studio early this morning. I was struck by the need to hear Johnny Cash sing Kris Kristofferson‘s Sunday Morning Coming Down.

It just felt like one of those Sundays. One of those days that have the feeling of that song aa well as that of the Edward Hopper painting above, one of my favorites by him. It has a quietness tinged with melancholy. It is filled with a bright sunlight that doesn’t sanitize or wash away the shadows but only serves to highlight the sadness that covers everything like a fine coat of dust.

It has the feel of the calm before the storm. Or maybe after.

It represents those Sunday mornings in the past when the world seems to be shifting radically or has shifted for me, and I am trying to come to terms with the change. Mornings when the realization sets in of something lost or beliefs shattered.

I’ve known those Sunday mornings.

This morning has that same sort of feeling.

Not going to go into why this might be. With the madness taking place in this country coupled with dealing with the cancer while still trying to be a productive painter, there are a lot of obvious choices.

Let’s leave it there. On these Sunday mornings such as this, all you can do is gather yourself up in its quietness and try to steady yourself so that you can carry on.

Put on your cleanest dirty shirt, wash your face, comb your hair and stumble out the door to meet the day. I took some liberties with the song’s words since I didn’t shave this morning. To be honest, I didn’t wash my face yet. And I guess I didn’t comb my hair either. But you get the gist.

For this Sunday Morning Music here’s that song. Something solid to hold to this morning. This is a live version from Johnny Cash that I very much like. I think it’s the fact you can see him sweat, that this guy is working to please and connect with that audience. It has a sense of vulnerability and authenticity to it that certainly connects the song to me– a dirty-faced, unshaven, wild and white-haired older guy sitting in the dark on an ominously dead still Sunday morning.