Celebration of "I Can't Stand Still"

[DonFan]

I love this album too. Talking to the Moon is one of my absolute favorite Don songs--turns me to mush every time! I actually met and talked to Don under the "hot September sun down in Texas," so that song has a special meaning for me.

One random question--what do you think is behind the cover shot of him playing with matches?

[AmarilloByMorning]

Well, yonder comes the Emperor, boys
He sure looks fine in blue

Not to be political here, but since Mr. Democrat always is... why's the emperor wearing blue? Shouldn't he be in red? Don't try and tell me it rhymed nicely; the man's a master lyricist.


On a divergent topic... what's with the cover image? Playing with fire? Can it really be that simple? He doesn't seem the straightforward type.

[sodascouts]

Since DF asked that question about the cover, I've been trying to figure it out. He's in the set that you can see at the end of Johnny Can't Read where he's grading papers. You only get to see it for about 20 seconds. But before I get into my thoughts on that, thought I would share some trivia...

Regarding red v. blue: I remember reading that the red state / blue state phenomenon only started during the presidential election of 2000. Before then, networks chose whatever colors they liked to represent the two parties on the election map. Most of them did go with red and blue but they assigned them to different parties (way to confuse America, lol). [Here is where I go to Wikipedia to make sure I'm remembering correctly.] Back in 1980, NBC used blue to denote the states Reagan took. Because the states Reagan took were in blue, "NBC newsman David Brinkley famously referred to the 1980 election map showing Ronald Reagan's 44-state landslide as resembling a 'suburban swimming pool.'" I think it's certainly a possibility that Don was thinking of that quote when he referred to the "Emperor in blue" - if it was indeed referring to Reagan.

[sodascouts]

OK, so as I said, the set for the cover is the same as the set for the last scene of Johnny Can't Read. I wish I had a better screen shot but this tight close-up on the paper he's grading is the only one I got:



Of course you can download the video to see it if you so choose - the shot starts at 3:16.
Download video as .mpg (20 megs)
Download video as .wmv (9 megs)

And for those who don't have the CD, here's a blowup of the cover:



Still thinking about what it means!

[AmarilloByMorning]

Regarding red v. blue: I remember reading that the red state / blue state phenomenon only started during the presidential elections of 2000.

Ahhhh.... you have much knowledge. I knew Mr. Left Wing wouldn't let me down! "Suburban swimming pool..." That's brilliant. If we'd had blogs back when I was a democrat I would have avatar'ed the heck out of that quote.

His facial expression on the cover is absolutely incomparable. If he ever regarded me in such a manner, I would melt into a little pile of Ruffian goo. Someone would have to scoop me off the floor with a spatula.

By my best (squinting) guestimate there are twenty matches laying on the counter and he's grasping the twenty-first. Some significance to the number? There weren't twenty Eagles singles, were there?

[sodascouts]

If you try hard enough, you can attribute great significance to any number! I remember once arguing in a paper that because John Donne used the word "think" 33 times within a verse that was 100 lines long, he was attempting to tie salvation to the concept of a "New Jerusalem" (Jesus lived 33 years and Isaac was born to Abraham when he was 100, and Isaac is the father of Israel...hence Jerusalem blahblahblah). And honestly I think it could very well be true - the man was obsessed with numbers!

But... another argument would be... I was overthinking it.

Could be possible to do that here, too! But it is fun. But I only see 19 matches... wouldn't be good to devise all sorts of meanings to the wrong number!

[sodascouts]

We should also note that this version is in the liner notes of my CD - I don't know where the placement is on the LP:

[Freypower]

Can I just comment on the 'red' and 'blue' business. Traditionally red has been the colour of the left and blue, particularly in Britain, is the Conservative colour (Margaret Thatcher always used to wear blue). I am fascinated by the fact that now in the US the colours are the opposite.

I always naively thought that the emperor in blue could have been just a reference to the police who arrested Henley. It's unlikely though. I don't know what colour uniforms the police wear in California.

[sodascouts]

The police are traditionally the "boys in blue." Even in places where they wear different colors to work by day, the dress uniforms are always blue - at least in my experience.

[TimothyBFan]

We should also note that this version is in the liner notes of my CD - I don't know where the placement is on the LP:

I just pulled out my original LP---this shot is on the back cover and the shot earlier in the thread, where he's looking at the match, is on the front cover.

While we are analyzing--did anyone notice the different times on the clocks in both pics? This one is around 12:20 and the other picture around 12:05. Probably just a difference in the time of the shots but then again.... Just a thought.