[link to original on tumblr]
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These liner notes list the first line of "A Rose for Emily" as "The summer is here at last," but I'd always heard it as "Though summer is here at least." Additionally, though acknowledges the difference in mood - summer is usually seen as a happy time, but the rest of this song is about a woman who doesn't have any love. Though seems to signal that contrast.
The liner notes also have part of "Changes" as:
I knew her when summer was her crownThe British accents are a bit difficult for me to decipher here; just by hearing it, I can't tell whether it's "sad" or "sighed." But based on the other lyrics, I think it's "sighed." I (mostly) agree with these other lyrics that the liner notes list:
And autumn sad
How brown her eyes
I knew her when winter was her cloakI'd always thought it was "In spring her voice she spoke to me," but that's a minor point.
And spring her voice
She spoke to me
Still, you have the structural parallelism between "summer was her crown" and "winter was her cloak," so it makes sense to me that that parallelism would also apply to further words and that they would relate to speech and respiration - "Autumn sighed" and "She spoke to me."
Those were my qualms up to that point. But just recently, in looking through the lyrics, I found that among the friends listed in "Friends of Mine" are "Jim and Christy." But the Zombie Heaven liner notes lists them as "Jim and Christine." The on-screen text on the 40th anniversary concert DVD also has "Christine."
With the cases of "A Rose for Emily" and "Changes," I had only my own dissent, but now I have more viable evidence. The Christy/Christine thing for me is the final straw that sort of invalidates the lyrics as listed in the 30th anniversary edition liner notes.
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This post is the first of five ideas/realizations I had about Odessey and Oracle.
