Song Origins
Saint Ex
Saint Ex was deliberate. It was an idea I had because I was fascinated with this cat. He was the guy who wrote the little prince which most everybody should be familiar. If you’re not, go to your library. But, some of his other books are really, really heavy. He was a wartime air pilot for France, and my dad sent me an article and they said they think they found where Saint-Exupery went down, because parts of the plane, part of his dog tag, stuff like that was found… before then it had been a mystery, he was just a missing pilot. And it turned out that he was just flying around, and there was a German pilot doing the same thing at the same time. And they happened to be in the same airspace, so the German pilot sees Saint-Exupery, fired on him and shot him down. So this is the article my dad sends me, and this is like … 60 years later. He’s like, oh, this German pilot realized who he shot down - and he was like, that was my favorite childhood author when I was a kid. He was like, if I knew who he was, I never would have … you know, Saint Ex, that was my favorite story - "The Little Prince", I never would have shot this guy down.
That got me rolling, as far as … you know, wartime events and stuff. What if you knew the people you were fighting against, that they were not nameless, they weren’t faceless. They were the people that you know… it’s just like when you go to work, and you meet people and you go, hey I don’t even know you. And then when you get to know them you’re like, yeah I’ll help you out. I’ll change your tire. Umbrella in the rain type of thing. But we don’t have that anymore ... that much. And here was a guy in hindsight who 60 years later, he recognized, oh, I was the guy who did that. And he announced it.
Song wise, Jimmy came up with some beautiful pieces. They were like bits and pieces of songs, and I was like oh my God, this is it! There’s going to be peaceful, there’s going to be chaos, there’s going to be “ouch", and there’s going to be peace again. And now all I have to do is write some words.
But the idea was right there, and as soon as I heard the pieces of music that Jimmy had together, I was like, that’s the song. The song is already there. There are no blocks, there’s no weirdness, I know the song is there. And I had really been wanting to write a song about Saint-Exupery, and so got lucky like that. Because the intricacy of the way Jimmy plays guitar is like, something I can’t duplicate, so I’m glad he was there with just pieces that seem to fit perfectly…
-John Bell http://bit.ly/19xtOgC (MoBoogie Vids)
My wife Laura and I are great fans of “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It’s thought of as a children’s book but conveys some pretty heavy messages on many levels. A couple of years ago, my father sent me a New York Times article about an eighty-five year old German WWII pilot who realized he was the guy that shot down Saint Ex (a French pilot) in 1944. The plane Saint Ex was flying had been identified in 2004, ending the sixty year old mystery surrounding the author’s disappearance. Both pilots were on simple reconnaissance missions, and it was kind of a fluke that they happened upon each other. What I found intriguing about the situation is that the German pilot said Saint Ex was one of his favorite authors, and claimed if he was aware of who was flying the French aircraft, he wouldn’t have opened fire. I began reading more of Saint-Exupery’s works, and even though they’re translations, his insights about life during wartime are really profound and heartfelt – simultaneously caring about all humanity, while feeling compelled to fight for his country. Anyway, that’s what the song is about. One side note: Laura had always said “The Little Prince” story would be a good subject for a song…and it only took twenty years for the Band to put it together.
I was very grateful to the different musical ideas Jimmy shared one day while we were on the road. They were originally stand alone ideas – but when we brought them together for one song, the imagery for the lyrical aspect became more vivid. To me, the music and words conveyed the same feeling – like they were meant for each other, even though they came from different inspirations.
I’ll tell you what the mood conveys to me but that doesn’t make it the only interpretation available. The tone of the music within the intro is fairly etheric…floating – maybe helping to describe what it’s like to be flying through and above the clouds – peaceful, maybe solitary. The outro is the same piece of music. At this point however, oops – Saint Ex is dead. So, now the mood is still hopefully peaceful, lofty, perhaps Heaven-like – without the aid of an aircraft. Other people tell me they just see bunnies.
-John Bell http://bit.ly/19xtLkN (Relix)
# of times played: 77
First time played: 05/07/10
Frequency: 1 in every 4.05 shows
Longest drought: 12 shows (12/30/13 > 03/19/14)
Most common lead in: Chilly Water (5 times)
Most common lead out: Chilly Water (11 times)
Most common set position: 2nd set, song 3 (8 times)
Notes: Appears on ‘Dirty Side Down’
Lyrics: http://bit.ly/19xwCdE
Chords: http://bit.ly/1CJHqwh
Burnthday's Picks:
10/28/11 Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL http://bit.ly/1CJHlZo
02/19/12 Belly Up Aspen, Aspen, CO http://bit.ly/1CJHhJc
09/22/13 Taft Theater, Cincinnati, OH http://bit.ly/1CJHigm