Hallock Hill

Sibylle Baier, “Tonight,” Colour Green (Orange Twin 2006, but recorded early 1970s)

Tonight when I got back to my hotel room, having just spent a dinner with colleagues arguing about the Nuremburg Trials, illegal immigration, Hitler, taxes, capital punishment, torture, the legal system, &c, &c, &c, all I wanted to do was listen to this song. I give it to you now as well (having blown $9.95 to get an internet connection in this joint), in the hope that you too can put aside the thoughts of the outside and realize the importance of what you have there before you.

I love the way she sings the word “hurt” at the opening. Baier’s moving acceptance of domesticity and the beauty of relationships, within a worldscape of outside pressure and pain, is sophisticated in its simplicity. The story of her recording these songs is fascinating:

“Colour Green, the one and only release from German underground folk denizen Sibylle Baier, has been around since the early ’70s, albeit in her closet. Recorded on reel-to-reel in her home between 1970-1973, the budding actress, seamstress, writer, mother, and singer/songwriter chose family over fame, and it wasn’t until the tapes landed in the hands of Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis that they began their ascent into the world that they so eloquently describe. A wistful rendering of Vashti Bunyan, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell, Baier’s conversational voice can be both tragic and comforting, turning the simplest task (“Driving”) into a sepia-toned snapshot of longing. Each track is like a field recording of the highest quality, with every whisper of the locale present, yet unintelligible. Like Anne Briggs with a guitar or Nico without all of the junkie baggage, Baier, who would silently haul out the tape machine and press record late at night when her family was asleep, conveys the purest of intimacies with the kind of confidence only secrecy can afford. From the opening cut, when she sings “tonight when I came home from work/there he, unforeseen sat in my kitchen,” the listener can’t help but be transported behind the soft closed eyes that grace Colour Green’s basement-scavenged, yellowing cover” (James Christopher Monger, Allmusic Guide).

Tonight, lyrics

tonight, when I came home from work, hurt
tonight, when I came home from work
there he, unforseen
sat in my kitchen buttering himself a bread and the cat was on his knee and smiled at me

tonight, when I came home from work
tonight, when I came home from work

there he, unforseen
passed the guitar and said I battered my car right now won’t you please give me your tune
we had change of the moon
we had change of the moon

tonight, when I came home from work
tonight, when I came home from work
tonight, when I came home from work

there he, unforseen
changed in an easy chair
and said what’s that sorrow you bear and I could tell him he understood
he gently took my arm
he listened to my tears till dawn
I dedicate this song to you tonight
we had change of the moon
we had change of the moon

tonight, when I came home from work
tonight, when I came home from work
tonight, tonight
tonight