Jane Siberry’s When I Was a Boy: Divining the Nature of Love

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Jane Siberry in concert (credit: CBC Radio’s Tapestry)

Jane Siberry‘s When I Was a Boy was a revelation when it came out in 1993. Produced by Michael Brook and Brian Eno, it lent a deep, complex and mysterious quality to her sound which created powerfully spiritual music. The production marries Siberry’s beautiful vibrato-filled soprano voice with Michael Brook’s quavering and spooky electric guitar. The result is enchantment and wonder.

I couldn’t disagree more with the Allmusic.com reviewer, Roch Parisien who dismissed this album as average and a disappointment because in it Siberry didn’t advance her musical progression or show her listeners anything new.

When I’d heard this album for the first time on KCRW-FM (Santa Monica, CA), I’d only heard Siberry as an opening act for Van Morrison. I was put off at that time by the art performance nature of her show in which she and her musicians appeared in costumes and acted out their music dramatically. I just didn’t know what to make of it or her. But when I heard When I Was a Boy, I got it with a vengeance.

The songs are anthems of grace, love, beauty and redemption. They are moving and powerful in that primodial way that characterizes truly great music.

I’m using Sail Across the Water as representative of the album’s fine music. In it, Siberry speaks of love in the way that the Jewish liturgy talks of the “still, small voice” within us which represents the best of what we have to offer the world. Love is a trembling bird, it comforts the worried brow, it wipes away a lover’s tears, it kneels above the broken body. Love may be small, love may work in mysterious ways, but love is powerful and it moves mountains:

Love is trembling
trembling like the little bird we hold within our hands
love is bending
bending towards the worried brow
here, let me wipe away your tears
love is kneeling
above the broken body
the ever-upturned face
love is missing
all the words are broken, help me
I cannot find my way
no, I can’t
I need you love
come on love

will you sail ‘cross the water
and lay your wisdom down?
and love will you sail ‘cross the water
and tell us what you found?
and love will you sail ‘cross the water
and hold us when we drown?
and love will you sail ‘cross the water?
is anybody listening…?

I find every song on this album to be an affirmation of the best and most powerful impulses in life. Love, indeed, is everything.

Love is Everything (hear it) is another profoundly moving song from this collection.

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