‘And She Could Be . . .’

 by whiteray

Back in the early 1970s, there was a singer/songwriter based in Texas named Shawn Phillips, whose popularity in Minnesota was a puzzle to him and his record company. Once a year or so, he’d tour the state, offering his haunting songs and his four-octave voice. Among the places he played frequently was St. Cloud State, where I was a student from 1971 onward. 

He released four albums during those years – Contribution, Second Contribution, Collaboration, and Faces – all in a similar vein: questioning, yearning, exploring, all – save Faces – with long suites of songs blending into one another, his unique voice backed by impeccable musicianship. 

Back in the early 1970s, there was a girl. She played violin in the high school orchestra, and though she was glad to be my friend, I wanted more than she did. And I thought of her whenever I heard the song I wrote about last week, the Association’s “Cherish.” 

I went off to college a year before she did and spent my third year of college in Denmark, growing up a little, falling in and out of love, and building the foundation of the man I became. Not long after I came home, I was reacquainted with the girl who played the violin. 

Back in the early 1970s, there was a group of St. Cloud State students who spent their free time in the snack bar in the student union. We called it The Table. There were about fifteen of us, ranging in age from 19 to 27 or so, sipping coffee, making ribald jokes, dropping quarters in the jukebox against the wall, and building friendships that have now lasted nearly fifty years. 

One day during the autumn of 1974, one of my friends brought to The Table the girl who played the violin. And one day during the autumn of 1974, someone dropped a quarter in the jukebox for Shawn Phillips’ “We,” a track from Faces that had been released as a single in 1972. It had hung around the lower level of the charts for a few weeks and then disappeared, only to show up on the snack bar jukebox during the autumn of 1974: 

She is free, but she does not know the price she has to pay
And he could be a lover in the life she leads throughout the day
And they both could live together
They both could live in peace
They both could be in love together
And make the world at ease
Floating through a sea of troubles
That the world around them makes
And it really doesn’t matter when you know love’s pattern
‘Cause you know that is all it takes 

And she could be a mother and a daughter at the same time for a man
And he could be a father and a son for a future family plan
And they could raise a lot of healthy children
Bring ’em up in harmony
And teach them all the good things in this life
But most important teach them how to be
Open and attentive and loving
When the world around them shakes
And it really doesn’t matter when you know love’s pattern
’Cause you know that is all it takes

She is thee, she’s every woman that’s living in the world today
And he is me, and I’m looking for the woman that tells me she is free
And we all can live together
We all can live in peace
We all can be in love together
And make the world at ease
Working through a sea of troubles
That the world around us makes
And it really doesn’t matter when you know love’s pattern
Because you know that is all it takes

Back in the autumn of 1974, I put a lot of quarters in the jukebox, listening to “We.” My friends at The Table, happily, liked it, and we’d marvel at the musicianship. I don’t know if the girl who played the violin ever heard it, or if she heard in it what I did. Still, we began that autumn to get to know each other as adults, not as the children we’d been five years earlier. And we liked what we saw in each other. 

Back in the autumn of 1974, there was a traffic accident. I survived. She did not. 

It took years before I could listen to “We” again. And it took years more for me to decide that it’s one of my five favorite singles of all time.