I have always loved this song - who can say why one song touches one person
and not another? I have always identified with the sadness of the song - a
deep melancholy that runs from the personal (" 'She says I'm leavin' here' -
but she don't go") to the historical ("Hiroshima cannot be pardoned"). I have
always been attracted to that kind of almost processional rhythm, and it's
done here beautifully by Manu Katche. And the chant in the background "Study
war no more" like a counter motif since the song so beautifully evokes the
strange nostalgia which that generation has for wartime. It's one of Joni's
most complex and beautiful 'short story' songs.
