Ferron is featured in the documentary on women's music, Radical Harmonies 2002.
Ferron's rough-hewn voicing, chewy phrasing, and poetic songwriting has brought many favorable comparisons, including Kitty Wells, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen (cf. Stephen Holden 1994). One wit aptly summed up Ferron's legendary status by calling her "the Johnny Cash of lesbian folksinging" (Bett Williams 2000).
She learned to play guitar at age 11, and left home at 15. Ferron attended Total Ed, an alternative high school in Vancouver, graduating in 1973 (Thomas 2002). She made her professional debut in 1974, playing the song "Who Loses" at a benefit for the Women's Press Gang. She subsequently established her own record label, Lucy Records, and released her debut album in 1977. The album, Testimony, was her first professionally produced record, and brought her much interest in the United States, particularly in the women's music community.
Her 1984 album Shadows on a Dime received a four-star review (highest rating) from Rolling Stone magazine. Awarded a Canada Arts Council grant to further develop her musicianship, she took several years off from touring, returning in 1990 with Phantom Center. The album featured backing vocals by a then unheard of Tori Amos, and consequently is highly sought after by collectors. It was re-released with a duet with The Indigo Girls on the first track.
Between 1992 and 1994, Ferron released three albums on her own Cherrywood Station label. Driver was then picked up by Earthbeat! Records, and was highly acclaimed by critics as a masterwork and nominated for a Juno Award in 1995. Warner Bros. Records signed Ferron which gave her great freedom in the studio to produce Still Riot with db Benedictson. She received an Outmusic Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards in 1996.
As a benefit for the Institute for Musical Arts (IMA), Ferron released Inside Out (1999), covering well-known tunes from the 1950s-1970s. She published a handmade book, THe (h)UNGeR POeMs, while she was teaching classes at IMA. She gathered some of her earlier, then out-of-print recordings to create Impressionistic (2000), a retrospective double album with a 24-page, autobiographical booklet.
Ferron continues to tour and teach master classes in writing, and in 2004 she returned to the very island where some of her earliest recorded songs were written to create Turning Into Beautiful produced by db Benedictson.
Lover
Ferron Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Birds high upon the trees serenade the flow'rs with their melodies.
Oh, see there beyond the hill, the bright colors of the rainbow;
Some magic from above made this day for us, just to fall in love.
How gentle is the rain, that falls gently on the meadow;
Birds high upon the trees serenade the flow'rs with their melodies.
Oh, see there beyond the hill, the bright colors of the rainbow;
You'll hold me in your arms, and say once again you love me;
And if your love is true, ev'rything will be just as wonderful.
You'll hold me in your arms, and say once again you love me;
Ferron's song "Lover" is a beautiful and poetic tribute to the gentleness and magic of falling in love. The opening lyrics compare the soft rain falling on a meadow to the sweet melodies of birds singing to the flowers. The natural imagery suggests a sense of harmony and peace, and the idea that love is just as natural and effortless as the falling rain.
The song's chorus repeats the same imagery, emphasizing the beauty and magic of falling in love. The bright colors of the rainbow symbolize hope, happiness, and the promise of a brighter future. Together, the rain and the rainbow create a sense of wonder and awe at the natural world, and the sense that the universe is conspiring to bring two people together in love.
The final verse of the song is a simple declaration of love and commitment. The lover will hold the singer in their arms, and the repetition of the phrase "once again" suggests that this is a love that endures, that has been tested and reaffirmed over time. The final line of the song, "everything will be just as wonderful," suggests that the singer and the lover are at a point of complete trust and security in their relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
You'll hold me in your arms, and say once again you love me;
You will embrace me and express your affection once more, reaffirming that your devotion is sincere and unwavering.
And if your love is true, ev'rything will be just as wonderful.
If your love is pure and genuine, everything else in life will feel just as marvelous and glorious as this moment.
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I've looked at life that way.
I used to view life through a lens of grandiose ambitions, unrealistic plans, and flamboyant excitement.
Oh, but now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I've changed.
However, my acquaintances from the past now seem bewildered and disapproving, insisting that I am different from the person they once knew.
Well something's lost, but something's gained in living ev'ry day.
There are losses and gains inherent in the natural process of daily living, and both aspects contribute to shaping oneself over time.
I've been first and last, look at how the time goes past.
I've experienced the highs and the lows of life, and watching how rapidly time passes evokes feelings of nostalgia and reflection.
But I'm all alone at last. Rolling home to you.
Despite everything that's happened, I have come to the realization that the one who matters most is you, and I am returning to be with you, spending my final days in your comforting embrace.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Sandy Linzer, Denny Randell
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind