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#358 - the art teacher by rufus wainwright
07.13.04 @ 10:59 am

Thanks be to Patrick Kelley, who did the work I wasn't willing to at the time, and came up with some lyrics to "The Art Teacher". I tweaked it a bit, and added some notes. The lyrics don't sound like much, do they? But listen to the song. Amazingly romantic and sad and very, very visual.

there i was in uniform
looking at the art teacher
i was just a girl then,
never have i loved since then
he was not that much older than i was
he had taken our class to the metropolitan museum
he asked us what our favorite work of art was
and never could i tell him it was him
oh i wish i could tell him
oh i wish i could have told him

i looked at the rubens and rembrandts
i liked the [dancing of sergeants][dancing of sargent's][dancing of sargents]*
he told me he liked turner**
never have i turned since then
oh never have i turned to any other man

all this having been said
i've now made an executive company head
all this having been done
a turner, i own one

here i am in this uniform, this pant suit sort of thing
thinking of the art teacher
i was just a girl then
and never have i loved since then
no never have i loved any other man

*I can't find anything titled "Dancing of Sargeants" on Google, so this line may be in reference to John Singer Sargent. Is there a painting titled "Dancing"? I can't find one. There is a painting titled El Jaleo by Sargent with a Flamenco dancer in action. Technically, the line could also be "the dancing of Sargents", as if the entire collection somehow danced.

**Who could this "Turner" be? Art.com has listings of 8 different artists named Turner. The most popular is Joseph Mallord William Turner, whose famous "The Grand Canal, Venice" is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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