In the summer of 1993, Julie and I came to Boise so she could take her exam to become a registered nurse. I remember seeing this video at the hotel on the morning of the test and hearing it played on the radio that weekend. After Julie finished the all-day exam, we attended the Shakespeare festival in Boise and saw the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream." That was a really good weekend together, and I remember it with fondness. The Good Book directs young men to "Rejoice in the wife of thy youth," and this song triggers memories of the many good times we had during the early years of our marriage.
This song is Sting at his best. The dreamy composition is well-crafted, with some sparkling acoustic guitar parts and a couple of surprise appearances by the bagpipe. And the lyrics are quite poetic in both sound and meaning. However, having actually raised barley on our farm a couple times, I was a little amused at all the barley references in this song. Walking through a field of golden barley is not really a pleasurable experience. The dry, brittle stalks do not feel good brushing up against your body, and the hulls surrounding the seeds have long spikes that stick you.
If you are walking through a field of harvest-ready barley, and you aren't wearing gloves and a long-sleeved shirt, better keep your hands and lower arms above the grain, or all those prickly barely heads will irritate the hell out of any exposed skin. While it may sound romantic to make love while laying down in a field of ripe barley heads, the actual physical sensation of doing so would not be an experience you'd want to reminisce about later. No, it wouldn't feel good at all. In fact, it would sting.
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