Fleetwood Mac -- "Jewel-Eyed Judy" (1970)

I just wondered if

Your eyes still shine

As they did when you were mine

I own Fleetwood Mac's Kiln House album now, but I first became familiar with it when I was a sophomore in college.  A freshman named Norm who lived just a few rooms away from me used to play it a lot.

The Kiln House album cover

Norm and his roommate were major marijuana consumers.  At night, the smoke in their room was so thick room that you could barely see the other people in the room.  (I think Norm went to south Texas during spring break that year with another freshman to harvest peyote buds – people were serious about drugs in those days.) 

I have a vivid memory of returning Norm's copy of this record on my way to lunch one day in  December.  I knocked on the door and Norm eventually answered in a T-shirt and tighty whiteys.  (Real men don't wear boxers!)

It was obvious I had gotten him out of bed.  It was about noon, but it wasn't all that uncommon for students to sleep late in those days, so I wasn't too surprised.

Norm was a bit nonplussed to learn that it was already lunchtime – and not because he was afraid of missing a meal.  You see, it was finals week, and Norm had slept through his 900a final exam.  This may have been his very first college final exam – not a promising start for a student who purported to be planning to medical school.  

I'll never forget Norm (who looked a little like Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli) asking me very calmly in his soft Texas drawl what I thought he should do about the situation.  I advised him to contact his professor as soon as possible, explain that he had overslept, and see if something could be worked out.  He thanked me politely, and I handed him his copy of Kiln House and proceeded to the dining hall for my midday repast.  

Norm made it through his freshman year, I think, but I don't know what happened to him after that – I moved off campus at the end of that year and don't remember seeing him again.  

I kind of doubt that he ever achieved his dream of becoming a doctor, but who knows?  Stranger things have happened.  I mean, this guy became president of the United States -- and she almost did as well:

*     *     *     *     *

There was a lot of high-falutin' "progressive" rock music around when I was in college – for example, Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Pictures at an Exhibition album, an album based on Russian classical composer Modest Mussorgsky's 1874 piano suite.  (British conductor Henry Wood recorded his orchestration of Mussorgsky's suite in 1920, but prohibited public performance of his work after Maurice Ravel published his orchestration because Wood considered Ravel's work vastly superior to his own.  Can you imagine someone doing that today?)

But Kiln House was a back-to-basics kind of album.  The words that comes to mind when I think of it are unaffected and naive – the songs have an innocence and a simplicity that was not like anything I listened to in those days.  

About the half the songs on the album – including "Jewel-Eyed Judy" – were written by Danny Kirwan, who had been an 18-year-old wunderkind when he joined the band a couple of years earlier.  Most of the other songs on the album were written by Jeremy Spencer, who disappeared while the band was in Los Angeles touring in support of Kiln House.  Spencer joined a religious cult called the "Children of God," now known as "The Family International," and is still a member.

Danny Kirwan

"Jewel-Eyed Judy" has a very simple structure.  After a 12-bar instrumental introduction, there are two verses, the chorus, two more verses, the chorus again, and a brief instrumental "outtro."  It's typical of Fleetwood mac songs of this era – especially Kirwan's compositions.  There aren't a lot of words, the music isn't very complicated, and the performance isn't at all showy.

*     *     *     *     *

The lyrics of the song are relatively straightforward.  As the song begins, it's nighttime – or "moonshine time" as he puts it – the singer is having thoughts of a girl he once loved – thoughts that are "spinning 'round/as thoughts do."  He asks if the girl's "eyes still shine/as they did when you were mine."

The second verse uses similar imagery: the singer wonders "would your eyes/still sparkle then/if we were/once again?"  

Once again what?  That's not explicitly stated, but we can fill in the blank pretty easily – if they were once again a couple, once again together.  He doesn't need to say that in so many words – the fact that the rest of the thought is unspoken makes it more poignant.

The instrumental accompaniment for these two verses is quiet at first, but gradually becomes louder.  Then we get to the chorus, which Kirwan belts out at full volume:

Jewel-eyed Judy please come home!

Jewel-eyed Judy don't leave me alone!

Jewel-eyed Judy please come home!

Jewel-eyed Judy don't leave me alone!

Each line of the chorus is exactly the same musically, built around a figure of six forceful guitar chords (A, B, D, A, B, E).  The singer's mood has changed from the wistfulness of the verses to outright desperation.

In the final verse, it's no longer Judy's sparkling, jewel-like eyes shining in the moonlight.  Rather, it's the singer's eyes that are shining – but not from joy:  "So am I/sitting here/moonlight glistens/on my tears."

The loud, anguished chorus is repeated once more, followed by an instrumental passage that quickly fades out.  And that's all she wrote – or, in this case, all he (Danny Kirwan) wrote.  

When you break it down like that, it all seems so easy to write a song, doesn't it?

Click here to listen to "Jewel Eyed Judy."

Click here to buy "Jewel Eyed Judy" from Amazon.