Meaning of "Dondante"?

[ManNamedTruth]

sounds good man, thanks.

[ManNamedTruth]

just a reminder....

[aMillionDreams]

just a reminder....

Here's the deal. I have it saved in a weird format (real audio- .RA).  So I've got to find the original disc and rip it again.  Give me one more day.  Sorry for the wait.

[aMillionDreams]

http://www.mymorningjacket.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1225199584/0#0

in case you missed it.

[MMJfan2973]

I know people have gotten around to explaining this appropriately by now - but I feel its a bit disparate throughout multiple threads and replies.  I'd like to gather everything into one place, add some knowledge and resources of my own that I didn't see above. 

Firstly I'd like to say this song means a great deal to me personally, and did prior to me figuring out it's origins.  I received a pretty devastating medical diagnosis when I was graduating high school, one that I'll deal with throughout my life.  Long story short this song (Dondante) helped me to meditate on the sadness, instead of trying to put it in a box and hide it away.  I think Jim and MMJ do an incredible job of lamenting their sadness in tracks, it's really powerful.

This song is a tribute to Jim's childhood friend and former bandmate Aaron Todovich. From what I've gleaned online (which really cannot be described as factual information) they were very close from around 4 years old until Aaron's unfortunate passing.  They had already split musically, but remained friends.  Here is a song Aaron wrote, plays lead guitar and sings on.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7VO8jcraNY

Jim talks about the origins of the song on VH1 story tellers, it is not a secret.  I think he'd be happy to know we were talking about Aaron and sharing his music still.  The guy is clearly extremely talented, and the sadness permeates through his music beautifully.

[vrezh]

" All I can say is he was a real brilliant soul. I met him in the fourth grade. We were the same age but I always felt like he was a little older than me-he knew a little bit more than me. And we always had big dreams. We played in our first band together and dreamed big dreams and would see shows like Storytellers on TV or Unplugged (another music program that airs on VH1) and you know, the things you see on TV as a kid and you're like 'Whoa man, maybe someday we can do that.' But he just-no matter how much you told him how special he was, he could never hear it. I'm sure you all know someone like that, that you just can't get through to them. And I didn't want to tell this story and get all emotional but I knew there's no way to not get emotional about it but he, like so many people like that, choose to leave this world. And sometimes you can't hardly blame them because this world can be a really hard place. But every time we play this song, he is with us. And I'll never forget playing it the first time, he was there. And every time we play it, he's there. And at the end of the song I always take a trip backstage to say hi to him, because we dreamed so much together and he didn't get to live out his ability to chase his dream. So, I wanted him to get a chance to play Storytellers with us."



At the end of the song Jim explains:

That song also has a happy ending because the reason I wrote that song for my friend was that I had a dream, a really beautiful dream that he was in heaven. And I don't know what heaven is, but in the dream it was the stereotypical heaven. It was hilarious, there were clouds and sun rays shining through and it was all white and he was dressed in a white robe with wings and everything. It was completely hilarious and he was so happy. And in the dream, somehow myself and everybody I knew had died and we were coming into heaven and he was there to welcome us because he was there before us. And he just looked great, you know he was doing great and signed us all in and got us all registered for, (laughs) all the wonderful benefits you get when you go to heaven like they tell you on TV (laughs). But he was there, and he looked great, so that gives me so much hope because I really do believe in other lives and other worlds and I really do think that if you have a tough time on this 'go-around' there is somewhere else in the future-there's another dimension you're going to be in. You're going to get to try it again you know, and everything is going to be OK. And he is OK out there somewhere so, the story has a happy ending."