Another song about somebody all alone in a world of ice struggling to keep their will to live alive…
Download MP3: Nobody Lies
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Back in the day, there was one Greek philosopher who believed everything is made of fire, one who believed everything is made of air, one who believed everything is made of water, and one who believed everything is made of earth. The one who believed everything is made of fire also believed that change and impermanence are the true nature of life (a common belief today as well). The one who believed everything is made of earth believed that nothing ever changes and that permanence is the true nature of life.
Perhaps there is one layer of life which is constantly in flux, and perhaps this layer tends to grab our attention because of its unpredictable, dramatic, and anxiety-producing nature. But beneath that, isn’t there also something so constant and steady, so soft and reassuring, that it is easy for us to forget it is even there?
This song is about that realm of comfort that lies beneath the more teetering aspects of our lives- the element of Earth!!
One day- I don’t remember why- I was feeling the need to get in touch with the Earth. So I sat down to begin wondering about her and right away this song started playing in my mind.
A song about strangulation. Because when faced with too much meanness, we can build up defense systems so suffocating that it can be hard to know if we died by somebody else’s hand or our own.
Download MP3: Cool Hands.mp3
This song is inspired by the plant world,
and also by a sense of feeling alone in what seemed to be, at the time,
an indifferent and challenging world.
Download Mp3: Jade, Jade
Another song about someone dying from hypothermia. It was inspired by this magazine cover…
Why do I like songs about people dying from hypothermia? Because as humans, we need our world to stay just the right temperature. We lose our ability to live if things get too hot or too cold. Sometimes, we compensate for an excess of warmth or an excess of coldness in ways that prove detrimental to us later… for example, if our lives feel too cold we might engage in excessive risk taking or drama making, or if things feel too hot and chaotic we might isolate ourselves and hide behind a computer screen.
But, there is only so much we can compensate for, and eventually these hostile forces overtake us. When there is not enough love and nobody seems to care about us, we can compensate for a while, but eventually the ice creeps into our soul and we lose the ability to move, to reach out, to feel, to care, and finally even the will to live is extinguished.
It makes me think of the following poem by Robert Frost:
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Download MP3: Iceman
Fancy & Soldier is a song about a confederate soldier & his guardian fairie, or “fancy.”
Download the MP3: Fancy and Soldier
This is a song I wrote during my short-lived interest in politics. A lot of what Ron Paul said really opened my eyes to new ways of seeing things, but ultimately I lost interest in the “liberty movement” when it became clear that the people wanting less government were just as interested in power as the people they were trying to depose. I still like Ron Paul, though, and admire him for his willingness to stand up to at least one of the Longfingers in our world.
Download mp3: Longfingers
This song is called “White World” and it is about… well, on one level, like many of my songs, it is about people lost in a frozen world, struggling to maintain enough body heat to stay alive. On a metaphorical level, it is about the struggle for perfection and goodness, and how it can sometimes run counter to the struggle for survival, growth, and even love. Ideals are beautiful, but also cold and inhospitable. Everything that enchants us with an image of perfection, can also leave us disenchanted with the way things are. If there was no ice in the world, no dedication to purity and goodness, then maybe the world would heat up into a chaotic, fiery hell. But, if there is too much ice- when the attachments to moral, spiritual, or aesthetic values grow too strong- it becomes harder and harder for any life to flourish.
Personally, I do believe that there is a world where the Platonic Forms live, a world of perfection and beauty, but I do not think humans could survive there for very long. I think it is the world of minerals, and there are places on Earth where this world can be visited- at the North and South Poles, and also at the top of any mountain that stretches above the tree line.
This song was recorded by James Prendergast, who is playing guitar.
Download mp3: White World
This is a picture of me on the top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. I was very excited to be beyond the tree line for the first time ever!
