Faith, Hope, Dreams
Oct. 29th, 2004 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenkToday I unearthed a tape made from a CD made from an audience recording. It's labeled '8/11/99 highlights'. No need to list the artist, for me.
An audience recording can be impossible to listen to. Background noise is a huge problem, sound quality is often muddy, and legally they occupy a gray area. There's also nothing like an audience recording to get the 'live experience'. The mike was *in* the audience - listening to the CD, so are you. You hear the crowd shouting along on those key lines or applauding a solo. Listen to different recordings a few months apart and you'll hear different riffs, different solos, even different lyrics. I turned it up as drums kicked in and Bruce announced, "This is 'Land of Hope And Dreams'".
Grab your ticket and your suitcase - thunder's rolling down the tracks
You don't know where you're goin' but you know you won't be back
Like Hawk says, "That called life, babe." But I've been more aware of the unknown lately.
We'll take what we can carry and we'll leave the rest
Am I the only one who feels like I'm carrying way too much right now? I think this is part of my "Can we get this OVER WITH ALREADY!!" feeling.
You'll need a good companion for this part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows - let this day be the last
Tomorrow there'll be sunshine & all this darkness past
Big wheels roll through fields where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams
This verse has made me cry in the past. Leave behind your sorrows - tomorrow all will be well. It's a hopeful image. And yes, it's one that companions can help to create.
And then the song changes, becoming almost an update to an old spiritual about a train bound for glory. Only where that train didn't allow sinners, whores or gamblers,
This train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers
This train carries lost souls
This train carries broken-hearted
This train carries sweet souls departed
This train carries fools and kings
This train - All aboard
This train - Dreams will not be thwarted
This train - Faith will be rewarded
This train - Hear the steel wheels singin'
This train - Bells of freedom ringin'
Today I found myself comparing the line "Faith will be rewarded" with the inclusive image of the lines that go before it and the whole "Faith vs Reality" argument.
The image of saints, sinners, losers, winners, and so on all together doesn't look like the sort of America Bush wants. But it's more real than Bush's vision of America. I don't think faith is a cosmic gum-ball machine - prayers in, prizes out. But faith, hope, dreams - those are what keep us going, what can keep us getting up every morning and going to work and doing the work of life. Without that, we're dead.
I do believe faith is rewarded. But I believe the primary reward for your faith is that it keeps you doing what you need to do.
A small example: yes, it's a scientific fact that if you plant basil seeds and keep them moist, they'll germinate. It's also the dream of the plant (basil, mmm) and faith that the seeds aren't too old to germinate that keeps me stopping on my way to work to mist the seeds.
I know. Some dreams can get in the way. Sometimes the your faith is your leader, and you're the lemming. Or to contrast with another song on the same tape:
I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start
There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted
In concert, EVERYBODY shouts the "blow away"s along with Bruce. It's huge. You can feel yourself letting go of the lies you've been telling yourself. The dreams that don't fit anymore or maybe weren't yours in the first place slough off. You wonder what you really do need, what really is yours, what you really want...and find the ones that did have the faith to stand their ground.
That song's name? The Promised Land.
An audience recording can be impossible to listen to. Background noise is a huge problem, sound quality is often muddy, and legally they occupy a gray area. There's also nothing like an audience recording to get the 'live experience'. The mike was *in* the audience - listening to the CD, so are you. You hear the crowd shouting along on those key lines or applauding a solo. Listen to different recordings a few months apart and you'll hear different riffs, different solos, even different lyrics. I turned it up as drums kicked in and Bruce announced, "This is 'Land of Hope And Dreams'".
Grab your ticket and your suitcase - thunder's rolling down the tracks
You don't know where you're goin' but you know you won't be back
Like Hawk says, "That called life, babe." But I've been more aware of the unknown lately.
We'll take what we can carry and we'll leave the rest
Am I the only one who feels like I'm carrying way too much right now? I think this is part of my "Can we get this OVER WITH ALREADY!!" feeling.
You'll need a good companion for this part of the ride
Leave behind your sorrows - let this day be the last
Tomorrow there'll be sunshine & all this darkness past
Big wheels roll through fields where sunlight streams
Meet me in a land of hope and dreams
This verse has made me cry in the past. Leave behind your sorrows - tomorrow all will be well. It's a hopeful image. And yes, it's one that companions can help to create.
And then the song changes, becoming almost an update to an old spiritual about a train bound for glory. Only where that train didn't allow sinners, whores or gamblers,
This train carries saints and sinners
This train carries losers and winners
This train carries whores and gamblers
This train carries lost souls
This train carries broken-hearted
This train carries sweet souls departed
This train carries fools and kings
This train - All aboard
This train - Dreams will not be thwarted
This train - Faith will be rewarded
This train - Hear the steel wheels singin'
This train - Bells of freedom ringin'
Today I found myself comparing the line "Faith will be rewarded" with the inclusive image of the lines that go before it and the whole "Faith vs Reality" argument.
The image of saints, sinners, losers, winners, and so on all together doesn't look like the sort of America Bush wants. But it's more real than Bush's vision of America. I don't think faith is a cosmic gum-ball machine - prayers in, prizes out. But faith, hope, dreams - those are what keep us going, what can keep us getting up every morning and going to work and doing the work of life. Without that, we're dead.
I do believe faith is rewarded. But I believe the primary reward for your faith is that it keeps you doing what you need to do.
A small example: yes, it's a scientific fact that if you plant basil seeds and keep them moist, they'll germinate. It's also the dream of the plant (basil, mmm) and faith that the seeds aren't too old to germinate that keeps me stopping on my way to work to mist the seeds.
I know. Some dreams can get in the way. Sometimes the your faith is your leader, and you're the lemming. Or to contrast with another song on the same tape:
I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start
There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted
In concert, EVERYBODY shouts the "blow away"s along with Bruce. It's huge. You can feel yourself letting go of the lies you've been telling yourself. The dreams that don't fit anymore or maybe weren't yours in the first place slough off. You wonder what you really do need, what really is yours, what you really want...and find the ones that did have the faith to stand their ground.
That song's name? The Promised Land.
