Two wordsmiths have new recordings out, and people of a certain age could rejoice. I can recall the sound of Simon and Garfunkel on AM radio in a car in the 60s. Paul Simon released a new album, Stranger to Stranger, at 74 recently. Simon continues to muse about aging and indeed of God.
“I trade my tears/ To ask the Lord/ For proof of love If only for the consolation/ Of gazing at the stars above/ Amen, amen, amen The road is steep /The air is thin/ I hear a voice inside my skin/ Don’t be afraid/Your days won’t end with night/ Feel the sun/ Drink the rain/ Let your body heal its pain/ Bathe beneath a waterfall of light.”
In Street Angel we find this: “It’s God goes fishing /And we are the fishes / He baits his lines/
With prayers and wishes/ They sparkle in the shallows/We hide our hearts like holy hostages We’re hungry for the love, and so we bite.”
The riverbank brings us face to face with the loss of a soldier:” staring into darkness/And praying till the morning light/The price already paid /A son gone to the grave /Now the sorrowful parade /To the riverbank /Must be half the county come down /To the riverbank /High school is closed /Same for the local police /Shall we tearfully embrace /Shall we sing “Amazing Grace” /Will the shallow river waters bring us peace
When a bit older, I heard Mary Chapin Carpenter for the first time. She was just in St Louis with an orchestral version of her folks/country songs. She too has a new album, the things We Are made of.. I’ve been teased for playing a number of her songs at the 6PM Sunday reflective service we hold at first Presbyterian. In this record, she is working on the passage from middle age into being older, with its regrets, hard-won wisdom, and acceptance. ” Looking back is not the same as looking forward /you can’t see what it is you’re heading toward /all that’s visible is what’s left behind /the dreams distilled and the dreams discarded /what made you leap or left you empty hearted /in the moment and in the fullness of time...Now you see what it is that you would have changed if only you’d known/ where you’d be and to be here is very strange waking up alone/in the middle ages”
“There's the shoebox full of letters /There's the map I won't forget /The voices and the lessons
And the signals that connect us /Manifested to the spirit /Way deep down where it goes unseen by the eye /What else is there but the love inside your heart? /To a life like a firework's to a spark /Over and above you in it's arc Something Tamed /Something Wild”
Hand on M6y back-“When I was younger how I took my time /Folly and wisdom form points on a line /From one to another with space in between /For the lessons you learn & the dreams that you dream/
But tell me what happens when dreams don’t come true /How you overcome some things until they overtake you /Why you never got chosen, why you never felt claimed /By some passion or person that is never explained”
Music, wedded to good lyrics, can be a particularly moving and thought-provoking medium. For me, few things move me into a space where the spirit has an intersection with technology. Our world deepens, and new horizons beckon.No matter the age of the artists, their work can strike a chord, even in the most resistant of of hearts and souls..
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