One of the many musical artists that Marek and I bonded over, when we first started dating, was Dead Can Dance.
Marek knew them from his years of owning and operating a music store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC, in which he specialized in carrying European music, along with a variety of instruments and other musical equipment. They had long been one of his favorite artists.
I knew them from my friend Lydia, a Ukrainian photographer and player of Native American flute, whose niece Johanna ran a belly dancing troupe, and frequently used the music of Dead Can Dance for their performances. After I fell in love with their music, after she played it for me a few times, Lydia gave me one of their albums a year or two before Marek and I met.
The brainchild of Australia's Lisa Gerrard and Ireland's Brenden Perry, Dead Can Dance's back catalogue contains world music that is nearly impossible to categorize, as it is incredibly diverse, and quite simply outstanding.
With superb musicianship across the board, and with each of them being a phenomenal vocalist in their own right, this album immortalized a concert they gave in Santa Monica, California in 1994, and remains one of my top two concerts that I've ever seen on video; the other being "Arriving Somewhere" by Porcupine Tree.
The name of both album and concert video is "Toward the Within," and this song is the last on the album.
I started playing the album a couple of days ago, after a long time of not having heard it, and when I got to this song, I just kept playing it over and over again. Many of their lyrics rise to the level of poetry and this song is no exception.
Although my eyes are hazel, rather than brown, this song feels very much like a love letter to my soul and my higher self. Enjoy.
Lyrics:
Don't fade away
My brown eyed girl
Come walk with me
I'll fill your heart with joy
And we'll dance through our isolation
Seeking solace in the wisdom we bestow
Turning thoughts to the here and ever after
Consuming fears in our fiery halos
Say what you mean
Mean what you say
I've heard that innocence
Has led us all astray
But don't let them make you and break you
The world is filled with their broken empty dreams
Silence is their only virtue
Locked away inside their silent screams
But for now let us dance away this starry night
Filled with the glow of fiery stars
And with the dawn our sun will rise
Bringing a symphony of bird cries
Don't bring me down now
Let me stay here for a while
You know life's too short
Let me bathe here in your smile
I'm transcending
The fall from the garden
Goodnight
I own no rights to this song, and I offer it here as an introduction to Dead Can Dance and their music, in the hopes that others will find their music as beautiful and moving as do I.
As a musician, the child of two musicians, and the wife of a musician, it is something inside me that I feel the need to introduce great music to a wider audience. Dead Can Dance is well known in Europe, but very few Americans are aware of them, and I would like to change that.
My personal favorite among their many albums is "Into the Labyrinth," which came out the year before this concert, and so several songs from that album are featured in "Toward the Within."
All words are my own, with the exception of the lyrics to this song, which were created by Dead Can Dance, and belong to them and to 4AD records. All rights remain with them.
Resteeming is welcome, you may link to my post from your own website or blog, and you may use excerpts and/or images as long as you credit me, Cori MacNaughton, and link back to this post.
Please ask for permission, before using my work without linking to this post, as all rights are reserved.