Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Favorite Songs: STING: When the Angels Fall

I think I should post some of my favorite songs.

Music moves us all. It's kinda fascinating how music reaches places in
people that many things just can't. A song that reaches one, is just as
irritating to someone else. You can take two people that really like
the same song, and they will love it for different reasons.

I will endeavor to post some that move me. Not to promote them, because
this blog is about me. Some will agree and I'm guessing most won't. I
post them to maybe help myself learn something in the process of trying
to answer why I like them.

Sting's Soul Cages album will have a few posts. When I listen to these
tracks, I never seem to get tired of them. Every time I listen to these
tracks I think different thoughts, I feel very different and deep
things. I would defend them all as being 'excellent' in workmanship,
skill and recording, for one reason or another. But I think mostly they
all focus on evoking a particular quality that leaves me with a sense of
touching something true.

This one embodies all that. Written at a time of Sting contemplating
his own father's life I think there are many obvious parallels here for
me (if you know me). Many would say this is a horrible song talking
about the fall of the church. I say no: Sting is taking a stand for
himself in a struggle to cast off the molds, control and even the
expectations of rules and values that belong to others. I hear the
words of someone struggling to understand their own beliefs and values,
and taking a stand for himself.

I think that makes God smile, quite frankly. God isn't afraid of people
challenging beliefs and sorting things out. I think He encourages that.

If you listen close, right at the end of the track, Sting says 'Good
Night'. It's finished, it's done, and he's good with it all. It's a
statement of acceptance. It always leaves me with a sense of freedom,
and that freedom comes out of a clear sense of choice.

"When The Angels Fall"

So high above the world tonight
The angels watch us sleeping
And underneath a bridge of stars
We dream in safety's keeping
But perhaps the dream
Is dreaming us
Soaring with the seagulls
Perhaps the dream
Is dreaming us
Astride on the backs of eagles

When the angels fall
Shadows on the wall
In the thunder's call
Something haunts us all
When the angels fall
When the angels fall

Take your father's cross
Gently from the wall
A shadow still remaining
See the churches fall
In mighty arcs of sound
And all that they're containing
Yet all the rugged souls
Looking for their lost homes
Shuffle to the ruins
From the leveled plain
To search among the tombstones

When the angels fall
Shadows on the wall
In the thunder's call
Something haunts us all

When the angels fall
When the angels fall
When the angels fall

These are my feet
These are my hands
These are my children
And this is my demand
Bring down the angels
Cast them from my sight
I never want to see
A million suns at midnight

Your hands are empty
The streets are empty
You can't control us
You can't control us anymore

When the angels fall
When the angels fall
When the angels fall
When the angels fall
When the angels fall
When the angels fall