Me and my journey through life, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and all wacky, funny, deep, depressing and interesting points in between. My interests are varied from one end of the spectrum to another. Basically, the disappointing side of mediocre.
I have made it quite clear to anyone who has read my stuff, that to me the ABWH album (Side 1, Side 2) was synonymous with a great failed relationship I had. I can't think of one without the other. They will forever be intertwined.
Occasionally, I learn a factoid or two about that album and it seems to still coincide with the real life that I was living. Other times I find a little nugget that brightens my day.
For instance, I never knew that part of "Quartet" (the I'm Alive part) was actually edited down for a single and actually had a video. It was given a second verse and a different ending. How I missed this at the time I will never know.
Even more exciting was that there were OTHER SONGS that were left off the album! One of the was called Vultures, which came from a Steve Howe demo called "Rare Birds". How it didn't make the album and Teakbois did is beyond me.
In 2011 they came out with a deluxe edition of ABWH that I gobbled up quickly. It had a bonus disk with these two songs and also a lot of radio edits and live performances. Typical stuff. But stuck in there at the very end was a hidden track called "Children of Light". It blew me away.
I knew this song from the Yes album Keys to Ascension 2 but didn't know it had originated from a song Jon/Vangelis wrote called "Distant Thunder" that was demoed for the ABWH sessions. Too cool.
But all in all, the most "devastating" information that I learned from all my research into this album, was that there was supposed to be another ABWH album that never came about. There was supposed to be more and then there wasn't. It was like somewhere in another Richard Bach universe things stayed wonderful, my relationship continued with an additional soundtrack, and the play that was my life had a second act. It's out there somewhere else I suppose, being lived out by someone who isn't me.
After being blown away by Side 1, I had no idea what to expect on the next side. But the even though the stunned silence after The Meeting seemed to last a lifetime, the cassette eventually clicked over and revealed more revelations of deep meaning.
I. I Wanna Learn - So if "The Meeting" was a realization of the fact that we were in love, this song told you what to do about it. I wanna learn more about you, me and life.
And all of the dreams that come true, so surprising how it catches you. Nothing summed up better what we were feeling at that exact moment. And it didn't stop there. We had had discussions about controlling your dreams (lucid dreaming) and also alternate/past lives in which we thought we had lived or were currently living in other timelines. These lyrics came next:
I wanna change all that I dream about
My waking and my so many lives, oh my
It was like these songs were written for us and we were experiencing them at the exact moment that we were living them. Uncanny.
II. She Gives Me Love - Now this song isn't about love, but a journey down memory lane. The lyrics reference many, many Yes songs and Jon has stated that the "she" was actually music and not an actual woman. When I first heard this I was struck by the background vocals that I could barely make out. If you listen real closely you can pick out the older lyrics (I put them in parentheses).
She gives me love when love had gone away (What happened to this song we once knew so well)
When the pressure came so fast
She give me love long distance runaround (Signed promise for moments caught within the spell)
And in between the pressure I was summoned
The obvious one is "Long Distance Runaround" from Fragile. The background lyrics are actually The Revealing Science of God from Tales from Topographic Oceans.
How did we dance on the south side of the sky (A river, a mountain to be crossed)
We saw the flags flying on the moon (The sunshine...)
And thru the gates of delirium so fast
Believing in the light was a beginning
Only to believe in you (Soon, oh soon the light)
Only to believe in you
South Side of the Sky again from Fragile with the first two background vocals being from the same song. Gates of Delirium from Relayer with the lyrics for Soon.
She give me love when I was losing fast
I was awakened by the dream
She was the love for me the first and last
And all that I remembered was the roundabout
Only to believe in you (In and around the lake)
Only to believe in you (In and around the lake)
Roundabout from Fragile also, probably their most popular song ever. The lyrics are from the chorus. III. Who Was the First - The third part here deals with how in relationships there are things that belong to you and no one else. We are the first to define the languages of love. We are the first to discover this day in our time. IV. I'm Alive - Some of the deepest lyrics are here, especially the ones that deal with the fear of being hurt. Only when you looked did I realize someone broke into your life. How we hurt and never show it...
Out of all the songs, this one just felt out of place. Everything was so mystical and magical and then suddenly it was fiesta time. We tried to attach some meaning to the lyrics but came up short. It was our "we're young and in love and in Florida" fun song.
This song told us we can do it. We can pay no attention to the negative people in our lives. We were definitely non-conformists and she was the first person to make me believe that other people really do not matter at all. We definitely "crossed over the river".
This is our promise we made to each other, whether it was actually spoken or not. We were free to go live a beautiful life together. In the end though, real life made us realize we were just pretending.
