9) The smell of rain
Once we are older,
we'll get to drive out to the park,
and we won't have to tell anyone we're there.
I'll bring the blanket,
you'll take the food
and hold my arm.
You say, "I know a place where no one goes."
When get colder
and when the lights fade into dark,
well, we won't have to tell anyone we're there.
Guided meditation:
And the living beings revolve in a cycling of becoming.
They pass through a chain of rebirths,
linking together innumerable existences.
The beings again and again pass through the same cycle
of birth, growth, aging, and death.
This round of becoming, the round of rebirth
is called "sangsara"--
the Wandering-On; the cycle of existence.
THE SMELL OF RAIN - On one level this is just a love song, written for the same person the previous song (and most of the album) was. It's playing off that Beach Boys' tune, but with a greater sense of secrecy and giddiness. It's growing really close with someone, having this secret ecstatic moment of being in love, away from responsibilities and parents. The clip at the end is from a meditation tape I found online. It's a part of a discourse on the Four Noble Truths, I think. It comes in at the final moments when the song is going out of its mind, churning in its own complexity, and it's almost as if the words pop the air out of the tires of this pushing, growing energy. This growth/death; rise/fall structure appears a lot over the course of our discography because it not only an effective and time-worn statement, but, to me, it's a self-referential to my own process of music-making and, on another level, to the way thoughts, goals, lives, and civilizations rise and fall. It's building up, becoming more complex, twirling and dancing, pushing against this invisible glass ceiling where the realm of concepts ends and God, the Self, the greater reality, or whatever you call it, continues infinitely in all directions. No matter how great a thought or a plan or an undertaking is, nothing except working towards realizing who you are at your essence will have any lasting effect on the universe.
Instrumentation
Mark: Michael Dunford's classical guitar, Reason synths
Recorded in: Garageband, Reason 3.0
When: Fall 2007
Where: 4th Floor Caples Dorm Room, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio
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| The Smell of Rain |
