Sunday, May 15, 2016

Music Whenever: Gregory Alan Isakov "Living Proof"

I've featured Gregroy Alan Isakov before on Earwigoagin ("The Stable Song") . Given Isakov's mournful, wistful music, this video and this tune go together, to use a trite phrase, like a hand and a glove.

Filmed with an acrobatic mime at an abandoned Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans, La, this video is an interesting juxtaposition of remembrance of previous joy with a present reality of loss.


The lyrics:

Living Proof

The night fell with bicycle bells, the dark had wooden teeth
Oh we broke on up to hill country, the air was thin and sweet 
Lord, the air was thin and sweet

She held onto my coat that night, like a kid lost in her sleeves
Oh we warmed the ground, we hushed our sound
We slept on walking feet
Lord, we slept on walking feet

Oh Darlin, pardon me
Can you help me remember
When we were all flying free
We were dust from our bodies
And we were flicker and flame, yeah we burned till the morning
Darlin, pardon me

Off in the night, you can hear 'em bright,
The Sirens of the Sea
Oh and city birds and alley girls, they all just sing for free
Oh they all just sing for free

Oh Darlin, pardon me
But do I look familiar 
When we were just larkspur and leaves
We were strung through the tether
And we were all silver and stone
We were the lust of the miners
Darlin, pardon me

That sky glowed all calico like phosphor in the sea
To the ground we fall, she owns us all
Kings and boys and beast
Kings and boys and beast

Oh Darlin, pardon me
But do I look familiar
When we were just flying free
And we burned from a freight train
And we were some flicker of truth in the smile of a salesman
And we were all buried jewels 'neath the grass in the suburbs
And we were all living proof
Oh Darlin, pardon me


There is also Nicole Atkin's song about long lost New Jersey shore amusement destinations.

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