How this song came to be:
The first two lines of this song actually came to me in a dream, in spring of 2010., In the dream, I was the opening act for Bob Dylan (!!), and I was on stage singing one of his songs. He was watching me. There were problems with the sound system, so I wasn't being heard, but I sang these lines:
On and on, on and on
Best before the day is done.
Those words and the melody (which is the exact melody in the song now) stayed with me after I woke up, and for days afterward. I kept singing the little tune in my head, and finally wrote it down for later use. Forgot about it.
Fast forward to July, 2010, when I got word that my father was ill with malignant melanoma. I had planned to go with my husband and baby son to visit my in-laws, but stayed back to be available for whatever might happen with Dad. I was alone for ten days, absorbing the news about my father. I had TIME!! I had SLEEP!! But mostly, I had sadness, and no place to put it. So I began to write a song for my father. I took out my notebook where I had jotted down the Bob Dylan dream song, changed the word "best" to "rest", and the verses followed smoothly after that. It was a quick birth.
But I couldn't finish the song. I knew it wasn't finished, but I couldn't see how to end it. It needed a bridge, and one more verse. Then I went home to Baltimore, where I had the great privilege of being with Dad as he lay dying. I played the song for him, in its unfinished form. He smiled from his bed as I played and sang. I did not see the smile, as I was on the wrong side of the bed to see it, but my sisters told me it was there. So I played it for him again, and again, and again. And after he died, I finished it.
And that is how the song was born.
May we all be blessed with a death, and a life, as graceful and dignified as his.
peace to all.
The first two lines of this song actually came to me in a dream, in spring of 2010., In the dream, I was the opening act for Bob Dylan (!!), and I was on stage singing one of his songs. He was watching me. There were problems with the sound system, so I wasn't being heard, but I sang these lines:
On and on, on and on
Best before the day is done.
Those words and the melody (which is the exact melody in the song now) stayed with me after I woke up, and for days afterward. I kept singing the little tune in my head, and finally wrote it down for later use. Forgot about it.
Fast forward to July, 2010, when I got word that my father was ill with malignant melanoma. I had planned to go with my husband and baby son to visit my in-laws, but stayed back to be available for whatever might happen with Dad. I was alone for ten days, absorbing the news about my father. I had TIME!! I had SLEEP!! But mostly, I had sadness, and no place to put it. So I began to write a song for my father. I took out my notebook where I had jotted down the Bob Dylan dream song, changed the word "best" to "rest", and the verses followed smoothly after that. It was a quick birth.
But I couldn't finish the song. I knew it wasn't finished, but I couldn't see how to end it. It needed a bridge, and one more verse. Then I went home to Baltimore, where I had the great privilege of being with Dad as he lay dying. I played the song for him, in its unfinished form. He smiled from his bed as I played and sang. I did not see the smile, as I was on the wrong side of the bed to see it, but my sisters told me it was there. So I played it for him again, and again, and again. And after he died, I finished it.
And that is how the song was born.
May we all be blessed with a death, and a life, as graceful and dignified as his.
peace to all.
is there significance to the train coming back again?
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that question would come up!
ReplyDelete"Taking people Home again, bringing people back" is my favorite line of the song. First of all, I love the melody there and the harmony, but your question was about the words, so...
Really its significance is whatever you want it to be, but I was thinking two things when I wrote that line:
1) I was thinking about people who have passed on who (in my belief), come back here when someone they love is about to cross over. The "train" brings someone from the other side over to our side to help with the transition from here to there." Then the "train" takes them both back Home, where we all started out from anyway.
2) Reincarnation.