Shannon’s Perspective:
"Men go crazy in congregations
But they only get better
One by one"
Really not much I want to say for this one other than asking whoever is reading this to really think about the above lyrics and the state of the world today.
If you've read from my very first entry on February 19th, 2024 you probably have a pretty good sense of who I am as a person as well as some of my perspectives on life. So it should come as no surprise this song is on this list.
As I started writing this post, I started to reflect on the very few people I've worked with in the past, that quite honestly, were on a whole different level than me - let alone anyone else on the team. What I mean is someone whose intelligence is honestly a detriment - they are so far removed that they have no concept of how to "dumb it down" for the rest of us. So that left me and the rest of the team feeling like fucking idiots. Not a lot of motivation in that!
That's what Sting is to The Police.
I love and respect Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland - but there's a reason The Police only lasted from 1978 to 1983. Sting.
Think about that - they were only together 5 years and look at the incredible work they produced!
Stings view on life and the lyrics he wrote and the art he created I believe are just on a whole different level.
Again - Stewart Copeland is a top tier drummer - almost Neil Peart level which is saying a lot.
But think of it this way - Neil wrote the lyrics for Rush and you can read them and feel like he is in the room as a normal guy just having a conversation with you. But they are very, very deep.
Sting is in that same room and everyone is basically ignoring him - because they are so deep it would be like a lecture as opposed to a conversation. To most people (not me or Shannon), he would have to take the time to explain them to you.
This song is one of the very, very few Sting exceptions where you can listen or read and pretty much understand the point.
Now - it is autobiographical as he wrote it shortly after his father died and a lot of the setting is where he actually grew up.
But the "F" religion is there in all its glory...
All This Time
Sting
I looked out across
The river today,
I saw a city in the fog and an old church tower
Where the seagulls play.
I saw the sad shire horses walking home
In the sodium light
I saw two priests on the ferry
October geese on a cold winter's night
And all this time, the river flowed
Endlessly to the sea.
Two priests came round our house tonight
One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying
To serve the final rite,
One to learn, one to teach,
Which way the cold wind blows
Fussing and flapping in priestly black
Like a murder of crows
All this time, the river flowed
Endlessly to the sea
If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river
And I'd bury the old man,
I'd bury him at sea
Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth
Better to be poor than be a fat man in the eye of a needle
And as these words were spoken I swear I hear
The old man laughing,
'What good is a used up world, and how could it be
worth having'
All this time the river flowed
Endlessly like a silent tear
All this time the river flowed
Father, if Jesus exists,
Then how come he never lived here.
The teacher told us, the Romans built this place
They built a wall and a temple, an edge of the empire
Garrison town,
They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods
But the stone gods did not make a sound
And their empire crumbled, 'til all that was left
Were the stones the workmen found
All this time the river flowed
In the falling light of a northern sun
If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river
Men go crazy in congregations
But they only get better
One by one
One by one...
30th Anniversary
Our Story - Shannon's Perspective
Our Story - Larry's Perspective
Ghost of a Chance (Rush) and why?
Ghost of a Chance 