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It’s a Wonderful Life, Sparklehorse

Capital, July 3, 2001

Track Listing: 1. It’s a Wonderful Life, 2. Gold Day, 3. Piano Fire, 4. Sea of Teeth, 5. Apple Bed, 6. King of Nails, 7. Eyepennies, 8. Dog Door, 9. More Yellow Birds, 10. Little Fat Baby, 11. Devil’s New, 12. Comfort Me, 14. Babies on the Sun, Hidden Track. A Murder of Crows


“May all your days be gold my child”

-from “Gold Day

Whisper in my ear. It’s going to be okay. Whisper. Okay. Play for me your symphony.

“I’m full of bees
Who died at sea”

-from It’s a Wonderful Life

Tell me again. Going to be okay.

“I wish I had
A horse’s head
A tiger’s heart
An apple bed”

-fromApple Bed

Show me how there can be beauty in horror. Whisper in my ear. It’s going to be okay. Tell me nothing can ever change what was. Tell me you aren’t really gone.

“Good morning my child
stay with me a while
You not got any place to be
Won’t you sit a spell with me ”

-from “Gold Day

I know. It’s timing and circumstance. I was listening to this Sparklehorse album a lot at that time as it had been released only two months prior. Now, “Gold Day” is a eulogy that brings me back to the horror of that day. Witnessing life crumbling into silver piles of dust as the towers fell. The resulting shock (no words). Timing and circumstance. Thoughts of mothers and fathers who will never get the chance to see their children grow up.

“In silver piles of smiles”

-from “Gold Day

And those that will. The parent that longs to hold on to every precious moment forever, chasing lost time. The parent who prays for nothing but a future of gold days for their child, even knowing that the same future dictates an inevitable separation.

The music we listen to brings us back to a time and place. I put on It’s a Wonderful Life and am engulfed in sorrow. The music. That day. The tragic, delicate sorrow that leaks from every crack.

Tell me again, one more time. . . .

-G