Anyone know what Live said about "Selling the Drama?" Options

[Talata]

Excellent line, there. I'd like to think Throwing Copper has some deeper meaning, but I've heard the BB gun story a lot.

As I've been moving along my own path and reading on various spiritual topics, it hit me one day what "The Distance To Here" actually means (at least, what I think it means). I've never quite understood it or thought about it - but then it just hit me. I think it is about the Now, and how we are all so close yet so far from the Now, or the Here. The "distance" to here, is not a physical distance but a spiritual one. And after this long journey, where do you end up? You end up here. So what is the distance to here? ...

This may have been obvious to some of you, but I was pretty psyched when it all clicked in my head. My apologies for going off topic.

I was just thinking " dude just now?" hehehehe But you know that they are a very spiritual band, and knowing this it isn`t hard to figur out the meaning of Distance to here

[FishOutaWater]

Excellent line, there. I'd like to think Throwing Copper has some deeper meaning, but I've heard the BB gun story a lot.

As I've been moving along my own path and reading on various spiritual topics, it hit me one day what "The Distance To Here" actually means (at least, what I think it means). I've never quite understood it or thought about it - but then it just hit me. I think it is about the Now, and how we are all so close yet so far from the Now, or the Here. The "distance" to here, is not a physical distance but a spiritual one. And after this long journey, where do you end up? You end up here. So what is the distance to here? ...

This may have been obvious to some of you, but I was pretty psyched when it all clicked in my head. My apologies for going off topic.

I like what you said here. Let’s look at the song “The Distance” on The Distance To Here which, I think, further explains the title of the album.

I've been to pretty buildings, all in search of you
I have lit all the candles, sat in all the pews
the desert had been done before,
but I didn't even care
I got sand in both my shoes and scorpions in my hair
I saw that...
oh the distance is not do-able
in these bodies of clay my brother
oh the distance, it makes me uncomfortable
guess it's natural to feel this way
oh, let's hold out for something sweeter
spread your wings and fly
my car became the church and I
the worshipper of silence there
in a moment peace came over me
and the one who was beatin' my heart appeared and....
oh the distance is not do-able
in these bodies of clay my brother
oh the distance, it makes me uncomfortable
guess it's natural to feel this way
oh, are we locked into these bodies?
let's hold out for something sweeter
spread your wings and fly
oh, are we locked into these bodies?
are we anything at all?
let's hold out for something sweeter
spread your wings and fly
this distance is dreamin'
we're already there tonight


If I may offer my own interpretation of these lyrics:

I’ve done all of the conventional and all of the not so conventional things in search of “the one”. They’ve all been done before, but I had to try them myself in an effort to traverse the distance.

I’ve gone to churches and sat in pews. I’ve fasted and meditated in the desert. But I found that “the distance” to be traveled to find “the one” cannot be done through trying or effort in these bodies we carry around.

Then Ed gives a personal account of an experience he had when writing the album in the desert. After all of that effort to find the answer, he found it in silence, not in a church or the desert. His car became the church and he, the worshipper of silence. And, in a moment of pure silence, without effort, he found the oneness -- the one that was beating his heart appeared. The distance to here is not to be found through effort, in these bodies we carry around. It is not to be found by praying in the pews and fasting and struggling in the desert. It is in the pure silence of this moment. We're "already there". And when we find it, we see that we are not locked into these bodies. We transcend our bodies when we apprehend pure consciousness, and awaken to the oneness of all things. That is to spread your wings and fly.

[sellingthdrama]

I agree with that interpretation. I'd like to comment more, but it's pretty much dead on with my thoughts. Once I realized what the whole album was about, more of the songs started to make sense to me. I liked them before I knew, but I liked them in a different way after.

[FishOutaWater]

I agree with that interpretation. I'd like to comment more, but it's pretty much dead on with my thoughts. Once I realized what the whole album was about, more of the songs started to make sense to me. I liked them before I knew, but I liked them in a different way after.

Honestly, I look at almost all of their songs from this perspective. It's so weird to have a rock band that writes beautiful lyrics about spirituality that is so personal and is not tied to any particular denomination. Frankly, this is the one thing that makes me such a huge fan of the band and makes me so loyal. It is definitely NOT Christian rock, not in the traditional orthodox sense of Christianity that teaches about belief in the resurrection, sin, judgement and salvation. The spiritual songs on the albums over the last 15 years reflect an amalgomation of Ed's journey through several different spiritual tradtions and teachers and the process of searching for a path, finding the path and realizing the path. I personally like the music from the Ed that had just discovered Jiddu Krishnamurti and branched away from traditional Judeo-Christian roots (i.e. MJ and TC) more than the happy content Ed that is firmly plugged into all things Ken Wilber and company. Ed talked about how the first book that he read as a young man that totally blew him away and shifted his whole paradigm was You Are The World by Jiddu Krishnamurti. There is a song named after that book on MJ which I think reflects the principles in the book. I think that was the point when Ed appears to have moved away from what most people think of as Christianity. I obviously can't speak for Ed, but I think that more recently, he has returned to a new and different understanding of Jesus and his message, not as the savior and messiah that was a God-man sent as a sacrifice for sins, but as a spiritual being with mystical connection to the spirit who spoke of compassion, love, forgiveness, acceptance, peace and communal oneness with others. As described in Love Shines, Jesus taught about the same spirit shining in the present moment that the Buddha and all other great spiritual leaders spoke of.

I have a playlist of Live songs on my iPod call Spiritual Live Songs with what I perceive to be all of the spiritual-realted songs starting with Pain Lies On The Riverside off of MJ all the way up to You Are Not Alone off of SFBM. The biggest reason why I love SFBM so much is that I get a strong spritual message and vibe from the album. I can defintitely see how one wouldn't like that album if it didn't resonate on that level. But to me, a song like All I Need says the same thing as The Distance.