defibrulator

The Maker - Daniel Lanois

Last Sunday a couple of people were wondering about the song The Maker which Didier, Nick and I have played at emerge gatherings from time to time. This made me realize it might be interesting if one of us occaisonnaly posted something about a tune we've brought to the Sunday gatherings and why. So, here goes: Daniel Lanois' The Maker from Acadie (1989)

Oh, oh deep water
Black and cold like the night
I stand with arms wide open
I've run a twisted line
I'm a stranger in the eyes of the Maker

I could not see for the fog in my eyes
I could not feel for the fear in my life
From across the great divide
In the distance I saw a light
Of Jean Baptiste he's walking to me with the Maker

My body my body is bent and broken
By long and dangerous sleep
I can't work the fields of Abraham
And turn my head away
I'm not a stranger in the hands of the Maker

Brother John, have you seen the homeless daughters
Standing there with broken wings
I have seen the flaming swords
There over east of eden
Burning in the eyes of the Maker
Burning in the eyes of the Maker
Burning in the eyes of the Maker

Oh, river rise from your sleep
















For me it's important that an artist not have the answers, and that a song be more about the ups and downs of the journey than a list of declarations or certainties.

So in The Maker, Lanois seems to be doing all the things that I love in a spiritual song: wondering, contradicting himself, asking. I love how he feels like a stranger when he's trying to make dangerous leaps across the dark water, and then is no longer a stranger when he puts himself in the hands of the Maker and working His fields.

I also find profound the first question that comes out of his mouth when he sees John, which is that he wonders about suffering. And John points to the Fall and the swords over Eden.

For me a questing, questioning song like this can mean a lot to a large amount of people, whereas songs which seem to have all the answers are limited in scope to those who happen to have also found those exact same answers.