The Distance

"I've been to pretty buildings, all in search of you "

-Pretty buidlings? Churches? In search of God?

I have lit all the candles, sat in all the pews

-Catholics light candles in churches and sit in pews?

"the desert had been done before, but I didn't even care"

-The jews wandered in the Desert for 40 years, Jesus wandered in the desert for 40 days... it's been done before.. so fuck that....

I got sand in both my shoes and scorpions in my hair I saw that... "

-I've done the desert.. bought the T-shirt and the postcards... and I saw that....

it is him searching for God. about us not being able to bridge the distance between us and God, its not do-able in these bodies of clay, or in our fragile states. God alone can bridge the gap, we need to wait for Him, Jesus, for something sweeter.

Most definitely religious undertonings. I like this part:

"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...."

The interesting thing about this album is how at least half the songs can stand alone as summaries of the whole album, made from different perspectives. As this is the album's title track, it's no surprise when that happens here. The unique take of this song is that it's sort of an invokation of the muse at the opening of the album (the first three lines), after which the problem and approach are laid out in relatively simple terms (for a Live song):

'I've gone to church, I've said my prayers, but I still feel empty. I don't feel there's anything more to my life than what I see in the physical world. But then I found something else... maybe I already have access to the "something sweeter" I'm seeking...'

Musically, the song builds tension and expectation, leaving us ready to hear in the rest of the album a detailed account of the resolution of the problem this song presents. Notice that verse 2 ends with us learning that he's had a vision, but we don't get to find out what he learned from the vision. The speaker's dilemma returns in the chorus, but there is more resolve/hope that he will find an answer... or maybe he already has one? After the chorus, he sings a shortened 2-line verse, "this distance is dreaming,/ we're already there tonight." If this song is a linear narrative, then the rest of the album occurs during the second chorus and is obscured by it, and the last half-verse is cryptic precisely because the words it uses to explain the resolution to the song's previous dilemma are not explained in this song, but elsewhere. "Dream" is a sort of illusion or blindness -- so he has realized that the distance doesn't really exist, except as the very blindness that keeps you from seeing that there is no distance. We are already there (in a place offering spiritual fulfillment).