Till It Shines Lyrics
Take away my solitude
Fire me up with your resistance
Mmmm, put me in the mood
Storm the walls around this prison
Leave the inmates
Free the guards
Deal me up another future
From some brand new deck of cards.
Smooth out all the lines,
Take me out among the rustling pines,
Till it shines 2x
Never coming back as clear,
Lately I just judge the distance,
Not the words I hear.
I've been too long on these islands,
I've been far too long alone,
I've been too long without summer,
In this winter home.
If we take the time,
Maybe we can leave this much behind.
Watch him as he dines,
Sitting there just testing all the wines...
I write songs and as a songwriter have to admit the lyrics in "Let It Shine" have always intrigued me because they're , well...pure poetry. They sound profound and ring in harmonic sync with the music as well as any song I've ever heard. It's a joy NOT to wholly "understand" lyrics sometimes. But my feelings don't stop here. I say these lyrics aren't comprehensible to me but only as a whole. Parts of the song resonate sound and sense with the power of a jack hammer. And, although the several "sound and sense" bytes aren't "rationally cohesive" they are synergistic. As I listen my heart keeps pounding louder, mounting with the creshendo of the singer and song. I'm made--each time I audit--to feel--and be grateful for the trip he's again taken me on. A trip to a single destination--being to the state of mind I want to hear the song again. I feel its circularity and in that circularity, there's life--the same life I feel all along in listening he's trying to navigate and end up as he leads me---in a place it shines. By "shines" I can only feel what he means. The closest description I can make of the end of that searching circle is--it depends.... Some call it joy and some dream of it as "heaven". Many religious people feel that when our lives are "consummated" (at the end) we'll all be entering "the light". Some of that's tied in with these lyrics I FEEL. At the end of our searching there should be a shining. If there's no shining, it'll have been a sad life. This is the circuitry of his circular trip-- He gives us some tiny, seemingly disjointed tips that he's searching and a little about what he's searching for. He's tired of having been fake- so he's asking --let's just say god-- take away this inertia (his inhibitions) that leave him feeling alone. I love the prayer to "fire me up with your resistance" because it's so mysterious what he's referring to. Might be as simple as passion, as for a woman who wants you but is playing at being cool in order to fire up your passion. You know the saying--the one who loves least has all the power. Well, sometimes people pretend to love less in order to provoke (liberate) the love....to take the chip off the shoulder as it goes later in the song. The prison is what we all have to deal with, metaphorically--all the rules, tools and duties life dumps on us that get in the wheels we're hoping will take us to that place that . . . shines. It's not just death although it should be a shining place we're in when we go. Dying in the dark and dank sucks. This song writer is inspired by his resolution to start at this juncture in his life asking the powers around him from god to friends, lovers and his own will--to keep him from this point on on the track. The one thing he seems to want most to free himself of is the dark dankness of being alone. Winter home and wanting "summer" implies a people-filled beach with a view of dolphins on the crest of shining waves breaking towards the singer...to wash away his solitude and put him in the mood. He's tired of going home and ending his dark and danky days drinking the finest wine men can make because a vat of vintage wine simply doesn't let us . . . shine. I have to stop here, I'm afraid, because it's late and , seeking the light, I'm planning to plug in the headset, pick up the acoustic and sing this song to myself ... til I shine. Love to all. Dusty My website: www.RobertRSchoch.com Write me and I'll send you a song or two of my own. I write a song and keep doing them til they shine, but have found that that can't really happen completely until I play it for another. Then it has a chance to shine in the sense of this fantastic piece of musical poetry.
@robertxwy Really nice writeup! when I was growing up in Pittsburgh, Bob Seger was well-loved and I heard this song many times even though it wasn't a single. Never though much about it. The other day I am driving along and I heard it out of the blue. Instant emotional reaction! Tears pouring down my face. It touched me as a middle-aged person, yet Bob was at least 20 years younger than me when he wrote it. I have been thinking about it for days now and I think that the Night Moves guy grew up. As much as...
@robertxwy Really nice writeup! when I was growing up in Pittsburgh, Bob Seger was well-loved and I heard this song many times even though it wasn't a single. Never though much about it. The other day I am driving along and I heard it out of the blue. Instant emotional reaction! Tears pouring down my face. It touched me as a middle-aged person, yet Bob was at least 20 years younger than me when he wrote it. I have been thinking about it for days now and I think that the Night Moves guy grew up. As much as I want it to be about a spiritual awakening, it appears to be a seduction. A very poetic, beautiful, seduction with lovely imagery and analogy.
How can this song have no comments?
My favorite song of all time, any artist. Maybe just because of the restless, unsatisfying marriage I was in in the 70s. I am sad to say I have been to 4 of Bob Seger's concerts and he has never performed Till it Shines. I wonder why.
it's a fantastic song; the layers and layers of meaning summing up in "if we can make the effort, we can leave the distance behind us and make sth good out of all of it".