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City On Fire
This city is on fire
Everything is burning down
How did it all get started
Did we know before now
This city is on fire
Whose God will be louder
Everything's burning down
This city is on fire
In my backyard
In my neighbor's house
Across the ocean
Fire on the ground
I don't hear them cry
I don't hear the sound
Why don't I hear the sound
I think about what I'd say
Kids those are firecrackers
We're playing war today
Our turn to run for cover
The soldiers will arrive
To capture the survivors
No safety in this place
This city is on fire
No count down
No warning siren
The walls crash
The sky is falling
Who decides who is worth more
How come some things we kill for
When does the oil run dry
When will we see through the lies
In my backyard
In my neighbor's house
Across the ocean
Fire all around
We don't hear them cry
We don't hear the sound
Why don't we hear the sound
This city's on fire
Check out the video for full effect:
The imagery and words in this piece are vivid, painful and conscience-searing without being event-specific, instead decrying the universality of this horror, indeed indicating, ironically, that our turn may come next. Why can't we see through the lies or hear the sounds of cities burning, people crying, people dying? Is it that same disconnect alluded to above? – to wit:
What if everything you think is the opposite of true
How would it change your life?
Isn't it all about everyone waking up?
Another memorable song on this album has to be "Blackbird". This is a "Coyote/Free Man in Paris" genre-evocative piece, richly textured and guitar-intricate, that just keeps on rambling and rolling across the mental and visual landscapes from start to finish at a lively, spontaneous pace. I couldn't find the text for the lyrics, but did find it on YouTube, which includes some preliminary storytelling:
There is much more on this album, including slower, retrospective and introspective songs about love and loss, too much to cover in one review, but even those works tinged with sadness and heartbreak seem to find resolution in the positive, as Ellis manages, in song after song, to stay tethered to that miraculous Lightness of Being that lets us walk in the sky.
