Golden Road by Gareth Wilson
The angst is palpable in my brother’s latest single
--
Starved of everything you needed,
The sacrificial lamb was in your bed.
Those sounds I hear from your apartment,
You can tune it out but you can’t replace your head.
I did not forget the name I lost the number.
But you wrote it out into the ledge.
You thought it was something sacred,
Something to pray to at your shrine.
You can’t keep what you don’t own.
You spit it out but you cannot cleanse your mind.
I did not forget…
She just jumped straight into the future.
From the fire to the infirmary.
Hold out!
You’ll find a better life if you don’t want to.
Hold on!
Down the golden road beyond your daydream.
As I first listened to my brother’s lyrics, I thought to myself:
Man, this guy has had a hard life. What the hell has happened to this dude that he is so angry?
I realized that I didn’t really know my brother at all. When he wrote this song, he was clearly dealing with some excruciating emotional pain.
How could I ever know his pain? What did I know of his suffering?
All I know for sure, because he told me, is that he is yelling at his ex-girlfriend throughout this song. He is on the offensive. There are many “you” and “yours” so it’s clear that he is speaking to someone.
I noticed, however, that in the first sentence of the third paragraph, the “you” switches to “she”:
She just jumped straight into the future.
He is turning back to his audience (the listener) here, and narrating for a moment.
At this point the song becomes even more psychedelic, and he adds an echo effect that propels it into its final third. I found this transition jarring but fascinating.
I wanted to know what it all meant. So I asked him.
