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Somebody Died

from Quarks and Quasars by Thinkspeak

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about

I walked on the cold beach of Lake Superior late October 1990. My Father had died that morning and these lyrics came to me. I found a scrap of paper to write them on. When a friend's son committed suicide a few years late I emailed the lyrics. Steve asked me then to do the song at the memorial service as a way of off-setting the conventional service that was so unrepresentative of their world view.

I was amazed at the gathering. Curtis was a police detective. His brothers-in-arms were there in force, standing either side of the entry to the church, crossed swords creating a canopy. The church was absolutely packed. At some point they called my name and I made my way thru that crowd to the front, set up my lyrics, passed copies out to Steve, Ronnog and a few others and did the song, petrified but calm at the same time. The minister commented something like, "Well, after those words we have to get back to Jesus." Religion, such a powerful force, and dangerous in its narrow, insidious dogma.

lyrics

Somebody died who's friends filled the streets with grief
how can that be the friends cryin that's natural but the dyin
how can that be

somebody died whose power touched gently mine
how can that be a thunderhead gone to a wisp of a trace
in an otherwise iron blue sky

chorus:

It's deeper than I thought It's deeper than I knew
It's further than the false it's way beyond the new
It's gulls on Lake Superior, Ice on Hudson's Bay
death in Santiago birth in Zimbabwe

2.
somebody died now joining the numberless names
how can that be magnificent furious
a wave swells crescendo white then wanes

somebody died a fading shadow dim light
how can that be walking on top then buried beneath
an earth bed womb-like long night - chorus

credits

from Quarks and Quasars, released December 4, 2012

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about

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Thinkspeak Atlanta, Georgia

Tom Ferguson has been writing songs since 1969, all of which are collected in Songs, 1969-2018. It's coil-bound to nicely fit a music stand, available at lulu.com just search tom ferguson there.

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