Wednesday, November 17, 2010

"Home" - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

If you've ever looked up the definition of the word "Home" in the dictionary you'll find something interesting. It lists the typical definition you'd expect, but then it continues, "Home", is also used to refer to the geographical area in which a person grew up or feels they belong. As an alternative to the definition of "Home" as a physical locale, home may be perceived to have no physical definition - instead, home may relate instead to a mental or emotional state of refuge or comfort."

 
If you Google my name, (but you can't, because you don't know it), you’d find a few articles on me, mostly work related. You'd also find (embarrassingly enough), a link that identities me as a past winner of a poetry contest for the Icelandic Festival in Gimli, MB. It doesn't show the actual poem that I won for, but I had penned a tribute to Gimli, a small Icelandic community on Lake Winnipeg. Gimli is my "Home". One of my accomplishments is that the Premier of Iceland  used a line from my poem in a speech he delivered. The line was, "Home is not where you live, but where you feel most alive".

I have visited Gimli with my family several times a year, every year - since I was born. I lived there myself for about a year, and now my parents live there. I'll retire, grow old, and probably die there. It's hard to describe the feeling I get when I'm there, but mostly I feel safe and happy. I make a point of seeing the Lake every time I'm there, (which really isn't that hard). Sometimes I find myself missing the lake, in the same way you'd miss a person. I won't ramble on with boring details and stories about Gimli, but I'm sure many of you have your own "home" that you can relate to. I'm like one of those awful "relationship people" that can't stop gushing about their significant other, and won't shut up about how great they are. Except instead of talking about a person I swoon over Gimli. So I’ll spare you the details and just attach my favorite picture instead.


I have to give credit where credit is due and admit that my neighbor turned me on to this song. And as much as my neighbor grinds my gears sometimes, he does have exceptional taste in music. If there is one thing we can agree on it's music. My first impression of this song, was that it was recorded in the 70's or 80's, because of the musical style. Oddly enough "Home" was released on the debut album from Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros in 2009. The song received huge chart success in Australia, but  their most exposure was gained from the YouTube video, "Guy walks across America", by Conscious Minds. The song "Home" was the soundtrack for this amazing that video uses stop-motion video to document a guy in Levi jeans walking across America. See the video below.


Submission from Postsecret.com
The song lyrics are goofy, "Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie, chocolate candy, Jesus Christ, There ain’t nothin’ please me more than you", but ridiculously catchy. I think as a rule any song with whistling in it will undoubtedly get stuck in your head. My favorite line of this whole song is, "Home is wherever I'm with you." Home doesn't necessarily have to be a place, it could be a feeling. So let "Home" be whatever you want it to be, a place, a meal, a song, a smell, or a person."




Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa

Not the way that I do love you


Holy roly, me, oh my, you're the apple of my eye
Girl, I've never loved one like you


Man, oh man, you're my best friend, I scream it to the nothingness
There ain't nothin' that I need

Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie, chocolate candy, Jesus Christ
There ain't nothin' please me more than you
Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I'm with you


(2x)
La la la la, take me Home
Baby, I'm coming Home

I'll follow you into the park, through the jungle, through the dark
Girl, I've never loved one like you


Moats & boats & waterfalls, alley ways & pay phone calls
I've been everywhere with you
That's true

We laugh until we think we'll die, barefoot on a summer night
Nothin' new is sweeter than with you
And in the sticks we're running free like it's only you and me
Geez, you're something to see.

"Jade?"
"Alexander?"
"Do you remember that day you fell out of my window?"
"I sure do, you came jumping out after me."
"Well, you fell on the concrete and nearly broke your ass and you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you off to the hospital. Do you remember that?"
"Yes, I do."
"Well, there's something I never told you about that night."
"What didn't you tell me?"
"While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was going to be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you and I never told you 'til just now."
"Now I know."

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is whenever I'm with you

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I'm alone with you

Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I'm with you

Ahh, Home
Yes, I am Home
Home is when I'm alone with you.


Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa
Moats & boats & waterfalls & pay phone calls

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I'm with you

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I'm alone with you

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