The Burning Ground

Dump the jute ...

The struggle to dump the burdens we carry, the crosses we bear, to pare back the layers of aggregated defences and habits, to reveal our true selves, a hard and painful journey through the burning ground. Purification. Van and the band turned this into meditative revelation live.

Witness

And I lift the veil ...

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Higher Than The World

"Wrapped up in the sound ..." A blissful and affecting piece that seems to me to be composed of almost affirmational statements, combining an element of gratitude and a desire for improvement. "I'm living in my dreams, I'll make it better than it seems,""I gotta give a life a whirl," "Wrapped up in the sound, I'll make it better all around," "I'll leave these blues behind." Always leaves me simultaneously soothed and elevated. Magic. Beautiful live versions from 2016 "Just a little bit higher ..."

Dweller On The Threshold

Let me go down to the water ... This song resonated with me the first time I heard it as a young man on the first disc of the original Greatest Hits. It gave voice to the feeling that there was so much 'more' and if I could only make a breakthrough, take a step over some 'threshold' then things would fall into place, make some kind of sense. The remarkable thing about this song, propelled along as it is by the tsking of the high-hat and those insistent horns, is that it still resonates to this day even now when I am so much older. It still feels like I'm on a threshold, possibly we're always and eternally on a threshold. The darkness still exists to be consumed and I'm still waiting for the dawn to end the night. Singing the song of ages until it comes. I'm a dweller on the threshold And I'm waiting at the door And I'm standing in the darkness I don't want to wait no more I have seen without perceiving I hav

When Will I Ever Learn To Live In God

Standing on the highest hill with a sense of wonder ... Pictures painted once again of the glory of natural creation in this deeply moving psalm. Van and companion, once more down in Avalon, as "suffering long time angels," the wonder revealed, by the beauty which surrounds them, that everything was made in God. A revelation which returns a sense of lost innocence. There is also a feeling of frustration contained within the title that this is still something not yet achieved, that despite the knowledge being accepted it is all too easy to be distracted. This God is a presence in which all things are created "down through the history of time." One that "is and was in the beginning and evermore shall be." The pilgrimage route of "turning down the old and bringing up the new" is a highly personal one as "you've got to do it your own way." The lyrics and melody wonderfully complimented by a passionate solo from Georgie Fame.

And They Stood Upon The Lawn ...

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