Song Lyrics

"The Lark Ascending or Perhaps More Accurately I m Tryng to Make You Sing"

by David Crowder*Band
Album: A Collision

David: I don't think you should read too much into any of this you know' Its...I mean the lark ascending was written...it was a piece written by Vaughn Williams who died in 1958, and uh, the work opens with this calm set of sustained chords

[Soft "sustained chords" start playing in the background]

David: and then (coughs) sorry. Excuse me. And uhmm. Anyway and so then the violin enters as the lark and it...

[Violin starts playing, getting slowly louder]

David: it starts with this series of ascending and repeated intervals and this...these nimble then elongated arpeggios. Uhmm. And he actually found inspiration in a work by the English poet George Meredith who died in 1909 and the composer included a portion of Meredith's poem on the flyleaf...

Andy: wait uh...

David: ...of the published work

Andy: ....hold on wait...

David: ...uhmm...

Andy: ...why do you keep mentioning...

David: ...and it...

Andy: ...the year they died'

David: ...well it went...and it went like this it says uh...

'He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.
For singing till his heaven fills,
'Tis love of earth that he instills,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes.
Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.'

Andy: huh. Wow. That's nice. But I mean...but who is the lark'

David: I don't know.

Andy: sorry. I think i've got the wrong page. Uhmm. The script you gave me says something different. It says, 'you are.'

David: yeah but I don't...I don't feel like the lark much of the time and uhmm there are other larks for me you know'

Andy: wait a second. Ok. So correct me if I'm wrong but uhmm...

David: yeah.

Andy: ...in the script I have you're...

David: right.

Andy: ...making a point that art does this...

David: right.

Andy: ...you know the whole, 'it rises on wing from earth to fill the heavens...

David: yes.

Andy: ...pulling the rest of us with it. That as the lark rises so do we.'

David: right. I'm unsure.

Andy: but. Uh. Hold on. I mean...it...it says so right here.

[Guitar starts up, slowly building up to drown out the conversation]

David: yeah. Uhmm. But the ground pulls at my feet.

Andy: hold...hold on just a second. Uh but I mean what about the number 7'

David: did you ever notice that the sky is all the way to the ground'

Andy: wait. Hold on. What'

David: we're walking around in it. We're in the sky. There is sky and there is ground and we're somewhere in between. That is where we live. And sometimes some of us take wing and when they do, when their feet leave the ground, even for a second, they pull the rest of us with them. And when we rise, and when we rise, and when we notice that the sky has been around us all along. We have been walking into it. It has been this constant collision. Divinity and depravity. And we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise and we rise...

[conversation fading out and singing drowning it out]

And I'm trying to make you sing
From inside where you believe
Like it's something that you need
Like it means everything

And I'm trying to make you feel that
This is for real, that life is happening
That it means everything
I'm just trying to make you sing



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