Blood by The Middle East

[aspera9]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWlIEBPKl7M

older brother, restless soul, lie down
lie for a while with your ear against the earth
and you'll hear your sister sleep talking
say "your hair is long but not long enough to reach
home to me
but your beard
someday might be"

and she'll wake up in a cold sweat on the floor
next to a family portrait drawn when you were four
and beside a jar of two cent coins that are no good no more
she'll lay it aside

older father, weary soul, you'll drive
back to the home you made on the mountainside
with that ugly, terrible thing
those papers for divorce
and a lonely ring
a lonely ring
sit on your porch
and pluck your strings

and you'll find somebody you can blame
and you'll follow the creek that runs out into the sea
and you'll find the peace of the Lord.

grandfather, gentle soul, you'll fly
over your life once more before you die
since our grandma passed away
you've waited for forever and a day
just to die
and someday soon
you will die

it was the only woman you ever loved
that got burnt by the sun too often when she was young
and the cancer spread and it ran into her body and her blood
and there's nothing you can do about it now

[aspera9]

Blood by The Middle East is a story about 3 generations of a family and the difficulties they have had within this family. This is very similar to the situation in which the Tyrone family finds themselves, in the play A Long Day's Journey Into Night. Both of these works accurately portray the effects of intra-family issues and the toll these issues take on the individuals of the family. The idea of restlessness and dwelling on the past is very prominent in both these works. Mary Tyrone tries to relive her the days of her youth and Edmund lingers over memories of solitude and a peacefulness he has never known within his family. Jamie Tyrone wishes he could return to the past where he was ignorant to his family's problems and James Tyrone recalls his glory days as a much happier time than his present. All these characters wish to recreate these feelings of happiness by isolating themselves in the "fog". Similarly, the brother, father and grandfather of the song are victims to loss and have a desire to return to the past so they can reclaim what has been taken away from them. The grandfather, much like Edmund and Mary believe they can find solace in death, that they will be reunited with the sense of serenity and happiness they experienced before the long day depicted in the play. They even attempt suicide in order to escape the pain of their existences, but to no avail. This song depicts people trying to find peace in the afterlife or in the sea or in laying blame on others, similar to the characters of O'Neil's play. The main message of the song, however, is that the past is the past and there is no way to change it, the only way to move on is to make the future something that can make up for it. This is a lesson the Tyrone's and we all can learn from.