Set Free the Night: the lyrics

I am in the process of writing a series of articles about the songs on my sixth Jamendo album, In Unexpected Places.  This is about the second track, “Set Free the Night.”

As I mentioned in my previous article, it’s not often I publish my lyrics.  “Set Free the Night”, though, has a bluesy feel for a reason: it’s about something I’ve lost.

In the summer of 2008, I moved from Florida to northern Virginia, just outside of DC.  In Florida, I taught in rural Levy county.  One of the things I miss about my Florida home is being able to see the stars.

Now, don’t get me wrong — you can see a few stars from the DC metro area.  Just not as many.

It’s only the difference between “uncountable” and “easily countable”

The problem is light pollution.

I walk my dogs every morning.  In Florida, I used to be able to count the falling stars, the first meteors of morning, streaking by as Earth rotated into its direction of travel about the Sun.  I remember attending a star party in Alachua county . . . the Milky Way seemed so close that I could almost touch it.

I like living here in Virginia — I’m working at a good school; I like my neighborhood; I’ve learned to appreciate the cooler weather.  I’ve escaped the typical Florida problems of humidity, hurricanes, and sinkholes.

But every now and then — I wonder: the price of city living is giving up a piece of our birthright.  Is it possible entire generations will be born that grow up never having looked at the skies, and wondered what was out there?  By walling off the night sky as we have, isn’t there a part of us, a part of our imagination, also shut away now and hidden?

Set Free the Night

[0:35]
We hide inside
our homes
Old Thomas Edison
Has defeated the night

But long ago
There was a time
The sky was full
of uncountable stars

Now every night
Every parking lot
Burns like a galaxy
of our own

What have we lost?
Well you’d say not much.
Maybe just certain dreams
we can’t recall.

[1:25]
Set free the night.
Set free the night.
Set free the night.

[1:44, improvisation begins]

[4:02]

Well on one hand,
downtown,
if you can see them,
You can count all the stars.

But long ago
There was a time
That no one could try
and be right

Set free the night.