The wounds on your hands never seem to heal
I thought all I needed was to believe
Here am I, a lifetime away from you
The blood of Christ, or the beat of my heart
My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes
Senseless years thunder by
Millions are willing to give their lives for you
Does nothing live on?
Learning to cope with feelings aroused in me
My hands in the soil, buried inside of myself
My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes in you once again
Ill go walking in circles
While doubting the very ground beneath me
Trying to show unquestioning faith in everything
Here am I, a lifetime away from you
The blood of Christ, or a change of heart
My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes
My love wears forbidden colours
My life believes in you once again
I have been on a rather big David Sylvian/Japan/solo kick in the past few weeks. As one of my longest music loves, Sylvian and co and I have been through a bit together: high school, first love, drugs, marriage, divorce, overseas travel, composing, university, becoming a father, second marriage, leaving my country. In all the big things in my life, their music has been a part of it. Sometimes it has coincided that a new release that come out when a new stage of my life has begun.
They also have the advantage of being an artist that I have shared with my best friend Chris. I first met Chris through Sylvian. In 1986 I was selling(!) my Sylvian LPs to buy something else. We carried on about how brilliant he was and so forth. Within a year, I was working at the same shop with Chris; listening to Sylvian of course. I'll never forget something Chris said to me at this time, something along the lines of "I know in 10 or 20 years, I'll be able to come over to your place, and we'll listen to Sylvian". This ended up being completely true. The same couldn't be said for other stuff we were digging. (The Mission or All About Eve, anyone?)
On my latest kick, David and co are now being listened to with Christian ears. It has been an interesting spiritual journey for David Sylvian. He is now a Hindu, but was raised a Christian (I think).
Christian imagery abounds in his early works, but by 1993 they are gone.
David's most explicit Christian reference is in the 1983 single "Forbidden Colours". This is a gorgeous song, the music gleams and sparkles, David's voice is a croon, but melancholic. The opening line expresses the essential meaning:
The wounds on your hands never seem to heal
I thought all I needed was to believe.
The songs is about faith and the problem of keeping and questioning it. The middle eight clarifies the core issue:
I'll go walking in circles
While doubting the very ground beneath me
Trying to show unquestioning faith in everything
Here am I, a lifetime away from you
The blood of Christ, or a change of heart.
When I was younger, I had no idea what "The blood of Christ" meant. These days the blood of Christ is central to my life: the Eucharist is vital in my daily life and faith journey.
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me,
and I in him.
John 6:56 RV
If I was to explain that to myself 20 years ago, I wonder what I would have thought?
Here is the video.
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