Story Behind The Song

Some times the pen just starts moving by itself, and it ends up criticizing me. I am the one who thought of the old folks spent their time looking out of the glass to the young, thinking about how much life was behind them but uninterested in what was ahead. Wrong. There's a way to come alive, and to release what was lost. That was on my mind, helping me turn self-absorption into a new optimism. So much of the things I have lost: money, time, love--owned me. Think about how free you can be if the things you lose owned you. Its not a loss at all. I was really thinking about some of the loss that some of the folks in New Orleans had to experience in the projects--cause those places sucked. Some people showed up at the school that I work at from those places and I know that it was a blessing to have had the opportunity to come to Tennessee from some of those projects in New Orleans. What looked like a loss became a blessing for many....so don't sulk. Come alive.

Song Description

I have had stuff stolen, stuff broken, stuff lost, money spent on stuff that I wish I could have kept. Welcome to life...you will lose stuff, so don't be surprised. I spent the first half of my twenties disillusioned because everything I wanted I didn't get--like babies do. You think pacing around the room is gonna bring your money back? fogedaboudit. Pick up your chin and get back out to beating the pavement. It felt a bit strange recording this in the light of the great losses in gulf coast. In the face of loss, there is so much to learn, to gain, and to bring you to a new perception of what life is really about (people helping people, regaining a hope in a new land, leaning on loved ones to pull you through, etc.). Come alive, man! Every promise from above, every heart reflecting love, turns troubles into dust.

Lyrics

Come Alive Man

Are you from around here?
Are you made of glass?
You think pacing around the room
will bring your money back?
Have you seen a baby bird
hungry for a worm?
Seen a lilly in a grass fire burning?
You think the old stand inside looking outside
to the young;
a strange heartfelt sucking of the thumb.

Chorus:
Come Alive
Come Alive Man
Come Alive
Come Alive Man

Every promise from above
Every heart directing love
Grinds troubles into dust (troubles into dust)
Every promise from above
Every heart directing love
Grinds troubles into dust (troubles into dust)

(chorus)

and what have you lost
if what you owned owned you
forget about the cost
of losing the very things that chained you
son!

Come Alive
Come Alive Man
Come Alive
Come Alive Man

Every promise from above
Every heart directing love
Grinds troubles into dust (troubles into dust)
Every promise from above
Every heart directing love
Grinds troubles into dust (troubles into dust)