Even In Their Sleep

This song was inspired by the first two verses in Psalm 127,

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain those who build it.
Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late to eat the bread of painful labors,
For he gives to His beloved even in their sleep,

and the last two verses from Psalm 120,

Our help is in the name, of the Lord who made
heaven and earth, heaven and earth, heaven and earth.

This is my oldest song on the CD. Originally, the melody was sung with these words. I wrote it in college for a composition class. I was experimenting with this haunting melody that only encompasses the tri-tone A-Eb and uses all the notes in between the tri-tone. It is obviously very chromatic. I actually could sing this song full voice back in the day in the registers that we played it, which made it a strong song.

I was inspired by the idea that it was vain to get up early and to go to bed late, since that’s what I do day in and day out. Doing things and eating the bread of painful labors is my life. It’s a way a musician has to live as you keep working. So the idea that the Lord gives to his beloved even in their sleep was astounding to me. I’d like that to happen more.

This song worked well with Joe’s low harmonicas, his precursor to his famous Thunderbird low tuned harmonica, which is used in the song “The Wind” amazingly. It was used on the first and last sections of the song. The second and fourth sections of the song were some of the most orchestrated parts on the album. I had two high-strung guitars, along with the main guitar, with two pad synths and deep bass drum along with a kit. The second and fourth sections used the “it is vain for you to rise up early…” lyrics.

The middle section is the dream section of the song. To capture the idea of sleep the guitar danced with the harmonica. The guitar is not playing in time and the harmonicas’ response to it is kind of a dreamlike, subconscious shadow. I was going for the randomness and spontaneity of dreams.

I had Larry use all these percussion instruments that I purchased over the years from places all over the world, mostly from Green Lake Wisconsin Retreat Center. They had a store at the complex that missionaries sent percussion instruments to that the people in the villages made. They were very authentic shells, beads and shakers.
It was a way for the villagers to earn money by making these original instruments. Big music stores did not have access to these awesome instruments. It was win/win in action. How cool is that? So when I would go to the beautiful retreat center once a year, I would always buy a number of percussion instruments because I loved the sounds and I loved supporting people around the world who made them. I used many of these percussion instruments in that dream section.

Anyway, I thought it was a great idea to explore being blessed even in your sleep. I pray that that would be the case for mankind.