brave Saint Saturn debuted pieces of their space-trilogy albums in 2000, 2003, and 2008. Reese Roper sings on the project, and writes poetry. Saturn is one of the projects where Reese cab put his poetry into the everyday vernacular that is rock and roll.
Reese likes to make allusions in his lyrics using the color blue (blue represents youth, spirituality, truth, peace and distance).
bSS
bSS’s 2008 cover of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Here is the news” opens with the last four lines of the first stanza in “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” by Dylan Thomas:
Saint Saturn borrows “News” and incorporates it into their narrative (four men thinking through their life philosophies in the face of impending death) and compares it with with the pressure that comes from 24/7 media attention. The song’s closest thing to a chorus is the ominous line: “Here is the news” strewn throughout simple lyrics that describe the conditions of space (ex: “The weather’s fine but there may be a meteor shower”). The chorus doesn’t change as the song moves forward, and the crew’s plight becomes desperate.
The song is about the “distance” created between real-life and what people observe from the outside. The news creates this distance by its overly-analytical hero worship.
Instead of Reese’s typical use of blue to represent distance, Reese blends his narrative with the ethos of Dylan Thomas’ “And Death…” and ELO’s “News” to create a striking word picture.
I think’s a great song. It’s a piece of music where the listener may discover the deeper elements of the song or just enjoy it at face value. It’s your choice — but the lyrics are better if vetted for their historical and philosophical content.
Dylan Thomas‘ “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” in full:
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
**edited from an earlier blog
Joshua Encinias
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