This song is quite literally the song version of a conversation I had with a family friend.
We were camping up on Cape Cod in late September and a nor’easter blew through… We’d been huddled in our tents for a long while and then the storm suddenly let up.
Our friend wanted to go for a walk and I was going a bit stir crazy with my 6 foot 4 inch body crammed in a tiny tent.
The kids were asleep so my wife offered to stay with them and give us a chance to take a walk on the beach.
As we picked our way through the tons of storm tossed debris and huge waves pounding the sand, she shared a story with me about discovering that her father was a closet alcoholic.
She had come home after a weekend away and found him passed out on the floor of the garage… it was something no one had talked about.
So this song juxtaposes the walk on the beach with the process of discovering and dealing with this somewhat intense family dynamic. It’s also a really technically difficult song to play and sing at the same time LOL.
please click on the arrow to play:
Feather On The Wind
Song # 142 | 10/31/1989 | CD: Feather On The Wind
I’ve got beach glass in my pockets
And my shoes are full of sand
And the crumbling bluffs
Above us callout on the wind
“The end of land! The end of land!”
Call the doctor,
There’s something wrong here
You found your father on the floor
No one seem to know he had this problem
With just a bit of alcohol…
With just a bit of alcohol…
There’s a light house that was
Built a hundred years ago
Designed to weather every storm
And every blow it shouts to ships
“Beware the shoals! Beware the Shoals!”
You feel so empty, you feel so angry
Your mother knew it all along
She helped him hide it
She would not confide it
And now you feel like smashing walls
And now you feel like smashing walls…
And now the moon begins to rise
Though it plays hid and seek with clouds
And I shout to you it’s very hard
To talk because the surf’s so loud
The surf’s so loud..
So now what happens?
Where do you go from here?
They say the enemy is fear
Be like the ocean and shine like diamonds
Be like a feather on the wind
Be like a feather on the wind…
Copyright 1989-2015 by Mark Shepard. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
Photo – Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo