Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. LXIII--David Gray: Babylon

True story:  I don't like to dwell on it much (for obvious reasons), but I was treated for severe depression in the late 90's.  For those who have never had the pleasure, after a lot of medication and a little therapy you reach a point where you can see a little light at the end of the tunnel.  It's as far away as fucking Pluto, mind you, but that little speck gives you hope that maybe you can again lead a somewhat normal life.  Thing is, though, that you just don't know.  You can be cruising along for three weeks feeling good and--snap of the fingers--that quick a bad day makes you bone crushingly numb again.

Flash forward to a very early (as in six a.m.) Saturday morning in May of 2001.  I'm driving to work, to open the store at a Kmart in Fort Wayne. The last year of my life has been one of upheaval--moving from a place I loved (St. Louis), leaving my kids behind, being a zillion dollars in debt, living with my Mom at the age of 42, and massively failing at a dream.  Winter is coming to a close and it's warm outside so I've got the windows down and I'm cruising down the road when "Babylon" by David Gray comes on the radio.  I've heard it a couple of times before and I think it's got a lot of potential so I crank the radio and pretty soon I'm singing along to "Babylon" like I've actually got a talent for singing.  When I pull into the parking lot I park my car in the back 40 and begin my trek to the front door.  For whatever reason I can't stop singing and about ten steps in I raise my hands in the air--a la Andy Dufresne after he climbs out of the sewer in The Shawshank Redemption--and I'm singing the chorus nice and loud while I'm sashaying through the lot and when I hit the front door I stick in the key and I realize, down to my very soul, that despite everything that's happened I'm going to be okay, that I'm going to make it.

And I did--and such can be the power of music.

Mercifully for those of you reading this, David Gray has had a quiet if quite successful (at least in his native England) music career so I can keep the rest of this short.  His career started in 1993 and was without much fanfare until he released his fourth LP, White Ladder, in 2001 (whence came "Babylon").  It became a huge success in England (#1), had a modicum of success here in the States ("Babylon" hit # 57--with a bullet!--on the Billboard Hot 100), and over the course of the next several years he'd have two more #1 LPs in England.  He's released over 10 LPs to date, and is still recording and peforming.

What captures me most about "Babylon" is the imagery of the lyrics--Gray paints a picture of a man chasing love, and on Friday he's driving around town thinking of her and "the lights are changing green to red", Saturday he's still driving but the "lights are changing red to green," and by Sunday he's still chasing her but now it's the entire sky that's changing.  They're just lovely metaphors for the way your heart fluctuates when you're trying to figure out that whole being in love thing.  Gray's vocals are incredibly heartfelt, the music is catchy as all hell, and the chorus is repeated often (an emaycee fave).  It's probably a lot more personal to me than most, but it's still a hell of a single--and I can guarantee you there's a Babylon out there for all of us.

Words and music:  "Let go your heart/Let go your head/And feel it now...Babylon...."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee