Longest Day
"Longest Day" was released as a single and is the third track on The Light the Dead See.
Lyrics
Late the other night
I couldn't see a single star in the sky
Oh, they must be too high
Shadows dance around me in the dark
Don't stop
This could be the longest day
And the night has yet to come
This must be the door to take
There's nowhere left to run
This could be the longest day
And the night has yet to come
This must be the door to take
I've nowhere left to run
Was eleven years to change what had been lost
One single shot was fired at what a cost
Oh, at what a cost
This could be the longest day
And the night has yet to come
This must be the door to take
There's nowhere left to run
This could be the longest day
And the night has yet to come
This must be the door to take
I've nowhere left to run
I wanna run
I better run now
Run
As far as I can
This could be the longest day
And the night has yet to come
This must be the door to take
I've nowhere left to run
This could be the longest day
And the night has yet to come
This must be the door to take
I've nowhere left to run
I wanna run
I better run now
Run
As far as I can
Dave's Take
Dave and Rich Machin talk about this song at the 2:40 mark.
My Take
A funerary-sounding harmonium and melancholy piano opens this number, while the words sound equally forlorn, though it does seem contradictory to speak about stars in the sky and shadows "dancing in the dark" in the first verse and then launch straight into a chorus that laments about a "night" that has "yet to come" (in other words, isn't it already night in the very first verse?). More on that in a bit...the alternation between a sparse-sounding verse and big and loud chorus gives you a sense of wavering emotions. And I really like the electric guitar solo in the bridge. In fact, I really like the overall guitar sound on Soulsavers' works in general- it sounds vintage, warm, and melodic. We can thank Tony "Doggen" Foster again, who also played the harmonica on the first track, for that sound. The instrumentation sounds so moving and carefully crafted on this song, in fact, that I could honestly say that it's the instrumentation and not Dave's vocals that truly grabs me and holds my attention here. But anyway, speaking of the vocal- more specifically, the lyrics, it seems to express the same sort of sentiment that Depeche Mode's "Waiting for the Night" does, doesn't it? In other words, the night time is something to look forward to, rather than dread, because it brings an end to some sort of suffering that takes place in the daytime. To give a totally mundane and personal example, nighttime sure gives me hope in a 9-to-5 workday, especially if it is a particularly stressful or bad day, and the weekend has the same effect on a workweek. "Night" also symbolizes sleep or sometimes even death, which both are sometimes meant to indicate an escape from suffering. Because of that association and also because the very first verse talks about a literal night that has already come, I'm not entirely sure if "the night" in the chorus is meant to be taken literally in this song, but either way, the possible symbolism is intriguing to play with.
Music Video
There is no music video for this song.