Spark is definitely my favorite song on the album. It's been on repeat for awhile now.

Aside from being a wonderfully written and recorded song, I like the context: an anti-war song in the middle of an album about the redemption of a marriage. It's a connector of sorts- connecting personal pain to public pain, and connecting the personal and public necessity for redemptive love.

Mmm.

Please don't ask me to explain myself, but it seems like so many of OtR's songs are layered in meaning. I.E. the obvious John in Spark is JFK right? But who else could it be. Nichole's first impression is that it was John, from the bible, the one who wrote Revelations.

This song also has a wonderful hook to it. Air Play.....

I thought it was John Lennon.

When I first heard it, being the retard at song translation that I am, I thought "why would John from the bible be referred to as a dreamer?" So I scribbled down the words and showed them to a knower-of-the-bible friend of mine. He reads the first verse and goes, "They could be talking about John Lennon..." My first response was "No..." Then *BAM* Talk about a light bulb goin' off. I even wacked his hand in excitement. Now John Lennon is the only John I'll ever think it's referring too...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one


I almost forgot to mention, Spark is my favorite song on the album too.

That chorus is just, man...

Sleep with one ear close to the ground and wake up screaming
When we lay our cold weapons down we'll wake up dreaming

It's the way this is sung. I love the way this is sung. Especially after the second verse, when she gets to the second line she does that 'break-up-the-word' vocal glitch she does now and then but this time she doesn't actually break it, just trips it a bit. Same with the last part "Everything we've lost can be fooou~ooouu~ooouund.... " Ya feelin' me on this? I mean, woo me, why don'tcha.

I thought it was John Lennon.
I thought the whole first stanza was political regarding our president and the war in Irac.
At first, I even considered John Kerry.
(Til it all comes 'round again...in four years.)

But John Lennon makes perfect sense.

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one

It's not the spark that caused the fire
It was the air you breathed that fanned the flame
What you think you'll solve with violence
Will only spread like a disease
Until it all comes 'round again
Was John the only dreamer?

Never thought it was about religion.

naturally i assumed she was singing “was jane the only dreamer” … cuz you know … i’m silent jane the dreamer … (ohoh! i should add that to that other thread!)

once i read the lyrics, though, i figured it was about lennon

*edited to add it is also often on repeat ...

I thought it was John Lithgow...


~fff

i think the "Was John the only dreamer?" line is a reference to imagine and john lennon's line, "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will live as one."

that's the way i took it anyway.

It never even occurred to me the reference to John might be to someone other than Lennon.

I agree with Katherine about what makes this song so remarkable. When I first heard it performed, I thought it was another love song about recovering their relationship because of "Only love can turn this around" and "Everything we lost can be found". Then when I sorted out all the lyrics, I thought "Hmmm, this is actually an anti-war song" (which it is). But the really remarkable thing is that the song extends the theme of interpersonal love to encompass global politics. If we're willing to get beyond our fears and work on understanding and caring about each other at the geo-political level, only then we can move beyond the cycle of violence responsible for so much suffering today.

That awesome chorus is even more powerful live, with Kim playing and singing along with Karin. I can't wait to catch that action again!

It definitely makes sense that it is John Lennon, though my first interpretation was definitely the biblical John. Since the book of Revelations is based in John's apocalyptic dreams, I don't think it's totally unlikely to have a double meaning there. Especially since the line "Is God the last romantic" gives the song a religious feel.

It does make much sense that it is John Lennon (seems so obvious now that it has been pointed out).

I wonder why I thought it was JFK first. I just took the song as somewhat political in nature....

....I, however, like to idea (more than any of the others) that it is John from the Bible, because, well, I like that sort of stuff lately.

I didn't mean to imply it doesn't signify anyone else, just that Lennon made such perfect sense to me that I never considered it. And of course I'm less biblical-minded than many of you here.

My vote goes for John Lennon- especially since she says later
"It's not a thing you can IMAGINE" which makes me think it is a double reference to Lennon.
I think she is saying, in my unprofessional opinion, that it isn't good enough just to dream about peace or try to imagine it into existance but that you have to be working for it- like working out your salvation.
Just my thoughts.

Karin said last night that they snuck a protest song onto this cd, and if you don't like it, well, then don't listen to it.

See, that's the only line that trips me up. It sounds out of place lyrically and it has a totally different feel to me when she actually sings it, like they dubbed it in (not saying they did, just saying that's how it sounds to me). Plus, I have philosophical issues with what I assume to be a rhetorical question. I mean, geez, with a board full of romantics, what more evidence does one need to answer that one in the negative?

Remember Billy Joel's
'We Didn't Start the Fire' ?

"We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
........."

Even though I completely agree with the John Lennon reference, I think the line makes more sense if the John at hand is a biblical John. (Not that the gospel, letters, and revelation of John were written by the same John, but they are still referred to as the Johaninne school). This song is so much about love casting out fear, which is a significant concept in one of the epistles of John (maybe the first? i dunno). And then to look at Revelations, even though I generally can't stand the majority of the book, it still ends up with a a vision of peace - a new heaven and a new earth in which death will be no more and mourning and crying and pain will be no more. I think the song fits in with Changes Come and Idea #21 as a call for eschatological hope that emerges from pain.

That said, I think part of why a doubled John- biblical John and John Lennon- works well is because I think John Lennon's song Imagine, though not religious, completely fits in to a broader definition of eschatological hope. It's about a vision of a restored and regenerated creation. The theology may be different, but the hope is not.

I think the line "Is God the last romantic" is kind of rhetorical, but also kind of a response to those who say that claiming love will turn everything around is naive. It's kind of a "yeah, well, maybe it's a romantic notion, but then again, it's what we understand the will of God to be"...

I LOVE this song... thanks for discussing it, everyone!

the first time i heard this line i was in a (slightly) bitter and sarcastic mood, and i instantly thought "dammit. god is the last romantic." so. i may not be able to explain this line, or even admit that it makes total sense to me, but .... it does ... somehow ....

this song took on a whole new meaning while i listened to it on my way into work. right at the end when karin sings "only love can turn this around" thoughts of casey, ray's 9 year old daughter, hit me like a ton of bricks. just about the whole song can be applied to what we're dealing with. up until 3 months ago she was the sweetest little kid, and now she's a raging monster. i hope love can turn her around .....

Not so fast Lennonites...

"We need men who can dream of things that never were."
John F. Kennedy, speech in Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963