Through a series of circumstances I recently latched on to an album called ‘The Ill Tempered Klavier’ by singer/songwriter Ben Shive. Ben has worked with Andrew Peterson, one of my favorite artists, and that was part of what led me to this album.
As happens to me too rarely, I was totally blown away by the whole album. I have listened to it over and over and virtually memorized all the songs.
As a service to the internet community, I’m planning to blog the words, as best I can decipher them, to the whole album. This entry gives the words to ‘4th of July’, a song which captures how I feel about the holiday – patriotic for my country, but with an eternal citizenship elsewhere.
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4th of July, by Ben Shive
The first star of the evening was singing in the sky
High above our blanket in the park.
And by the twilight’s gleaming on the fourth day of July
The city band played on into the dark.
And then a canon blast, a golden flame unfolding
Exploded in a momentary bloom.
The petals fell and scattered, like ashes on the ocean
As another volley burst into the blue.
But the first start of the evening never moved.
We stood in silence, the young ones and the old.
As the bright procession passed us by.
A generation dying, another being born.
A long crescendo played out in the sky.
This nation indivisible will perish from the earth.
As surely as the leaves must change and fall.
And the band will end the anthem, to dust she will return.
So the sun must set on all things great and small.
But the first star of the evening
. . . will outlive them all.
