Lost my way
The sun burnt in
Stepped over graves
And stood in sin
Took the dive, but
Couldn’t swim
A flag without the wind
When there’s no mornin’
Without you
There’s only darkness
The whole day through
Took the diamond
From my soul
And turned it back into gold
All these voices
All these memories
Made me feel like stone
All these people
Make me feel so alone
Lost in the dark
No shades of grey
Until I found
(Until I found)
Midnight’s another day
Swept away
(Swept away)
In a brainstorm
(a brainstorm)
Chapters missing
(chapters missing)
Pages torn
(Pages torn)
Waited too long
To feel the warm
I had to chase the sun
Doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo
All these voices
All these memories
Made me feel like stone
All these people
They’ve made me feel so alone
Lost in the dark
(lost in the dark)
No shades of grey
Until I found
(until I found)
Midnight’s another day
There are rare days when I feel like magic is real, and I get to experience something I know very well, with new ears, as if I’m listing to it for the first time. This feeling balances on the razor’s edge between nostalgia and renaissance, often leading to intense bouts of obsession.
This week, I was lucky enough to have this happen while watching the brilliant documentary “Long Promised Road”, about Beach Boys composer and leader Brian Wilson. During the second act, Brian’s 2007 song “Midnight’s Another Day” played in the background and it knocked me out. Not since listening to Pet Sounds has a Brian Wilson song so fully captured my attention.
I’ve always felt a connection with Brian, in everything from his lyrics to his choral arrangements to his symphonic way of thinking about music. But its the way that Brian is able to describe loneliness that I feel like I, and many avid fans connect with. For example, take his lyrics from “Break Away”:
When I laid down on my bed
I heard voices in my head
Telling me now hey it’s only a dream
The more I thought of it I had been out of it
And here’s the answer I found instead
(Baby baby) found out it was in my head (baby baby)
And I can breakaway to the better life
Where the shackles never hold me down
I’m gonna make a way for each happy day
As my life turns around
The chilling lyrics, with allusions to his struggles with mental health, are beautifully hidden in the siren-song of the barber-shop harmonies, which act like the Faustian voice, luring him to the other side.
A similar lyric can be heard in early songs “In my Room”, “The Lonely Sea”, and “Please Let Me Wander”; Pet Sounds classics “Caroline, no”, “Don’t Talk”; and later songs “Till I Die” and “Surfs Up”.
Which brings us back to “Midnight’s Another Day”, a song in which Brian arguably aims to lay his former struggles with mental health to bed.
