So I was driving too fast down the GW Parkway tonight, top off the car, the new James CD (Millionaires, the one you can't buy in the states because their record label dropped them after their best of album went platinum - and record labels wonder why people like mp3 - which I had to buy as an import but I'm glad I did) blaring, and Tim Booth sang this (as I sang along):

I opened up into this mystery
Every key can lock you up
Or set you free
I believe that there is magic in this mystery
I have seen
I have seen
I have seen

And it occurred to me that when Tim Booth sings he believes something, I believe him. Another song on the same album (that one was "Afro Lover," the other one is "Just Like Fred Astaire") has this bit:

I believe in happiness
I believe in Love
I believe she fell to earth
From somewhere high above
I believe in Hollywood
Don't believe that Love must bring despair
Cos when I hold her in my arms
I'm just like Fred Astaire

And then on the Booth and the Bad Angel CD, the opening track is titled "I Believe," and goes as follows (sorry, but I'm pasting the whole lyric here):

Hold my tongue there's nothing I can say to you
You tie me up with words
You tie me up with words
I'm so lost you say that you'd pray for me
You'd smother me with words
You'd smother me with words

They turned your story all around
They had you free when you were bound
They raised you up when you were down
They raised you high

I believe someone's watching over me
I believe in the dreams that set you free

You're so strong it really is a mystery
You give your power away
You give your power away
Why be a song when you can be a symphony
Don't give your power away
Don't give your power away

I believe
I believe we are free to be chained
To be slaves, to be chained or to be free

I believe someone's watching over me
I believe in the dreams that set you free
I believe

... and then if we go all the way back to "Strip Mine," "Are You Ready" gives us these words:

All of my beliefs
They come back to me
I think life is tough
So my life is tough
She says, "find a way
To develop love
To receive my love,
Believe you are good enough"

And the thing is, not only do I believe him when he sings these words, I believe them too. And it makes me happy.

It also makes me drive too fast. After taking the Roosevelt bridge into the District, I zipped through the interchanges to get onto Rock Creek Parkway, went too fast onto Beach Drive, and passed a Park Police car hiding back there to catch somebody doing just what I did since the speed limit drops where Beach starts. I exited at the Zoo exit like I always do, and I watched in the mirror as the Park Police car continued past the exit going north on Beach. He didn't see me.

I got away with one there. :-)

link (2000-02-24)