I
Não sou escravo de ninguém
Ninguém senhor do meu domínio
Sei o que devo defender
E por valor eu tenho
E temo o que agora se desfaz
Viajamos sete léguas
Por entre abismos e florestas
Por Deus nunca me vi tão só
É a própria fé o que destrói
Estes são dias desleais
Mas sou metal
Raio, relâmpago e trovão
Eu sou metal
Eu sou o ouro em seu brasão
Eu sou metal
Me sabe o sopro do dragão
Reconheço meu pesar
Quando tudo é traição
O que venho encontrar
É a virtude em outras mãos.
Minha terra é a terra que é minha
E sempre será
Minha terra
Tem a lua, tem estrelas
E sempre terá
II
Quase acreditei na tua promessa
E o que vejo é fome e destruição
Perdi a minha sela e a minha espada
Perdi o meu castelo e minha princesa
Quase acreditei, quase acreditei
E, por honra, se existir verdade
Existem os tolos e existe o ladrão
E há quem se alimente do que é roubo.
Vou guardar o meu tesouro
Caso você esteja mentindo.
Olha o sopro do dragão…
III
É a verdade o que assombra
O descaso que condena
A estupidez o que destrói
Eu vejo tudo que se foi
E o que não existe mais
Tenho os sentidos já dormentes
O corpo quer, a alma entende
Esta é a terra-de-ninguém
Sei que devo resitir
Eu quero a espada em minhas mãos
Eu sou metal - raio, relâmpago e trovão
Eu sou metal: eu sou o ouro em seu brazão
Eu sou metal: me sabe o sopro do dragão
Não me entrego sem lutar
Tenho ainda coração
Não aprendi a me render
Que caia o inimigo então
IV
Tudo passa
Tudo passará
E nossa história
Não estará
Pelo avesso assim
Sem final feliz
Teremos coisas bonitas pra contar
E até lá
Vamos viver
Temos muito ainda por fazer
Não olhe pra trás
Apenas começamos
O mundo começa agora, ahh!
Apenas começamos.
…É preciso amar as pessoas
Como se não houvesse amanhã
Por que se você parar pra pensar
Na verdade não há…
…Você culpa seus pais por tudo
e isso é absurdo
são crianças como você.
O que você vai ser
quando você crescer?…
~Legião Urbana
…and I could find her in a thunderstorm,
just by the way the rain would fall…
~Ryan Adams
Another U2 tour has come and gone. Because I now work for the proverbial Man, I was only able to catch 4 shows this tour — Dallas, two in Las Vegas (on my birthday) and just recently the Salt Lake City show (I was able to see them more during: Joshua Tree, Zoo TV, Zoo TV Outside Broadcast, Popmart, and Elevation Tours).
I still have hopes of a Brazil or Argentina show, but I feebly attempt to stop the moving cogs and gears of time….reality is I will most likely have to wait a few years for the next chance.
I am grateful (forgive me, for this is spirtual to me) for the renewed faith and hope in mankind that I sometimes take away from the experience. Every time I hear “Where the Streets Have No Name” I turn to heaven and confess God’s hand in inspiring such an optimistic tune — and the chorus-like reverb coming from Edge’s guitar almost certainly brings an overwhelming sense of “Life is good, I want to give this feeling to everyone”, kind of like that Jane’s Addiction song that talks about a person that “makes you wanna tell your friends, ‘hey man, come and listen to my great idea’”.
——–
Reminds me of a story that I’ve heard several times: A man was walking down a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew closer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up, and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean. As our friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water. Our friend was puzzled. He approached the man and said “Good evening, Friend. I was wondering what you are doing.”
“I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it’s low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen.”
“I understand,” our friend replied, “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don’t you realize it is probably happening on hundreds of other beaches all up and down the coast. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?”
The local native smiled, bent down, and picked up yet another starfish, and as threw it back into the sea, he replied, “Made a difference to that one!”
——
Recently I’ve been trying to figure out where I fit, how I can make a difference, looking at where I’m coming from and where I should be going….am I walking into the LSAT of life and wasting the time playing with the lint in my pocket, or am I really taking and doing well at the test — the whole reason I’m here in the first place?
All of this points me to the thing that most touched me during the Vertigo tour was that the band reverted to their “Boy” album, from when they were mere teenagers with bright eyes and a hope to change the world. Their songs were about discovering the nature of growing up, of becoming responsible, of changing the world in the small corner we occupy. At one of the recent shows, Bono said, “We’ve been so into putting a man on the moon, now we want to bring Man back to Earth.”
I think being back on Earth is a good thing. That’s where humanity needs us.
© 2008
Jeff Foster