Day 11 - A Song from Your Favorite Band

This entry a part of the 30 Day Song Challenge

* * *

Back to the Earth
Rusted Root
When I Woke
(Released August 1994)

Well, according to my Last.Fm charts, the band I listen to the most is Everything but the Girl, followed by Texas and Rusted Root. Personally, I have a problem calling two members a “band” so I’m not going with EBTG on this one (besides, I foresee an EBTG entry coming). So it’s down to Texas and Rusted Root, such a life-altering decision! But, as always, I will default to “first come, first choice” and it was Rusted Root that I had the pleasure of listening to first. Not to mention, I’ve loved Rusted Root’s music from the get-go. Meanwhile, Texas and I got off to a rough start!

Before I get to the song, let me share one of my hopes/dreams (hey that’s a Keane album). I’ve always wanted to get far, far away from here. Like out of the country. But this is mostly wishful thinking (for various reasons). I’ve always dreamed of coming home (presumably from school or work) to a small, Spanish-inspired house/flat. I would make dinner, either pasta or a salad (because those are the only two dishes I know how to prepare), with the windows open because the evening air is cool and pure. I would pause to eat a few cubes of cheese I have sliced up and sip on an ice-cold Coke (my future self still doesn’t do wine haha)! And because there’s a specific soundtrack I imagine for future events, I know that my future self would reach for Rusted Root’s When I Woke and let it fill my small space with glorious music as I prepare my last meal of the day.

(Though this is not materializing anytime soon because I’m in a rut but I digress…)

I have a special fondness for this album. Aside from the fact that the band is incredible and the songs are wonderful, it was Rusted Root’s Send Me on My Way that made me sit up and pay attention to movie music, and this song was used in a lot of movies. In fact, I would have picked Send Me on My Way as my favorite Rusted Root song had I not considered the other songs on the album.

I listened to it again today and the best word I can think of to describe it is: complete. It simply has everything, much like how the band fuses rock, pop, soul, the blues, world, etc. to create amazing music. But it’s also complete because, as a listener, you get the story in a space of 13 songs. From Drum Trip, which signals the beginning of amazing things to come; to Send Me on My Way, which inspires a reckless abandon to just let go and follow your bliss; to Martyr, which festively tells of frustration; and, finally, to Back to the Earth, which declares one’s coming full circle.

I love all the songs on When I Woke (and Cruel Sun too, the debut album where the original tracks were released) but I’ve always had the most affinity to the last cut, Back to the Earth. There’s just a sense of peace, calm, and happiness I get whenever this song comes on. It’s as though the writer wants to say that, finally, he has found contentment and that’s all he really ever needs. He doesn’t need to look for anything else, anymore.

And I guess contentment is at the pinnacle of all my hopes and dreams. Contentment so ever-elusive but waiting to be discovered, just you wait and see.

* * *