One Foot Before the Other
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One Foot Before the Other is a folk punk song composed and sung by Frank Turner. It was released as track 7 on the album England Keep My Bones on 2011-06-06. The song presents a secular view of death and how our constituents continue even after we die and go on to make up other things.
Contents
Personal
After finding the song Glory Hallelujah while searching for anti-religious music, I downloaded the album England Keep My Bones, where I heard this song. The angry sound of the instruments and insidious lyrics about becoming immortal because your atoms will infect everyone and everything around you felt really empowering to me. In the first verse he describes entering the blood of millions, in the second verse, it spreads to all life on Earth, then, in the third, he describes his lack of belief in the supernatural, and how he is made up entirely from the people that came before him. For awhile after hearing this song I listened to dozens of times on repeat.
The song also gives insight to heroes of Turner as he lists revolutionist Wat Tyler, musician Woody Guthrie, author Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Davy Jones. I'm not sure which Davy Jones he's referring to, as both singers David Thomas Jones and David Bowie were still alive when this song was released.
Lyrics
On the very day I die, the very last of my desires, Is that you take my broken body and commit it to the fire. And then when the fire is finished, scrape the ashes in a tin, Take them down to London's drinking reservoirs and throw them in. And then specks infinitesimal of my mortal remains, Will slide down seven million throats and into seven million veins. And I will creep through their capillaries to the marrow of their bones, And they will wake to bright new mornings and then wordlessly they'll know. That I remain! I am remembered. I remain! I am remembered. So these seven million innocents, they will have me in their blood. And when they die they'll burn their bodies or be buried in the mud. And I will spread through streams and rivers like a virus through a host; From the hamlets to the cities, from the rivers to the coast. And from there into the channel across the great Atlantic Ocean; And ever onwards to the New World through the water's gentle motions. Until parts of me are part of every landmass every sea; In the rain, up on your crops, and in the very air you breathe. I remain! I am remembered. I remain! I am remembered. I remain! And all the things I love will be washed away in the rain. I remain. I'm not convinced of the existence of these things that don't exist. Yeah, by Jewish boys with big ideas and scratches on their wrists. By a loving or a vengeful god, or one who condescends, Who'll wash his hands down in the mire among the misery of men. Or by ever turning circles hanging timeless in the sky, Like a dream catcher distracting from the fact you're gonna die. But I place one foot before the other, confident because, I know that everything we are right now is everything that was. That Wat Tyler, Woody Guthrie, Dostoevsky, and Davy Jones, Have all dissolved into the ether and have crept into my bones. And all the cells in all the lines upon the backs of both my hands, Were once carved into the details of two feet upon the sand. So, we remain! We are remembered. We remain! We are remembered. We remain! And all the things we love will be washed away in the rain. We remain!
Videos
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_Keep_My_Bones - Wikipedia page for England Keep My Bones.
