Death
From Free
Death
Following the album’s peak is a structural challenge, and PCBender meets it by not flinching. ‘Death’ opens with a fingerpicked guitar intro that feels like a man sitting alone with a hard thought, then erupts into a wide, wall-of-sound riff that earns every second of its nearly seven minutes in 3/4 time. The waltz feel is exactly right for the subject: unhurried, inevitable, almost ceremonial. Where ‘God’ found presence and light, ‘Death’ sits with the other side of that coin without contradiction. The chorus hook lands on the line ‘not the end of freedom, just the place it stands alone,’ and the melody there has the same plainspoken lift you get from John Hiatt at his most philosophical. ‘The road goes on without them’ is the kind of closing line that rewards the patient listener who stayed for the full run. The album needs this track, and the track needs to come here.
Lyrics
Death waits like a lantern hung beyond the ridge A small, steady brightness at the final bridge No claws in the shadows, no debtors' grim art Just the closing of windows around a beating heart
I will not make a bargain, I will not plead for years I will not let its rumor dictate all my fears When breath becomes a hallway, and walls begin to thin I'll step across the threshold like I once stepped in
Death is my horizon Edge of breath and bone Not the end of freedom Just the place it stands alone I'll greet it like a stranger Met upon the road Curiosity in my eyes No terror in my load
If all I am is ending, then all I was is dust But something in my choosing outlives flesh and rust The footprints of intention, the echoes of my song These are the quiet reasons death and I belong
Death is my horizon Not a judge, not a thief Just the last soft unravelling Of this borrowed brief belief When it reaches out to take me I'll unclench my hands and see What remains of "I" When there is only "be."
Death is my horizon Edge of breath and bone Not the end of freedom Just the place it stands alone I'll greet it like a stranger Met upon the road Curiosity in my eyes No terror in my load
I do not dread the border Borders are for maps The road goes on without them