{"id":196,"date":"2011-01-18T13:49:59","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T21:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/?p=196"},"modified":"2015-01-12T09:31:55","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T17:31:55","slug":"racking-up-plays-change-of-time-by-josh-ritter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2011\/01\/racking-up-plays-change-of-time-by-josh-ritter\/","title":{"rendered":"Racking Up Plays: “Change of Time” by Josh Ritter"},"content":{"rendered":"

These are the posts where I gush about some song that I’ve got a huge crush on at the moment, and you put up with it and listen because you’re a good friend.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\"Josh<\/a>
See that smile? It's why seeing Josh Ritter live is one of my favorite concert memories. (Glenn Ross via joshritter.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/strong>“Change of Time,” Josh Ritter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Two minutes into Josh Ritter’s latest, So Runs the World Away,<\/em> I was already feeling like a chump for having failed to give it a listen before 2010 came to a close. Where were my priorities? Ritter’s albums always have at least two tracks that leave me flabbergasted at his songwriting talent, and my jaw was already slack halfway through the opening track.<\/p>\n

The Moscow, Idaho, native is particularly accomplished at creating dreamscapes with his lyrics, full of the epic sweep of myth and history. \u00a0(“Wolves” and “Thin Blue Flame” from The Animal Years, <\/em>one of my favorite albums of the last decade<\/a>,\u00a0are just two examples that spring to mind.) With “Change in Time,” Ritter literally describes a dream of being adrift on some dark ocean. As the song unleashes a storm of martial electric guitar and sixteenth-note runs, it’s only the sight of his wife asleep next to him when he opens his eyes that quiets the tempests in his head and gives him the strength to keep on swimming.<\/p>\n

It’s beautiful stuff, and Ritter pulls it off much better than all the tortured prose and “The Tempest” allusions that I just deleted. Rather than me trying to summarize it, you should just download<\/a> the song and read along with the lyrics below.<\/p>\n

“Change of Time” has been featured prominently on the TV show Parenthood<\/a><\/em> as well as the\u00a0trailer<\/a> for some new Natalie Portman weepfest that has Lifetime Movie Network written all over it. Hopefully the song is introducing Ritter and his talents to a wider audience, because the man deserves it.<\/p>\n

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Free download:<\/strong> Josh Ritter – Change of Time<\/a><\/p>\n

I had a dream last night
\nI dreamt that I was swimming
\nAnd the stars up above
\nDirectionless and drifting
\nSomewhere in the dark
\nWere the sirens and the thunder
\nAnd around me as I swam
\nThe drifters who’d gone under<\/p>\n

(CHORUS)
\nTime, love
\nTime, love
\nTime, love
\nIt’s only a change of time<\/p>\n

I had a dream last night
\nAnd rusting far below me
\nBattered hulls and broken hardships
\nLeviathan and lonely
\nI was thirsty, so I drank
\nAnd though it was salt water
\nThere was something ’bout the way
\nIt tasted so familiar<\/p>\n

(CHORUS)<\/p>\n

The black clouds I’m hanging
\nThis anchor I’m dragging
\nThe sails of memory rip open in silence
\nWe cut through the lowlands
\nAll hands through the saltlands
\nThe white caps of memory
\nConfusing and violent<\/p>\n

I had a dream last night
\nAnd when I opened my eyes
\nYour shoulder blade, your spine
\nWere shorelines in the moon light
\nNew worlds for the weary
\nNew lands for the living
\nI could make it if I tried
\nI closed my eyes I kept on swimming<\/p>\n

(CHORUS)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\"Share\"<\/a>\n