Part 2: Flower Power to Unfold the Future
A good reason for making a division as Flower Power is Two hours of music and so is Unfold the future.
Flower Power
Garden of Dreams
A complex cycle of almost an hour of music. It would be my preferred soundtrack to the garden scenes of Myst IV, one of my favourite games.
II Simple song
The child seeking faith. How simple the life as a child is. The bible talks about how we as adults must be as children to come into the kingdom of God, an expression of innocence. It also contains a reference to a very well known hymn, Amazing Grace.
At the same time you can see the clouds of the sky and experiences similar to ones i have had, feeling part of a bigger thing.
III Business Vamp
This i found deeply spiritual. The need for priests in a time when greed has taken over the world.
Call for doctors, call for a Priest
Business Vamp (C) 1999 Bodin/Stolt
Soon get rid of that greedy beast
Soon I’ll catch my long lost freedom
Will I get back my private Eden?
My private Eden
The longing for an undisturbed place, away from climate change and where we can see the nature in it’s full prime. This is the return to the private eden, the innocence of our inner child.
IV All you can save
All you can save is portraying God as a female, an interesting picture, in a similar fashion to Ingemar Olssons God is mother too. If we lay them side by side like i will do below.
She’ll host all the Gardens all of splendour
All You Can Save (C)1999 Stolt/Bodin
Treasure all the diamonds and of gold
The fruits of their labor, you know know it won’t save her
The day when the ship comes……….by,
Mother’s love
God is Mother Too Ingemar Olsson (C)Little Beat Music
goes a long long way
High as a mountain,
deeper than the ocean
Mother’s love
goes a long long way
Love is from God and God is mother too
There is the dimension of care and love. At the same time the sentimental longing of the childhood.
VIII Garden of dreams
A light summer dream, laying in the grass watching the clouds feeling united with everything. The flower king has turned into a queen. Sometimes a gender bended narrative is necessary for what you want to tell.
There is something quite transcendent in this piece. Light but still mystic queen.
IX Don’t Let the Devil in
The evil is a subject we can not skip over. It is prevalent in the world. The sinful sides in us all, our greed and slandering.
The necessity of love as a driving force is mentioned. How love conquers all. I relate this to Depeche Modes ”Going Backwards”.
Roine portrays it:
”The big black moon in the skies above
Don’t Let the devil in (c) 1999 Stolt/Bodin
There ain’t no freedom if there ain’t no love
You speak of progress but you’re going back
Defend your Kingdom of the snakepit shack”The big black moon in the skies above
There ain’t no freedom if there ain’t no love
You speak of progress but you’re going back
Defend your Kingdom of the snakepit shack”
While Depeche mode portrays it
”We’re going backwards
Going Backwards (C) 2017 Martin L Gore
Turning back our history
Going backwards
Piling on the misery”
XI: There’s no such night
The sun has turned into an eclipse over the garden of dreams. The shadows are long and scary. But at the same time the halo is shining. The dark night of the souls as described by St John of The Cross.
XVIII The Final deal
We are travelling out of the garden. Travelling through gates closing behind us. Being set free by God. It is in one way a form of absolution.
Deaf, Numb and Blind
Starting as a dream about the garden we just left. The garden of dreams but elevated into a temple.
In some ways it reminds me of the psalmist in the bible
Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?
The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart;
Psalm 15 NIV https://my.bible.com/bible/111/PSA.15.niv
It is also the secret of a relationship with the living god – not being Deaf, numb and blind. Listening actively.
Magic Pie
Mystical experiences like i have had, feeling united with everything. Feelings of unity with the highest creator.
I also associate this to a ship travelling over an ocean. Being carried by a higher power.
Painter
Iconographic pictures of the master painting the picture. Like russian icons.
Calling home
The longing for being loved that we all have in us. In part 2 of this we come into a more existential mode as shown in the lyrics below:
Free from the bad old ways, soon set for the Silver Mountains
Calling Home (C) Stolt 1999
See how the children play, closer to what’s coming soon
Eagerly they drop their dreams to the big black void
Flesh and bone now hold them back, like the rusty chains
Billion souls, now turn to fate
Coming strong but losing late
It is a freedom coming with exiting the garden of dreams. The same freeedom i sometimes feel in the spirit.
Space Revolver
Just the opening first few pads sounds like modern Christian worship music, a few years before Bethel Music came around.
I am the sun pt 1
The epic of this album whom open and closes this album. In one of the stanzas goes as quoted below
”Now, I am the sun, I am the first day of summer
Roine Stolt 2000
Never give in to the dark deep, fast becoming
Now, I am the moon, I am the end of the tunnel
Never believe in the dark age, let’s move a mountain”
It makes me relate to the short lived christian band The Front with Tommy Funderburk on vocals from their only album under that name. The old testament image from the book of Exodus.
”Holy light, you’re a cloud by day and a fire by night”
Bob Wilson, Tommy Funderburk
Dream on dreamer
A very transcendental cosmic view of seeking God. Mysticism at its finest. Hildegard von Bingen is what comes to mind and her ecstatic music. Also St Bridget of Vadstenas revelations spring to mind but also a return to a child sleeping safe and sound.
Monster within
All people have a good side and a bad side. But is it black and white? I am thinking about Jesus in the gospel of Matthew 7
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
https://www.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.7.NIV
Is it that easy? Of Course not. The text talks about your rights but also a transcendental precense of aliens. Is this a matter of cosmology mixed with Mariology?
”There is something out there, there’s always been
(C) Roine Stolt
I’ve seen the killer, he lives within
I’ve heard the aliens screaming loud”
And Mother Mary comes in, probably an image borrowed from Beatles Let it be
”Mother Mary, she’s left the building crying
(C) Roine Stolt ”The Monster within”
Silent tears rolling down her cheek
Following the final breakdown, built this monster from within!”
So is there a monster within our selves? I don’t think so, we all have good and evil sides. It is all about which side we expose.
A Kings Prayer
It is a sort of a secular mans prayer. A longing for absolution. The division between logic and science on one hand and money on the other.
How our society treats money as the solution to everything. But also our need to take care of the creation. How we exploit the nature.
I Am The Sun Pt 2
Back to the epic track. Back to the open sense of everything being possible. The freedom to be your self.
It has a hilarious Frank Zappa reference to the song Baby Snakes. Snakes is also something that exists in The Interior Castle by Therese of Avila.
Floating out in space is this track.
The Rainmaker
Last Minute on Earth
Apocalypse. Hellfire and brimstone. I feel a similarity to the Christian Gothmetal band Saviour machines The Birth Pangs or Larry Normans I’d wish we’d all been ready.
I still feel like there is a lot of hope, just look at the stanza below:
”Last fraction of hope, a flickering light
(C) Roine Stolt Last Minute on Earth
Voices so clеar, step out of the night
Go talk to your God instead of talk to yourself
Look into the light if you’re looking for help”
It shows the need for a higher power. That we as humans need something to hold on to. Something that has been prooved in research like World Value Survey.
It also about the inevitable death as in the quote below.
”Last minute alive
(C) Roine Stolt Last Minute on Earth
Check your account, to buy a way out
Beating the clock
But you cannot beat the feeling of being alive”
Road to Sanctuary
A journey up to a temple. The imagery of a very dwindling walk up to a temple. Something like the old Kaipa piece ”Förlorad i Istanbul”. Leading us to the gates:
”Then you’re alone with the dogs at the gate
(C) Roine Stolt
One road may lead you to sanctuary
They’ll still be playing hockey in Hell
You’re still in debt”
The dogs. The dogs are often in a religious imagery as something dirty, begging creature. The knocking and begging to an unknown God.
City of Angels
Back in a more mythological setting we come. What i feel is a C.S Lewis Narnia world. It is an image of how our egos destroys what we have in form of nature and how we are trying to feed our inner hole.
The native world they gather around the firе
The City of Angels – Roine Stolt 2001
To feed their swirling dragons of desire
”Thе ones that have shall get” and that’s a fact
Take one step forward, then move two steps back
We all provide the monsters of excess
To fill the holes in souls will leave no rest
”A man is nothing more than his success”
This self-consuming race will be your test
The self consuming race is a clear reference to the rockstar myth.
There is also post colonialistic thoughts here. The need to bring back what they rightfully own from museums to the tribes.
”They took your land, they took your history
The City of Angels – Roine Stolt 2001
In grand old gestures saying you are free
They took your youth, they took the labour years
And last of all – they took your dignity”
Sword of God
Let me be honest here, i struggle with the image. The image from the early chapters of Genesis. The god with the Sword in his hand.
I find the images used very legalistic and almost Phariseean. Something so far from my own image of god.
The Rainmaker thoughts
I understand why this album is so looked down upon. It is after all a very dark album compared to for example Space Revolver. I almost felt fatigued at times, it is so bloody dark that i wanted to flee.
Unfold the Future
The Truth will set you free
Just the title is from the bible
”To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32 NIV https://www.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.8.NIV
This is a true epic! 30 minutes almost like the swedish jazz/fusion group Solar Plexus Concerto Grosso for Popgroup and Symphony Orchestra, in terms of having a multitude of parts.
The spiritual dimensions of this song is very conscious. It also connects the searching human being, just read the sentence below
”Rising higher from the primal cries, Like a spiral up to the moon.
The Truth will set you Free (C) Roine Stolt 2002
Day by day this ambitious grind
Search for a new state of mind”
I see a clear trace of Artur Janov in the text line. Janov invented or discovered Primal scream therapy, something that was very common in the 1970’s. At the same time we travel through the cosmic spiral.
There is a clear line of new age in all this, something i don’t agree to my self, but to each their own.
Positivity is still a hallmark, thou. How everything we see are bound together by what i call God.
It also has an almost mystical view on nature. The creation is somewhat central in Roines universe, a conciousness for the creation.
Every leaf on each tree, they’re talking to me
The truth will set you free – (C) Roine Stolt 2002
As I’m flat on the ground,
Each to the sparkling of tears
When a new life begins.
Again a reference to the biblical story of Adam and Eve can be found here as I interpret it.
Rest your legs by the apple tree
The Truth will set you free (C) Roine Stolt 2002
See the alternate realities
How you customize the journey, still
You’ve been here before, now you know the drill
Monkey Business
The start of this is interesting.
I’m not a monkey anymore
Monkey Business (C) Roine Stolt 2002
I’ve built a new house – that touch the sky
I’m not a monkey anymore
I’ve straightened my back and that’s a fact
The imagery from the tower of Babel in the book of Genesis. This song is also pinpointing our egoism and how we abuse the creation for our own good, contrary to the biblical Gods plan. Our sinful nature really comes out in the stanza below
Looking at all God’s creatures
Monkey Business (C) Roine Stolt 2002
I’m not the brightest one
One in an angry crowd
Come down to wave the gun
We are not always making the wisest choices. We are only flesh and bone, not God.
Silent Inferno
A sleepless night as Inferno? Yes probably. From a night when your head goes round way to much and you can not for the sake of the world fall asleep.
There is something about the night. Looking for peace within. I had a period in my late twenties with a lot of insomnia. The recognition of waiting for sleep but still overthinking everything is so common. In the last scene of the song we float out in a chamber. Like a meditation exercise in a floating tank. Like the monks in the 5th century that put themselves in the boats without a rudder or other steering devices. Trusting blindly like a child.
The Navigator
Something in the title threw me to Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunnings Prayer of St Brendan, an irish saint whom according to legend reached America already in the 5th century.
You were all in the flow
The Navigator (C) Roine Stolt 2002
On the road to a better known
So we wait and we watch
For the Master Plan to show
The masterplan makes me think of Martin Gores Precious
If God has a master plan
(C) 2005 Martin L Gore
That only He understands
I hope it’s your eyes He’s seeing through
The Masterplan is fragile. And we must be fragile to get it.
Vox Humana
Final song of the first disc! Named after an common pipe organ registration.
I would class this song as very light, almost like a summer dream, my interpretation is us being enfolded in the love of God, the sacred source within us.
”If you listen close now, you can hear a stream
Vox Humana (C) Roine Stolt 2002
Running from a sacred place within
Calling gently without promise but a dream
To let the flood of love begin”
Adding the puzzle pieces together. Really spiritual. How we need to find the peace within our selves, as quoted below:
Now straight from the heart
Vox Humana (C) Roine Stolt 2002
Your dreams will tell you where you will begin
It’s straight from the source
The image from a long forgotten dream
It shows the need of being true to your selves, a dimension of being.
Genie in A Bottle
I know for a fact that Roine has sons in my generation or below and probably saw Disney’s Aladdin based on an arabic folk tale from One Thousand and one nights. How Aladdin uses his last wish to set the Genie free. That is what i find in this song. The Genie and Aladdin.
At the same time i found the I in the song looking for the Genie:
”Where’s my connection,where’s my protection
Genie in a Bottle (C) Roine Stolt 2002
Where in the world is there a doorway out
Look to the left, look to the right
I’m looking for a genie in a bottle!”
It is the lack of being true to one self. Something that i think has gotten even worse since Roine wrote this in the age of TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. How false ideals are projected on us and how we rarely stimulate the long term memory as a consequence of TikTok and reels. How disturbed the body ideals are of today.
Searching for god as well is there. Read the lines below.
”He’s shaking like a Cuban shaker
Genie in A Bottle (C) Roine Stolt 2002
Just dying now to meet his maker
Don’t give it up – don’t give it up
Don’t lay down ’til you reach the top”
Fast Lane
The pace of our society is higher than ever and we are trying to change really old patterns that have been engrained into our behaviours for a very long time. The back side of a high paced society and how we forget to relax.
These are truths and how we need to slow down to find God.
Rollin’ the dice
I found this song interesting as it portrays the interaction between the devil and a young man. The images used are the sinful nature and the division between our good and the evil. Well the young man chooses the good side in the end.
Solitary Shell
An old overgrown chapel has opened, the angels are singing softly and candles are flickering.
The power balance is restored between good and evil is restored.
That is all for now!
Looking forward to write part three.
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