OK, stick with me on this one. This week I bumped into this simple little music video for M. Ward's Chinese Translation from the 2006 Post-War album. This video reminded me of the video for Duke Special's Freewheel off of Songs from the Deep Forest, also released in 2006. Why did the video from the guy from Portland remind me of the video of the guy from Belfast? I'm telling you, stick with me on this one.

Similarity 1: Sweet hair

Though I may have to go with Duke Special on that one. He's on the right.

Similarity 2: Use of animation in music video

M. Ward's Chinese Translation

Duke Special's Freewheel

Similarity 3: Lyrics that got me thinking

From Chinese Translation:

See I once was a young fool like you
afraid to do the things
that I knew I had to do
So I played an escapade just like you
I played an escapade just like you
I sailed a wild, wild sea
climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met an old, old man
he sat beneath a sapling tree
He said now if you got some questions
go and lay them at my feet
but my time here is brief
so you'll have to pick just three

And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart
and how can a man like me remain in the light
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long

From Freewheel:

Save me from the movies and someone else's dreams
While angels make their music and give my spirit wings
I just concertina and wrap around the world
Staying out 'til 6 o'clock and singing like a fool

I've only got this morning to live
Look at all the colours at my fingertips

I don't want to stand still
I just want to freewheel
I don't want to lose this

It's really this last similarity that intrigues me. Both M. Ward and Duke Special seem to be asking questions and making observations about the time they've been given. For M. Ward there is a cyclical nature to life; the questions he's asking have been asked before. Is there wisdom in this, or is it simply a disheartening reality? Duke Special, while nodding to life's brevity, is less introspective. No standing still for him. He's ready to freewheel... not that I know how to freewheel, but it sounds good.

Taken together these two songs- and their videos- paint a rather beautiful and compelling picture. Life's short. The questions I ask have been asked before and will be asked again. The questions matter, but so does living. So ask, and then go live well.

All for now. Off to do some freewheeling.

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