---

---

I don’t always understand the meaning of all their songs and their lyrics, but I resonate with their music. I am not a lover of the postmodern theory of interpretation. I think that we should strive to understand the artist’s original meaning, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get our own meaning out of the songs written by other people

Artists like Bob Dylan seem to enjoy being purposely obtuse. Many musicians have written hit songs with gibberish for lyrics. Then, there is the Beatles tune, I Am the Walrus, that pushes this art to a more eloquent, absurdist extreme.

But songs that connect best with us, I believe, are the songs that have real meaning, and especially real meaning to us. We can even find that in a Bob Dylan song.

I am probably not being completely fair to him by saying he was purposely obtuse. I think he was going for meaning in most of his songs. It’s just that the meaning, perhaps, is not as easily articulable apart from the lyrics and the song.

Art often isn’t rational, in the sense of logical syllogisms. Few of us would likely call logic art. Artists often credit a muse inspired meaning that is not immediately clear, even to the artist. Artists sometimes channel inarticulable meaning into music and song.

I can understand the intuitive creativity of an artist, though I am not an artist. Artists have the ability to connect with people around the edges of the penumbra of their own understanding where the ability to articulate meaning becomes ineffable. Some artists have the gift of being able to communicate elegantly, clearly, and poignantly in their music.

Watchhouse is one of those artists. The song, That Wrecking Ball, hits home particularly with me today as I listened to it for perhaps the 100th time. (Not today. I have only listened to it a few times today.)

 I never really focused much on the words before. I usually focus on the vibe and musicality of a song before I ever really hear (or try to) listen to the lyrics. I find myself focusing on the words of That Wrecking Ball today, though, and they hit home with me. (No pun intended.)

The song ultimately speaks of celebrates a relationship that is life saving and life giving. I am assuming this song has some reality in the relationship between Andrew and Emily. It seems to come from an intimate, vulnerable place, like much of their music.

One of the things that drew me to their music was watching them play together, especially just the two of them. They have a connection, a chemistry, a harmony that goes beyond the music and the beautiful embrace of their voices together. They get each other musically and, so it seems, relationally.

I didn’t know they were married the first time I watched them play together, but I was mesmerized and drawn to their connection with each other through the music. It seems no wonder at all that they are husband and wife.

I understand from their story that they met in bluegrass circles in North Carolina. They would get together with groups of people to play. They connected musically before any relationship formed. The magic of their connection is evident in their music.

Andrew Marlin writes most, if not all, of their songs. That Wrecking Ball speaks of self-destructive tendencies within a person that threaten to destroy him and the people around him.

That is the reality of our inner demons. They don’t just affect the person haunted by them. The wind reaps the whirlwind. In religious words, we might call that wrecking ball sin. I doubt that Andrew Marlin does.

The highs and lows we feel are fueled by the hopes and the devils inside us. We often feel at the mercy of forces we do not understand, even the one that live within us.

That Wrecking Ball threatens to shatter us and undo us and those in its way, who are the people nearest to us. Whether we perceive that the wrecking ball comes from within us or without us, we do not control it. It swings with a destructive force that we are sometimes at a complete loss to stop.

The song speaks of the importance of relationships. It speaks of those people in our lives that shelter us from our own self-destructive tendencies that ebb and flow within us. These relationships (if we are lucky enough to have them) ground us and and keep that wrecking ball from careening out of control

Not everyone has someone in their lives who knows us so intimately and who is willing, loving, and committed enough to that stabilizing force. Sometimes, the wrecking ball is too much and too out of control to be grounded. The world is strewn with the casualties of the wrecking balls in the lives of people.

I’m not sure that I ever have had such an intimate relationship. That is why this song resonates so much with me today. My wife left me over two years ago after 37 years. We really didn’t have a close relationship. Nothing like the relationship that’s evident in the Watchhouse duo, a connection that goes deep and fuels the intimacy of their music.

At nearly 65 years old, I have little hope (or energy) in me of developing such a relationship. It’s the kind of thing we intuitively long and strive for, but few of us ever manage to find it or to hold on to it.

It requires unconditional trust, and few of us are willing to give that to another person. It requires a tenderness and a willingness to be vulnerable that few of us have ever achieved. It requires reciprocal intimacy that the wrecking ball ever threatens to destroy.

I’ve taken to leaning these past few days
A little too heavy on my walking cane
‘Cause I’m afraid she’s swinging my way
That wrecking ball

Now with all my ducks in a row
With one pull I could let them go
Not to lose, just to show
I could catch them all
But every man bears a burden
His own beast by the horns
That he hides from the world
When he’s young and strong
Looking over his shoulders
Half tattered and torn
Still standing tall

But every year rolls on like a runaway train
Every beast grows stronger as the pendulum swings
To and fro, and on she goes
That wrecking ball

I’ve just seen that rock of ages
I’ve just held my savior’s hand
We danced on the water
With my head on her shoulders
She swore to never let me fall

And wouldn’t time seem so kindly
If every bright eyed girl could be more like you
And shelter me me from that wrecking ball
That wrecking ball

that wrecking ball by watchhouse