Always almost there That ledge is the only thing I ever see Born in the heat to keep it always out of my reach Grab on a hold each treasure while you go Before they turn to sand, this man is all alone
A haze, what a storm, what a maze Which one, which one, which one's the way Lost, lost his trust Now roams the barren dunes Bones continue to rust
Up and down, up and down Up and down, up and down Up and down, up and down Up and down, up and down We go
Always almost there
That ledge is the only thing I ever see One, so hollow from that shadow over me Boundless above, my ancient holds it closed When over, still closer than I ever know
Well if I had it all If I had it all What life would leave me satisfied
All of this gold All of this gold It don't weigh enough to make this life whole
Shelter Something felt for sure Molten beads of his lotus feet Dangle by his belt Pure Pure Pure Bhagavatam, dhruva, madhuvan Deep into the forest he will go No more demon roars, oh
That ledge is the only thing I ever see Born in the heat to keep it always out of my reach Grab on ahold of each treasure while you go Before they turn to sand this man is all alone
Well if I had it all If I had it all What life would leave me satisfied All of this gold All of this gold It don't weigh enough to make this life whole
*Interview quotes, context and excerpts taken from Goose fan and practicing Hare Krishna Dennis R. Sunder's blog entitled "Indian River"
At first glance, the written lyrics to 'Madhuvan' come across as a concept song. The telling of a story. Like the cowboy songs of old. And, while this isn't a completely inaccurate assessment, this song demands the listener's attention in a variety of ways; from the written word to the incredible jam forays taken-off from the tune's cosmic twang. It also requires a relatively vast knowledge of a spirituality likely unknown to most westerners, one of which I had to (loosely) familiarize myself with in order to put together this piece. In what may be a feeble attempt at imparting such knowledge, lets dive into this complex concept tune together and see what kind of warm fuzzy feelings emerge on the other side...
GAINING KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS
What we must first realize is that the impact of the Hare Krishna faith comes to the forefront in Rick's writing of this song. So naturally, we'll be needing a bit of background. Rick became familiar with the Hare Krishna in 2014 when living in Fort Collins, CO. At this time, the Berklee College of Music graduate was trying to find balance by moving west, thus pre-dating the current incarnation of the band, Goose. One day Rick heard music coming from a common area in the town square and he was intrigued, stating
"I was really impressed and kind of drawn to the music itself. And I in a way recognized the people, they’re kind of young guys, like around my age that were wearing robes and sitting in a circle..."
Investigating further, and accepting their humble invitations with an open mind, Rick began attending temple weekly and was drawn by the communal aspects and teachings of this spirituality. It is at this time that his closest advisor, a devotee named Govinda, and the singer of the group he had witnessed, named Ananda, introduced him to the story of Dhruva. He admits that he became deeply connected to the story, and thus, it made its way into the Goose lexicon via 'Madhuvan.'
As Rick explains:
"The way I understand it, so there was a king… Dhruva was the son of a king who had two wives. He might have been a straight up bastard son, I’m not really sure. But basically, the king had a wife who was kind of the queen, and maybe had a second wife… or maybe Dhruva’s mom was a like a servant or something. So Dhruva’s mom was lesser than. And the king’s actual queen, actual wife did not like Dhruva at all. She was really mean to Dhruva and was very not accepting, and would say things like “You’ll never have the throne, like my son will inherit the throne and you’re nothing”. The father the king was kind of cool to both of them, but the mother was like ruthless apparently. So a few things happened and eventually he got older and kind of realized that this whole situation is messed up and he set out… he left the whole scene there, went into the Madhuvan[a] forest, and started performing really, really intense…"
The last word that is missing here is a mental block for Rick during this interview, because there really isn't a common word in the western vocabulary that states the magnitude of what he is trying to convey. However, it is most closely associated with the phrase "spiritual pursuit." An intense effort across all levels of humanity; physical, mental; etc. In western religion, I assume that the story of Dhruva can be most closely associated with that of the story of Moses in Christianity.
The forest gets its name from an Asura, described as superhuman powerful demigods in Indian religions, named Madhu. However, devotees to the Indian divinity Krishna (worshipped as the eighth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu) will also claim the name 'Madhuva', which translates to "sweet like honey," as one of the numerous blessed names that refer to Krishna. What is interesting to this unworthy observer is that, Hare Krishna consciousness contends that by simply reading or hearing or even speaking the name of God is actually a form of worship. Therefore, it would not be incomprehensible to label this song as, that's right, a 'worship song.' Think about it, a Krishna devotee, in hearing this song, would feel that it qualifies as such.
For most of the audience that are familiar with the Krishna teachings, however; it is the bridge of this song that most directly translates to the faith. As Dennis R Sunder's "Indian River" blog post states:
"The multitude of references to Krishna in this passage was astounding. First of all, shelter is a term that is extremely common in the Krishna-centered discourse and writing. Devotees of Krishna are often said to seek shelter from the miseries of the material world (birth, old age, sickness, and death) at the “Lotus feet” of the Lord. Chanting on beads is a practice common to various Eastern spiritual traditions..."
There are many texts throughout the Krishna religion that convey the weight and inspiration behind these ancient stories as they pertain to our spirituality and how we can connect to God through such a spirit, which transfers its inherited state throughout the course of our earthly lives and into the next. A practice which, frankly, requires a level of spirituality not yet understood by western culture, in my estimation. The Bhagavad Gita ("Song of God"), is the primary text for gaining Krishna awareness, as it serves as a kind of backstory to the divinity of the same name. I, for one, intend to inquire about such beliefs on my own path through this mortal journey.
THE LEDGE
In the same interview with blogger Dennis R Sunder, Rick sheds some enlightenment on the first verse of the song:
"So it’s sort of like… and “always almost there” kind of ties into that as well. The idea is like, I know a lot of people and see it in myself- there’s always- you’re always striving for something. There’s always like, alright I just need to get through this month and then I’ll be good. Or I just need to get this thing, like I need to get a new house, I need to get a new couch, if I get that new couch then I’ll be good. If I get the new guitar then I’ll be good. If I get a girlfriend then I’ll be good. It’s kind of like this constant spiral of thinking that you need something outside of yourself. And the ledge is sort of the metaphor for that for me. Sort of like this thing that I want to get to that is above myself, and it just takes up my vision. It’s the only thing I see. It’s all I care about. I think you know, recognizing that that’s the case, and that’s, you know, where you are. And having self-awareness that all you care about is this one goal, with the full simultaneous awareness that once you achieve that goal, are you going to really be… if I ever get up there, am I really going to be fine then? Or am I just going to be lost and then try to figure out what the next ledge is, you know?"
While their doesn't seem to be too much left to the decryption of what Rick is trying to get at with this verse, based on his own words, he does elicit a bounty of imagery to go along with his theme; a trend that moves through the entire song's written word. Here, we have a myriad of physical images (most notably, "all of this gold") that remind me of a few classic pieces of cinema that I cannot seem to disassociate with the verbiage.
Sergio Leone's 1966 spaghetti western classic "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" comes to mind, for one. Clint Eastwood is at the center of a hate triangle's ruthless quest for gold on the American frontier; complete with backstabbing and merciless sabotage. It is a journey "born in the heat" and "constantly out of the reach" of all three antiheros (no, not even 'the Good' is beyond reproach). At its climax, a treasure of gold is found in a "maze" of a graveyard (where "bones continue to rust") amidst the "barren dunes" after a duel whose cinematic iconography is synonymous with the instrumental arrangement from Ennio Morricone entitled "The Ecstasy of Gold."
In the end, the characters in this film don't reach the same moral epiphany as another trio, again immortalized in the history of moving pictures. In 1948's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," Humphrey Bogart and company set out to find gold in the vast mountain range in Mexico sharing the same name in order to find... you guessed it... gold. The commentary on constant greed, or the 'ledge', continues. Experiencing the same character flaws as those in the aforementioned flick, the conclusion of this story finds the characters discovering gold dust, only to see it leave their grasp in a situation in which the loot disappears in a dust storm; a discourse of "grabbing a hold of each treasure" before it "turns to sand." In the end, their they stand, "all alone", staring at the irony of their plight, and choosing the road of moral righteousness in a variety of honorable outcomes presented to each character throughout the course of the film. Coming to terms with the idea that "all of this gold [doesn't] weigh enough to make this life whole."
INSTRUMENTAL VISIONS
Lyrics aside, what makes 'Madhuvan' a stalwart in the Goose catalog is its uncanny ability to develop massive instrumental jam elements. This does not get lost when observing the weight of the underpinning to the tune's lyrical origins. In the same interview cited before, Rick admits that there are multiple visions contributing to his writing; which also lend credence to my observations above, stating:
"I pictured like a guy walking through the desert- it’s almost like there’s three narratives going on at once in that song, in my mind. I mean, at the end of the day it’s a song and people can derive whatever meaning, you know. At a certain point like, what makes what I think about it more valid than anyone else? But yeah, the verses are sort of, there’s like there’s some person who’s walking through these dunes, this desert. And he’s kind of lost or whatever, and he kind of finds this truth somewhere. Up and down up and down…"
Commentary on the lyrical meanings aside; I believe this 'three narratives at once' offering is what contributes to this songs knack for existing as a jam vehicle; and why Goose's catalog, at large, exists mostly in this space as a bonafide jam band.
The art of the jam is that it is intended for the listener to take from it what one is feeling, what one is seeking, and associate whatever mental imagery one takes to achieve that goal. If you're like me, you're a visual person. Time, space, energy; these can all manifest themselves in symbolic forms. I digress.
With 'Madhuvan,' multiple versions of the song exist to give us multiple riffs on where we can go. For example, the full-throttle, fast-paced instrumental segment out of the song's verse from the South Farms drive-in show (9/16/20) may be a vestige of the constant pursuit of our own 'ledge' through a dark and mysterious forest. The driving rhythm of Ben's snare drum, a musical embodiment of the syncopation of the tall brush moving under our shins as we weave through the thick underbrush chasing the shadowy figure that remains just out of reach. Rick's blazing guitar following each thrust of our churning arms running faster and faster. Then the mist rolls to the outer borders of the forest as the trees give way to a clearing of Peter's guitar as a brief reprieve sheds the spiritual pursuit only to lead us to the discovery of the ineptitude of material desires. No more ledges chased after. "No more demons roar."
There are other versions of the song, which I will not take to task here, that elicit similar refrains on the spiritual journey through their instrumental luster. Whether weaving through dark and mystical Ted Tapes selections like Moby (6/19/21) or taking us aloft with the loopy funk take of the song (5/26/19); its sure to make you enjoy the treasure of life itself in a world full of ledges sought after, captured or not, and principally inconsequential when it comes to our own "spiritual pursuit" as is translated so loosely from the story of Dhruva.
Our ledges are so often mistaken for the worldly desires that are generally deemed necessary for happiness, and can lead to such cravings of avaricious attainment that we are generally blinded of our own sense of direction. As Rick says, people can derive whatever meaning they want in a song. While it is based in an ancient spirituality and draws inspiration from characters that transcend much of the western culture's understanding, and shows its form in countless mediums throughout the very culture that asks us to reach for such worldly measures; the notion remains the same.
"What life would leave me satisfied?" A question that is asked of all of us at various stages in our spiritual pursuit.
Here's to hoping you don't trend toward the ledge for too long.
Keep jamming,
tDC
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