88.9 Hey Radio, Adelaide, and Me
I have a treat for you today. This is the first time that I'm looking at a song that hasn't been released yet.
Adelaide came together in 2014 when Laura, the lead singer, started the process of recording songs that she had written over the last 10 years. They released "The Bigger Picture" album in 2015, and are coming out with more new music now.
This song is called "Deep Waters". When Bill emailed me this song I looked up Adelaide and couldn't find the song on their Youtube, their Facebook, or their website: https://www.adelaidemusic.com/
The song was good, so I wanted to review it. I messaged Adelaide, and I believe I chatted with Laura. I'm lucky that she was kind enough to send me the lyrics. This song will be released next week. So, this is a sneak preview. Exciting!
(I'm not sure if Adelaide intended that first line to have line breaks or not, but that's the way she sent it to me so I'm leaving it.)
I've listened to this song a bunch of times now, and I still feel like I'm missing something. But, I am having a strong experience with it. The reaction gets stronger every time I listen to it. That's because this song is all images.
It reminds me of active imagination from the psychologist Carl Jung. In this technique you take an image, often a dream image, and observe it. When you observe the image it will start to move and change. The mind is made to construct narratives and stories. And that's what it does.
Eventually you seek to be able to consciously influence and act within this imagination process. In active imagination the key is physiological reactivity, how much you feel it in your body. The more you feel it the more beneficial the therapy will be.
These images work on two levels. On one level they are personal. Each individual is influenced by their society, their experiences, and their thoughts and feelings. So, to some extent all of these images are personal.
On another level these images are universal. They are images that are embedded in all humans, and that's why we can all connect with them. This is the idea of archetypes.
That first line paints such an intense image that you can picture yourself in that place, at least I can, "Violent waves crashing all around thundering and deafening sound threatening flashes moving in". This is a bad situation, an overwhelming situation. I think the next line is interesting.
"the water is rising up again" means that the water was higher before at some point. And, maybe that's part of why this song works so well when you listen to it over and over again. It has cycles built right into it, as does all of life, and all of existence.
This song has a lot of things that we could dive into, but we are going to be limited in how much we can really do. We can only go so deep. This song is meant to be experienced. I'm willing to bet that this song was written in an intuitive way. It was felt when it was written and can only really be connected with on that level.
Instead of piecing out the part about needing an anchor in life when the waves of chaos are crashing against you, the part where being on your knees evokes the image of praying and how this submissive faith in a higher power relates to Job, the call to ministry, the water version of the butterfly effect, the relation to Peter walking on water, and how being overwhelmed by the potentially infinite complexity of the world is like drowning, I'll explain why the song will always be more powerful than any explanation of the song.
Knowledge occurs at different levels. The first level is the enactive level. This is where we do things. When we are acting there is more information contained within that action than can ever be communicated. But, communication is extremely important.
Communication is primarily how we learn. We learn a lot more than we think. We learn what to do, how to do it, what to say, when to say it, what to desire, what to fear, etc. Most of this learning comes from someone that knows more than us. They present us with a little bit more than we know. So, if we have to communicate to learn all of this, how do we communicate it when we can't communicate it all?
It's hard, that's the answer. One of the best ways is through iconic knowledge. Iconic knowledge is one level up from enactive knowledge. You lose some of the information from the specific situation, but you seek to keep the important things, the essence. That's what this song is. It presents icons, these images that we can connect to and experience.
The next higher level is symbolic knowledge. This level loses some of the information that is contained within the iconic level of knowledge. This is where we give statements and propositions. Let's look at the first four lines to see how much would be lost here.
Here are the first four lines as Adelaide sings them, this is iconic knowledge.
Now, let me translate this into the symbolic level of knowledge and see how you feel about it.
Now, I'm sure that some people are just moved to tears over these amazingly emotional lines that I have written. Yeah, I'm joking. It's pretty boring. But, it's presenting the same ideas, just in a way that doesn't move you.
Remember in the beginning how I said that the emotional connection and physiological reactivity are so important? Well, what does music do? It combines these iconic images that move you emotionally with sounds that go right through your mental filters and straight to your heart. It's designed to move you. This means that music has the power to change you at the deepest level.
I think you'll find that when you listen to this song, and then come back and read this again, you'll really be able to see how the song is working on you at different levels, and how powerful those different levels are. In this weird case you'll have to wait until the song comes out next week, but I'm sure Adelaide will let us know on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/heyadelaide/
(Thanks to the psychologists Carl Jung, Jerome Bruner, and Lev Vygotsky for the insights. Thanks to Adelaide for the lyrics. Thanks to Bill for the song suggestion.)
Here are the other music articles that I've done: http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/search/label/88.9%20Hey%20Radio
Adelaide came together in 2014 when Laura, the lead singer, started the process of recording songs that she had written over the last 10 years. They released "The Bigger Picture" album in 2015, and are coming out with more new music now.
This song is called "Deep Waters". When Bill emailed me this song I looked up Adelaide and couldn't find the song on their Youtube, their Facebook, or their website: https://www.adelaidemusic.com/
The song was good, so I wanted to review it. I messaged Adelaide, and I believe I chatted with Laura. I'm lucky that she was kind enough to send me the lyrics. This song will be released next week. So, this is a sneak preview. Exciting!
- - - - - - -
Violent waves crashing all around thundering and deafening sound threatening flashes moving in
the water is rising up again
I need your anchor steady me
keep me grounded
I won’t be swept away
I’m not afraid of what is coming
you’ll find me on my knees
because in Deep Waters you won’t
let me drown.
I hear you calling us to be
Stirring ripples in this sea
spreading out and going forth
To every corner of the earth
the rain may not stop falling down
but you are my refuge
I won’t be swept away
I’m not afraid of what is coming
you’ll find me on my knees
because in Deep Waters you won’t
let me drown.
I’ll take your hand and walk on water because you are faithful
although the storm is raging on
you are faithful
I won’t be swept away
I’m not afraid of what is coming
you’ll find me on my knees
because in Deep Waters you won’t
let me drown.
- - - - - - -
Violent waves crashing all around thundering and deafening sound threatening flashes moving in
the water is rising up again
I need your anchor steady me
keep me grounded
I won’t be swept away
I’m not afraid of what is coming
you’ll find me on my knees
because in Deep Waters you won’t
let me drown.
I hear you calling us to be
Stirring ripples in this sea
spreading out and going forth
To every corner of the earth
the rain may not stop falling down
but you are my refuge
I won’t be swept away
I’m not afraid of what is coming
you’ll find me on my knees
because in Deep Waters you won’t
let me drown.
I’ll take your hand and walk on water because you are faithful
although the storm is raging on
you are faithful
I won’t be swept away
I’m not afraid of what is coming
you’ll find me on my knees
because in Deep Waters you won’t
let me drown.
- - - - - - -
(I'm not sure if Adelaide intended that first line to have line breaks or not, but that's the way she sent it to me so I'm leaving it.)
I've listened to this song a bunch of times now, and I still feel like I'm missing something. But, I am having a strong experience with it. The reaction gets stronger every time I listen to it. That's because this song is all images.
It reminds me of active imagination from the psychologist Carl Jung. In this technique you take an image, often a dream image, and observe it. When you observe the image it will start to move and change. The mind is made to construct narratives and stories. And that's what it does.
Eventually you seek to be able to consciously influence and act within this imagination process. In active imagination the key is physiological reactivity, how much you feel it in your body. The more you feel it the more beneficial the therapy will be.
These images work on two levels. On one level they are personal. Each individual is influenced by their society, their experiences, and their thoughts and feelings. So, to some extent all of these images are personal.
On another level these images are universal. They are images that are embedded in all humans, and that's why we can all connect with them. This is the idea of archetypes.
That first line paints such an intense image that you can picture yourself in that place, at least I can, "Violent waves crashing all around thundering and deafening sound threatening flashes moving in". This is a bad situation, an overwhelming situation. I think the next line is interesting.
"the water is rising up again" means that the water was higher before at some point. And, maybe that's part of why this song works so well when you listen to it over and over again. It has cycles built right into it, as does all of life, and all of existence.
This song has a lot of things that we could dive into, but we are going to be limited in how much we can really do. We can only go so deep. This song is meant to be experienced. I'm willing to bet that this song was written in an intuitive way. It was felt when it was written and can only really be connected with on that level.
Instead of piecing out the part about needing an anchor in life when the waves of chaos are crashing against you, the part where being on your knees evokes the image of praying and how this submissive faith in a higher power relates to Job, the call to ministry, the water version of the butterfly effect, the relation to Peter walking on water, and how being overwhelmed by the potentially infinite complexity of the world is like drowning, I'll explain why the song will always be more powerful than any explanation of the song.
Knowledge occurs at different levels. The first level is the enactive level. This is where we do things. When we are acting there is more information contained within that action than can ever be communicated. But, communication is extremely important.
Communication is primarily how we learn. We learn a lot more than we think. We learn what to do, how to do it, what to say, when to say it, what to desire, what to fear, etc. Most of this learning comes from someone that knows more than us. They present us with a little bit more than we know. So, if we have to communicate to learn all of this, how do we communicate it when we can't communicate it all?
It's hard, that's the answer. One of the best ways is through iconic knowledge. Iconic knowledge is one level up from enactive knowledge. You lose some of the information from the specific situation, but you seek to keep the important things, the essence. That's what this song is. It presents icons, these images that we can connect to and experience.
The next higher level is symbolic knowledge. This level loses some of the information that is contained within the iconic level of knowledge. This is where we give statements and propositions. Let's look at the first four lines to see how much would be lost here.
Here are the first four lines as Adelaide sings them, this is iconic knowledge.
- - - - - - -
Violent waves crashing all around thundering and deafening sound threatening flashes moving in
the water is rising up again
I need your anchor steady me
keep me grounded
- - - - - - -
Violent waves crashing all around thundering and deafening sound threatening flashes moving in
the water is rising up again
I need your anchor steady me
keep me grounded
- - - - - - -
Now, let me translate this into the symbolic level of knowledge and see how you feel about it.
- - - - - - -
When a situation if your life so presents itself in such a way as to appear threatening and overwhelming in the near future
and you knowing that this type of thing has occurred to you in the past
It is important that you are able to connect to a higher power to garner strength and help keep you emotionally stable
and thus better able to stay aligned with your conscious principles in life
- - - - - - -
When a situation if your life so presents itself in such a way as to appear threatening and overwhelming in the near future
and you knowing that this type of thing has occurred to you in the past
It is important that you are able to connect to a higher power to garner strength and help keep you emotionally stable
and thus better able to stay aligned with your conscious principles in life
- - - - - - -
Now, I'm sure that some people are just moved to tears over these amazingly emotional lines that I have written. Yeah, I'm joking. It's pretty boring. But, it's presenting the same ideas, just in a way that doesn't move you.
Remember in the beginning how I said that the emotional connection and physiological reactivity are so important? Well, what does music do? It combines these iconic images that move you emotionally with sounds that go right through your mental filters and straight to your heart. It's designed to move you. This means that music has the power to change you at the deepest level.
I think you'll find that when you listen to this song, and then come back and read this again, you'll really be able to see how the song is working on you at different levels, and how powerful those different levels are. In this weird case you'll have to wait until the song comes out next week, but I'm sure Adelaide will let us know on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/heyadelaide/
(Thanks to the psychologists Carl Jung, Jerome Bruner, and Lev Vygotsky for the insights. Thanks to Adelaide for the lyrics. Thanks to Bill for the song suggestion.)
Here are the other music articles that I've done: http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/search/label/88.9%20Hey%20Radio
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You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com
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