Story Behind The Song

it has been said that noted documentarian, Ken Burns, is in the business of waking the dead. Hearing him say that in an interview and watching many of his films has inspired this song.

Lyrics

Long Ago

There's a lightness in the air
Wrapped in scents within the breeze
When the stories of the past
Intermingle with relief
There's a promise to renew
There's a message sometimes lost
Whistling on inside the muse
If we'd only pay the cost

(chorus)
And now we wake the dead
from their place of long ago
our ancestral sleeping friends
bear witness to our soul
I can hear their breathless thoughts
Screaming what we need to know
For its now we wake the dead
From the times of long ago

There's a fumbling full of sorrow
In the basket of remorse
When the vision for tomorrow
Disregards the voice gone hoarse
There's a stumbling in the nighttime
When the dreams of yesterday
Pierce the veil of shallow promise
In the wisdom of today

(repeat chorus)

(bridge)
Fathers tell us stories while our mothers tuck us in
But the truth reveals unspoken for the history to begin

(repeat chorus)