Snow Patrol and Les Misérables, standing together in a spiritual struggle

[Jules]

Feel free to move. This is my dedication to a band and a book which I deeply love. Thought I'd share. Lost the formatting after pasting this from a Facebook note-I had boldfaced the text to make it darker in many places to further emphasize the dark-light pattern of the text so characteristic of Les Miserables.

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Whether you're a child of 25*(from a Snow Patrol song) or a man of 80 with the stature of a giant, this Earth is one heck of a place to live.

A Tribute to Snow Patrol's The Lightning Strike and Victor Hugo's Les Misérables,

two souls struggling from the darkness into the light...

The Lightning Strike

1. What If this Storm Ends?

Les Misérables

Volume IV - Book Fourteenth.--The Grandeurs of Despair:

The Flag: ACT I

"Several minutes passed thus, then a sound of footsteps, measured, heavy, and numerous, became distinctly audible in the direction of Saint-Leu. This sound, faint at first, then precise, then heavy and sonorous, approached slowly, without halt, without intermission, with a tranquil and terrible continuity. Nothing was to be heard but this. It was that combined silence and sound, of the statue of the commander, but this stony step had something indescribably enormous and multiple about it which awakened the idea of a throng, and, at the same time, the idea of a spectre. One thought one heard the terrible statue Legion marching onward. This tread drew near; it drew still nearer, and stopped. It seemed as though the breathing of many men could be heard at the end of the street. Nothing was to be seen, however, but at the bottom of that dense obscurity there could be distinguished a multitude of metallic threads, as fine as needles and almost imperceptible, which moved about like those indescribable phosphoric networks which one sees beneath one's closed eyelids, in the first mists of slumber at the moment when one is dropping off to sleep. These were bayonets and gun-barrels confusedly illuminated by the distant reflection of the torch."

2. The Sunlight Through the Flags

The Flag: ACT II

"A murmur of gloomy and energetic assent followed these words.

Enjolras bent down, raised the old man's head, and fierce as he was, he kissed him on the brow, then, throwing wide his arms, and handling this dead man with tender precaution, as though he feared to hurt it, he removed his coat, showed the bloody holes in it to all, and said:--

"This is our flag now." *(I love this idea)

3. Daybreak

Book Ninth.--Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn:

Pity for the Unhappy, but Indulgence for the Happy

"Moreover that which is called, far too harshly in certain cases, the ingratitude of children, is not always a thing so deserving of reproach as it is supposed. It is the ingratitude of nature. Nature, as we have elsewhere said, "looks before her." Nature divides living beings into those who are arriving and those who are departing. Those who are departing are turned towards the shadows, those who are arriving towards the light. Hence a gulf which is fatal on the part of the old, and involuntary on the part of the young. This breach, at first insensible, increases slowly, like all separations of branches. The boughs, without becoming detached from the trunk, grow away from it. It is no fault of theirs. Youth goes where there is joy, festivals, vivid lights, love. Old age goes towards the end. They do not lose sight of each other, but there is no longer a close connection. Young people feel the cooling off of life; old people, that of the tomb. Let us not blame these poor children."

“I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes, - and the stars through his soul,”

...and I'm sure something like Snow Patrol was stopped in his mind, and heart.

THE END.

Best

[Jules]

This is more accurately a tribute.

[Jules]

Addendum: I would like to know what you guys think about Snow Patrol's music. I don't know how to describe their melody, but they have beautiful lyrics and a very different sound. I associate them with Hugo because of the ebullience and beautiful sentimentality of their lyrics and their slightly melancholic but mild joyful sense of sound. Many of their songs are popular on the radio and in movie soundtracks, but I have never met a big a fan as me, except at concerts, where the age group is surprisingly middle age, with people of all stripes. They have a much more silent, private audience. I think this is unique about Snow Patrol.

Though their universe is touched with a private sense of pain and loss, I think they come closest to projecting a universe warming up to a more benevolent sense of life.

Some of their more well known songs: Chasing Cars, Open Your Eyes, Run, You Could Be Happy, Just Say Yes.

My personal favorites:

Dark Roman Wine

I will hang on the hook of your splendor

As the night rolls us up in its arms

And the square of your thumbs and your fingers

Is the blanket of the sky that's so warm

I know it's late but I can't help but think here

That the day hasn't shown all its cards

Now it's out to the stars of the ocean

Let's not retrace our steps to the car

Picking out all the stars that we like

Between finger and thumb

You laugh as you pass me the night

As if it's too fragile to hold

And I hold it so close to my chest

With your hands in my hands

[ Find more Lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.org/C8dl ]

An Olive Grove Facing The Sea

Sworn to secrecy I might go after school

She was an angel I saw her swimming there

I am in such a mess I can't cope without this

She just teases me pretends she can't see me here

Crack the Shutters

Crack the shutters open wide I want to bathe you in the light of day,

And just watch you as the rays tangle up around you face and body.

I could sit for hours finding new ways to be odd each minute,

Cause the daylight seems to want you just as much as I want you.

The Planets Bend Between Us

The winters mar the Earth

It's floor was frozen glass

You slip into my arms

And you quickly correct yourself

Your freezing speech bubbles

Seem to hold your words aloft

I want the smoky clouds of laughter

To swim about me forever more

[Philip Coates]

Jules, thanks for introducing this group I never heard of. I played some of your YouTube clips and there is something strange and haunting which I like but don't know why. Very different from what I usually like. Somehow made me feel like I was in college again, exploring newness...if that makes any sense.

[Rich Engle]

Snow Patrol is one of the coolest, hookiest, melodic, content-full bands out there that are being successful. I really love those guys. Very slick, but sincere.

[Jules]

No problem, Philip. I'm in college actually, but when I went to their concert at the Beacon Theater during their American tour last October in NYC there were married couples, college students, younger couples/older couples, a teenage son with his mother, people in suits, a single, middle-aged man in loose jeans and a cap rocking his head next to us etc. etc. I don't know if that's how concerts usually are because I don't go to many but their widespread appeal surprised us. I like what you said about them, I think it captures what I like.

And I couldn't agree more, Rich. Thank you, I like to hear the co-recognition from other people of things that I value : )