This is a hauntingly beautiful song that has a lot of nice imagery about stormy weather. The harmony by Jonatha Brooke on Mrs. Pinocci's Guitar is very nice.
Shortly after moving to New England from Maryland, a winter storm came up. There were two snow storms in two days, and this was the second storm
Cheryl was inside her house when she heard the storm begin, and wrote the first verse inside the house. She then went outside to get a better look at the storm, which is where the second verse came from. Finally, she went down to the harbor and walked out on the dock.
Once there, she realized why New Englanders don't go out on docks during storms. It seemed as though she was standing in the middle of a meeting of the elements, and she hadn't been invited. The wind was howling, the waves were pounding, and the snow was stinging her face. Cheryl realized that she could easily be blown off the pier.
As Cheryl turned the leave, the wind caught the hood of her coat and spun her around. At the same time, a gust of wind kicked up and it felt as though some one had placed their hand on her back and shoved her back towards the shore.
This is another song that I first heard recorded, and then live. (The other was School Girls, which is on the same album.)
- The Storm
- Words And Music By
- Cheryl Wheeler
- Trouble on the rise from the middle of a stormy sea
- Muffled in the skies on the edges of the whole country
- Blowing home heavy hearts again
- In a moan, frozen on the wind
- I never knew a sky so gray
- On an icy day
- As the wind blows down
- On a sea coast town
- Harboring the beast that the power of the wind controls
- Howling in the streets with the voices of the ancient souls
- Old and frail primeval mysteries
- Come to wail of unknown histories
- I never heard a stronger cry
- From a mournful sky
- Over frozen land
- In the winter's hand
- Out along the shore in a hurricane of ice and foam
- Swaying in the roar I was standing on the dock alone
- In the night
- Where the forces came to play
- And maybe I
- Should have known to turn away
- But I never felt so drawn and bound
- To the great unknown
- 'Til it turned me around
- And it sent me home
- 1/14/82
- (P) May 27, 2003
- Penrod And Higgins Music / Amachrist Music
- ACF Music Group
- International Copyright Reserved