Across The Border

5/7/96 Teatro Tívoli, Barcelona

When I was a kid, there wasn't a lot... the first thing that really opened me up was
music, my mother always had the radio on in the morning, in the kitchen, and there
was always something in those singers' voices, that fueled me up, powered me for so
long. But I wasn't exposed to a whole lot of other things that people would consider
culture, everybody in my house was struggling to keep their heads above water. And in
high school, you know, they give you the good books to read, but you're not quite
ready to read them, or at least I wasn't, anyway. But, when I was 26, a friend of me
showed me the film The Grapes of Wrath, John Ford's picture, and I found my way
into Steinbeck's novel and there was something in those two things that resonated
thoughout the rest of my life. I remember sitting after I saw the picture and saying
"That's what I wanna do". And, I think the book and the film asks a real fundamental
question, and it is: is there such a thing as individual salvation? Or, as a friend of mine
was saying the last night: does life work? Does it work? And we're all tied together
somehow. 

There's a scene at the end of the movie that really gets to it, but before Ford shows this
dance scene, and it's working (?) And it's shot pretty lovely, you know, faces, people
holding one another and the music spinning people around. And I was aware that was
Ford's way of holding out the possibility of beauty, even in a brutal world. And it's
about the usefulness of beauty, the usefulness of beauty, and where's beauty there's
hope, or divine love, or whatever you want to call it.

Well, after that scene, Tom slips into his mother's tent, Tom Joad, and he has to leave,
because he has killed a security guard who has killed a friend of his, and he knows he
has to tell his mother goodbye, after she's already lost their home and so much else
she's gonna lose her son now. And he touches her gently and says "Momma I gotta go"
and he steps outside, under the dark trees, and she says "Tommy, I knew this day would
come, but, how am I gonna know how you are? How'll I know if you're alive? Will I
ever see you?" And he says "I gotta go out and kick around and see what's wrong and
see if there's something I can do about it. And you'll see me mama. 'Cause at night, I'll
be in the darkness, that's all around you when you're sleeping, you'll see me there. And
you'll hear me in men's voices, when they're yelling, because they're angry. And you'll
hear me in kids when they're laughing, 'cause they come in, and they know that there's
food on the table, that they got a home where they're safe. You'll see me". And he
disappears into the night. And next morning the Joads are heading north for work and
the father says "How we're gonna get along without Tommy?" And Ma says "Well we
just gonna keep going."

So this is a song about the mystery of human nature, how even after the world reveals
itself, people return the faith and hope and believe in love, 'cause that's all that there is.
So, ah, let me see to get this right: Aquesta es una canço que parla de los misteries de
la naturaleza humana: de la fe, de la esperanza, del amor.