BloodOfTheRose

Driven on by the rain and the pain
He knew he had a long way to go
Slipping through the border
Cross the river into Mexico
No hanging tree
Could keep him from
His sweet Maria
He had to see her again
He could picture her looking like a garden
In the middle of no-mans land
And the blood through his clothes
It flowed like wine
Never was there a love so fine

Hidden back
By the weathered railroad tracks
In that near deserted mining town
Lived the gem of his desires
In a land all but expired
Of any wealth to be found
His memories
She took them all religously
Down to the mission each day
Praying for a sign
That a word from her lover
Might come her way
And the blood of the rosary
It flowed as free as wine
Never was there a love so fine

The tragedy of life is what dies
Inside of a soul that still lives
True love that has been denied
When it has so much to give
Oh, two hearts as one you'll find
Tangled on that thorny vine

The desert is a sin
It opened up to take him in
Shaping his subconcious desires
Burning to the soul without a single waterhole
To ever quench the fire
The coyotes cried
And something deep inside him died
To think he'd never see her again
A deep corrosive bloom
Slowly spread across the moon
Like a requiem
And the blood of the rose
It flowed like wine
Never was there a love so fine

The tragedy of life is what dies
Inside of a soul that still lives
True love that has been denied
When it has so much to give
Oh, two hearts as one you'll find
Tangled on that thorny vine

Beneath the stars
The mariachis play guitar
They sing the story sad but true
Love took its chances
As romances often do
Despite the circumstances
Deep in their hearts they knew

That driven on by the rain and the pain
He knew he had a long way to go
Slipping through the boarder
Cross the river into Mexico
No hanging tree
Could keep him from
His sweet Maria
He had to see her again
He could picture her looking like a garden
In the middle of no-mans land
And the blood through his clothes
It flowed like wine
Never was there a love so fine

Mark was living in New Jersey and I was living in Colorado in late October of 1985 when we both began work on an instrumental piece that would eventually turn into the song 'Blood Of The Rose'. Since we were living several states away from each other we had to send all of our work back and forth on cassette tape through the mail. It was very time consuming, which was also the reason that we worked on multiple songs at any given point in time, but that wasn't all that unusual for us.

     This was a very different song right from the outset. Mark was giving me spanish influences with crisp dark overtones. I had wonderful images in my head long before I began to write the lyrics and when I did start writing, it was on multiple levels. One was the storyline and the other was all the metaphors that statrted to creep in on top of that. The fidelity of the romance within the song was really our bittersweet love affair with life. The 'blood of the rose' was the soul taking time to stop and smell the flowers. Its easy to get tangled up in the thorny vines, but as long as we believe in ourselves and each other, we've already won.

     Musically, I have always thought that this was by far, some of Marks best work, and between us, we see-sawed back and forth surprising each other with every new frill. At one point, there was even an incredibly long instrumental part in the middle It was truly a labor of love.

     In retrospect, I think that we both wanted each other to see that we had grown in our craft over the years, and secretly, I believe that we needed to see that too.

     It is important to note this is one of the very first songs that started out our long relationship of working together, 'The Reality', was also a large production number. It was like coming round full circle.

     In November of 2004, Mark and I recorded a very short and concise version of 'Blood Of The Rose' at Witchwood that ended up on the 'Roads Not Taken' CD...