Bright Eyes

Posted bymalcolmsmusingscomPosted inUncategorized
Mike Batt Bright Eyes - YouTube Music

I’ve started playing through my CD collection. They’re stored in alphabetical order. This week there’s been Bryan Adams, Louis Armstrong, J.S. Bach, The Bachelors… and Mike Batt. He wrote a number of great songs – including ‘Bright Eyes’:

Is it a kind of dream
Floating out on the tide
Following the river of death downstream?
Oh, is it a dream?

There’s a fog along the horizon
A strange glow in the sky
And nobody seems to know where you go
And what does it mean?
Oh, is it a dream?

Bright eyes
Burning like fire
Bright eyes
How can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes

It’s best known as sung by Art Garfunkel for ‘Watership Down’, an animated film about rabbits looking for a new home after being driven away by men. It’s about the death of a main character, Hazel. It’s a song about mortality and death, Batt described recording the song as “one of the most difficult sessions” of his career as he wrote the lyrics, thinking of his father who was terminally ill with cancer at the time.

Is it a kind of shadow
Reaching into the night
Wandering over the hills unseen
Or is it a dream?

There’s a high wind in the trees
A cold sound in the air
And nobody ever knows when you go
And where do you start
Oh, into the dark

Bright eyes
Burning like fire
Bright eyes
How can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes

Sometimes I have linked the song with those whose ‘bright eyes’ of love or faith has dimmed and died… friends whose marriage has failed, children estranged from their parents, enthusiastic Christians who have turned, or been turned away from God…

This morning I’m reflecting on my own mortality and eventual death, honestly, humbly, positively, musing on familiar words… ‘…though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil…’ ‘death where is your sting?’… and looking forward to the day when there will be no more tears, sorrow, pain or death… and my spiritual bright eyes will see heaven’s shining glory, that’s not a dream, but reality.

Until then I pray that my light will shine and that my eyes will remain bright.

12 thoughts on “Bright Eyes”

  1. Amen, Brother, to your last sentence. Amen for you and for me too.

    “Bright Eyes” always slays me. I want to weep listening to it. I cling to the One who I will trust though He slays me. O Joy that He is Life itself!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. It’s a great song, Mark. It used to upset me that either it’s just a song about rabbits, or it was referred to as an ‘Art Garfunkel song’, when Mike Batt, who’s written so many good songs, didn’t get the credit he deserved.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I first heard the song “Bright Eyes” wafting on the airwaves when I was a teenager sung by someone that I later learned was Art Garfunkel. I didn’t know why it made me listen and why it filled me with melancholy that had an almost indiscernible note of something less sad, maybe hope. I wasn’t even listening to the words. Later I saw the movie “Watership Down,” and heard the song sung there. I had never read the book. I thought the movie was OK, sort of interesting in a 1970s, nature loving sort of way. But a movie about rabbits? “C’mon,” I thought, “That’s a little too hippie for me.” But the song haunted me after I’d left the theatre. Later, I married a beautiful young woman who loved Jesus and loved me and loved “Watership Down” and loved “Bright Eyes.” I dread the possible portent that maybe this is the song that I will sing if she dies before I do. I pray it isn’t. But if that does come to pass, I guess that I’ll cling to that almost indiscernible note of something less sad, maybe hope.

        Liked by 2 people

  2. Terrific post all around, Malcolm. First, your mention of playing through your CD collection reminds me that I have harbored a desire to that very thing myself. Perhaps I will get with it! Second, ‘Bright Eyes’ – I have always loved this song. Granted, I heard it first while watching ‘Watership Down.’ I had read the book myself, then read it aloud to my children, then took them to see the film. Third, like you, I have often associated the song with loss among friends and family when their faith, their hopes and dreams, their expectations have been cruelly destroyed by life’s circumstances. Fourth, I am also nearing the end of my earthly habitation (but who knows? He does. He knows the number of our days.), and my hope arises to consider what lies beyond. Have you ever heard the song ‘No More Night’?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Edward (?). I ‘m striving to get the balance right… Facing up to death and talking about it openly, at the same time as enjoying life and making the most of the time that I have been given. There’s also the balance of the faith perspective of ‘certain hope’, without being super spiritual or superior to my friends and family who don’t share my faith. No I hadn’t heard that song. I’ve heard some of the David Phelps songs – but not that one. Thanks for pointing me in that direction…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. You are welcome. David Phelps is among my favorite of favorites. You have articulated my own perspective in these years of my life. Every point you mention in your balanced approach is precisely where I am.

        And, yes, ‘Edward.’ That is my middle name, the one I have gone by all my life. My first name is John, which is the name my father went by except with very old family and friends, who called him Junior. I am not a junior because my older brother got my father’s middle name, Thomas. And I went by Eddie throughout my childhood, then I switched to Ed; although some family members still call me Eddie. Yep, Ed for Edward, not Edgar, Edwin, Edmund, Edison, or Ahmed.

        Middle names. I am the youngest of five siblings. Four of us went by our middle names; and my mom also went by her middle name.

        More than you wanted to know, I reckon, but I got a little carried away.

        Blessings!

        ~Ed.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Oh, my, yes. As a fellow tenor, I remain in awe of his abilities. You should definitely invest a bit of time in looking him up and listening/watching on YouTube. ~Ed.

        Liked by 2 people

Leave a reply to malcolmsmusingscom Cancel reply