Dead Songs in Depth

    
Just A Little Light
w: Barlow m: Weir
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/litt.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/JUSTALIT.HTM
  

    
Just A Little Light 
Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Brent Mydland

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Well there ain't nobody safer than someone who doesn't care
And it isn't even lonely when no-one's ever there
I had a lot of dreams once, but some of them came true
The honey's sometimes bitter when fortune falls on you
So you know I've been a soldier in the armies of the night
And I'll find the fatal error in what's otherwise all right
But now you're trembling like a sparrow, I will try with all my might
To give you just a little sweetness
Just a little light

I have always heard that virtue ought to be its own reward
But it never comes so easy when you're living by the sword
It's even harder to be heartless when you look at me that way
You're as might as the flower that will grow the stones away
Even though I've been a stranger full of irony and spite
Holding little but contempt for all things beautiful and bright
Something shines around you and it seems, to my delight
To give me just a little sweetness
Just a little light

It could be just another highway coiled up in the night
You could be just another white-tail, baby, stranded on my brights
There's a tingling recognition like the sound of distant thunder
And I begin to wonder if the love I've driven under won't ignite
  

    
Barlow had this to say in his book "Mother American Night:

"[It] is about the gloom that seemed to be gathering around Brent
and Jerry and everything that was then going on backstage at Dead
shows. I wanted people to know that there was also still a light
left in the world. I was writing about what happens to everyone
after a while. Like Hunter's line in "Scarlet Begonias," "Once in a
while you get shown the light / In the strangest of places if you
look at it right." Although I wasn't consciously quoting that, it is
one of my favorite Hunter lines."
  

    
Yah, Mon...just finished reading JPB's book all the way through in
two consecutive morning sessions...a grate read!
  

    
Unfortunately I will have to wait until it is published locally -
Amazon no longer ships books to Oz.
  

    
I'm reading the kindle version myself, seeing as we just donated or
gave away a thousand or so books. Trying to keep the physical stuff
to a minimum.
  

    
but if you want I'd order one and ship it to you!
  

    
Found a solution last night - The Book Depository. It is UK based
and ships free to Oz. Strangely, it is owned by Amazon, but TBD just
add the Oz Goods and Services Tax (recently extended to internet
purchases) to the bill and get on with it.