Blood Ruby – The Night Tide
It’s not exactly a love song, but I choose to interpret it that way, because the lyrics don’t tell you how to feel. It’s a quality I enjoy in lyrics, how there are spaces where the listener can inject thoughts and feelings, fill in the story, make it their own. Ambiguity.
The lyrics are somewhat mysterious, creating a sense of definite place and a woman whose existence ebbs and flows like the sea. There are sighs in the lyrics as well as the music which is constantly swaying, swelling, receding, creating ripples. Everything that we lose over the years, everything that we love or dislike, whatever enters our little spheres, it comes and goes. Listen to the sound of the waves as you walk by the seaside. This is where you live, even when you’re not by the sea.
I love the idea of the sea, its vastness, the constant soothing swooshing, the foam, the crashing waves on the cliffs. I’ve lived in inland regions for most of my life, but some time after discovering this song I actually moved to a place where I could see the sea. It’s so much bigger than humans, and when you see the blur of the horizon you understand better how small we are. The sea, space and time, eternity, and there I am, a little speck standing on the sand. There may be inherent loneliness in discovering it, seeing it as the human condition, but the sigh also disappears and blends with the voice of the sea.
I remember this song from a specific time in my life when I was still wondering what to do, how to live, how to be, close to graduating from the uni and still having no clue about whether to follow my own feelings or do what is sensible. I had spent most of my time at the university alone, and at some point I remember listening to this song each night before I went to bed. It’s peaceful, and there’s a dreamy quality.
The female character sounds nice, someone to dream about on lonely nights, thinking of living by the sea, discovering seashells together, touching the waves, exploring the sensations. This was important, nothing else. Sensing, living, being present. So even though the song creates a solitary character, it can be thought of as a companion. Just hearing about someone who’d also like to touch the sea is enough: it banishes loneliness, because in a world where everyone is busy hunting jobs and rushing from one reward to another, it’s important to hear of people who are doing something else, walking where you wish to be, sighing where you would sigh. Even if it’s only in a song, you know that there are others like you dreaming and swaying, having the same rhythm in their footsteps.
*
There is little information on the band Blood Ruby, but according to the singer Cynthia Conrad’s CV it existed from 2001 to 2010. Remnants of their activity are buried here and there on the internet, most stating that “at this time” (which I think might be around 2008) they were recording their first album and were looking for a label to release it. As far as I can tell, they never released an official album, so this is distributed as a demo. It’s really a pity; they had some nice songs which were a part of my youth, which by now is also buried under time, under all those countless waves, memories gradually drifting farther, taken away by the night tide.