For a Song: I Go Like the Raven

Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer: I Go Like the Raven

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Once again, I am switching things up, and running the For a Song feature first this week. Next week…., well next week is another story that I will tell everyone about soon. Meanwhile…

My wife and I are always sprinkling song references into our conversations. We have done this every since we first got together. As my daughter gets older, she becomes more and more amazed by this. So we have a saying in the house: everything is a musical reference. I have a good friend on line who is just discovering this about me. I was kind enough to drop two song references on her that I knew she would recognize. One of them was to this song.

Some birds are just birds, but the raven has accumulated a body of lore over the years. Back in the days when warfare meant hand-to-hand combat, ravens would appear on fields where a battle had just ended. People believed that they were there to collect the spirits of fallen warriors, and take them to the afterlife. For this reason, raven goddesses were death goddesses, sacred to warriors. Over time, belief systems changed. But the raven continued to be regarded as a bad omen. This dark mood is very much present in I Go Like the Raven. There are a variety of supernatural creatures in the lyrics, and the song’s protagonist soars not above but among them.

I just realized that I posted this song as part of a theme post back in November. However, it is worthy of a few more words than I gave it that time. And, (thank you), I have many people visiting now who weren’t then. So, if you heard this when I posted it last, I hope you liked the write-up this time. And if this is new to you, I hope you enjoyed it, and will be coming back.