Jacob and Esau

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Here's one from the pre-Chicago days.  Part of the brilliance of a great epic are the untold gaps in the story.  The biblical account of Jacob and Esau is one such narrative.  It begins with sibling rivalry, parents playing favorites, dysfunctionality all over the place.  After many years of estrangement (that goes undescribed in the text), Jacob and Esau reconcile at the sight of each other's families.  It's a moving scene.  

This song imagines that in-between period of the story that is untold: Jacob's desolate experience of alienation from his brother.  Of course, though, it's set in a somewhat contemporary context.

In this song, I wanted to play with the image of Jacob wrestling with the angel, one of the most richly ambiguous scenes in literature that I've encountered.  Is it a good thing?  A bad thing?  Both?  Neither?  I'm still not sure.  

I love that gray area because it gives a wannabe songwriter a chance to add some color.

"Jacob and Esau"

Instrumentation: acoustic guitar, dobro, hollow-body electric, mandolin

Some folks struggle with the demons in their heads

But I have found an angel to wrestle instead

Black coffee and cigarettes are all I enjoy these days

Too many plastic smiles out there cover up the gray

It's not that I don't have hope, it's that I hope there's more than this

Driving home at 2am without the brother I miss

But I know that the road ahead will reveal new sights

Hopefully more than just an angel to fight

Roving out with no direction, no destination in mind

It's easy to please the demons that I find

One asked me to go back to a time I left in the dust

In the blink of an eye, the angel cried, and the old tears turned to rust

It's not that I don't have hope, it's that I hope there's more than this

Same old drag, same name tag, same midnight diner waitress

Can't tell the difference between the demons in my glass

And the angel who wrestles me away from the past

Tried to heal the wound in your side

The demon said I could, but it turned out that he lied

The angel stood there silent, meaning letting go was right

Regardless of this truth, I wrestle with the angel tonight

It's not that I don't have hope, it's that I hope there's more than this

Same old fight I can't win, unfixable mess

But the demons fade with the breath I see in the winter air

With an angel beside me wrestling me out of despair