My Gen X Playlist: Angels of the Silences – The Counting Crows

We had just finished a two day trek down the Narrows in Zion National Park. We were back in camp, resting and thinking about our next hike. We heard about Angel’s Landing, but didn’t know too much about it. A hiker told us it was narrow, steep and one side of the trail sat on an edge of cliff. My buddy is not a fan of heights so he was a hard no. It’s always been on my bucket list because I hear the views are beautiful.

I recently looked it up on YouTube and it’s given me second thoughts. I don’t know if I can trust myself. Sometimes I get engrossed in the view that I forget to watch where I’m walking and occasionally trip on a rock. After seeing what the trail actually looks like, I may reach for my pencil eraser, remove it from my list and just admire it from afar. If you are ever up for a beautiful views and are sure footed, you may want to give it a try. Better you than me at this point in my life. Check out Angel’s Landing.

I remember being a big Counting Crows fan when they first came out. Recovering the Satellites was their second album and they released Angels of the Silences in 1996. It’s a song about faith, but not necessarily in a way you might think.

I write quite a few songs where the sort of issue is faith–having faith, keeping faith. And this song in particular is about the difficulty in having faith in things, and finding things to have faith in, in yourself, in God, in like he said, a woman. Faith is a weird thing, in a sense it is all about waiting. It’s not actually about getting anything, you know, faith is about the wait, because once you get something there is no need anymore. So a lot about faith is just the willingness to sort of throw yourself on a fence and hang there for a while. That’s a very difficult and bitter thing, you know.

In this song . . . I said, “All my sins, I would pay for them if I could come back to you.” It’s not just about finding things to believe in, it’s about wanting to be able to believe in anything too. And it’s about all the voices that get inside your head and whisper for you to do it or not to do it as well. And it’s called “Angels of the Silences.”

Adam Duritz

Removing Angel’s Landing from my bucket list is a tough one. I’m not one to back down from a challenge. After all, the joy comes from overcoming obstacles and crossing the finish line. And there are some things like Angel’s Landing that exist on my list as reminders to continue to believe in myself. But I’ve got those voices in my head, as Duritz puts it, and they are simultaneously whispering do it and don’t do it. I think I’ll keep it on my list in pencil for now. I’m still holding out hope I work up the nerve someday. Just one question that’s nagged at me, though. Why didn’t they also put a chain on the dangerous side of the trail, too? I think that may have made my decision easier.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Well, I guess you left me with some feathers in my hand
Did it make it any easier to leave me where I stand?
I guess there might not be too many
Who would stand beside you now
Where'd you come from?
Where am I going?
Why'd you leave me till I'm only good for

Waiting for you
All my sins
I said that I would pay for them if I could
Come back to you
All my innocence is wasted on the dead and dreaming

Every night these silhouettes appear above my head
Little angels of the silences that climb into my bed and whisper
Every time I fall asleep
Every time I dream
"Did you come?
Would you lie?
Why'd you leave us 'til we're only good for..."

Waiting for you
All my sins
I said that I would pay for them if I could
Come back to you
All my innocence is wasted on the dead and dreaming

I dream of Michelangelo when I'm lying in my bed
Little angels hang above my head and read me like an open book
And suck my blood
Break my nerve
Offer me their arms
Well, I will not be an enemy of anything
I'll only stand here

Waiting for you
All my sins
I said that I would pay for them if I could
Come back to you
All my innocence is wasted on the dead and dreaming

I'm gone, I'm gone
I'll leave today
I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone
Take me away
I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone
I'll leave today
I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone
I'm gone