Casledoor Pt. 1

Castledoor is an independent band from the sunny state of California. They released a new album earlier this year and I finally got to listen to it in its entirety this week. The problem with real independent bands is that it's incredibly hard to find their stuff. iTunes has it for sale, but I thought UMFM could help me out in this case. So I'd like to thank Michael E. for getting the new Castledoor CD Shouting at Mountains for our library. Thanks! I'll be doing a review of it very soon, but for now I'll talk about an old track.

I wanted to talk about Burn the Maps, one my favorite songs of all time. It has some amazing lyrics, and its musically genius(I hope you think so too). I must have listened to this song over fifty times in the past years.

I started to love the band from the first time I heard Burn the Maps a couple of years ago. It moved me, and I've been a big fan of the band ever since.

I'd like you to listen to the song and read along below. So let's do that.



We've got a dream and since it started
They all did their best to stamp it out
Now, we're not certain, we're not certain
Who is on our side, who's on our side

Older generations made their decisions
But we don't want to follow their formula
With all due respect, with all respect, man
We don't want to end up where you're at

Burn the maps
Burn the maps

We won't stay behind that fence and
We're not walking on your footprints

We're breaking branches in the forest
So we don't forget where we came from
Start from scratch, man, start from scratch now
There's no better time to be reborn

Glide across the path like no one's watching
And if you hit traffic, honey, that's okay
Cause you're the best at being you now
Speed up, slow down, choose your pace

Burn the maps
Burn the maps

We won't stay behind that fence and
We're not walking on your footprints (x2)

Cause all we need is love
You're giving us a deadline
You're waiting for the punch-line
We're waiting for our moment to arrive

So give a little trust
Receive us with an open mind
You're busy reading archives
We're busy making future headlines
Future headlines

Burn the maps (x4)

We won't stay behind that fence
We're not walking on your footprints
In the middle of a big black trench
We're not walking on your footprints (x3)

This song is a poem. It speaks to me and to future generations. It speaks to a generation of change and progress. Breaking branches in the forest so that we don't forget the past while striving for a better future. Burning the maps laid out by past generations, so we can come up with a new plan. Like the song says, they are giving us a deadline. So do we have a better plan?

Maybe it's idealistic of me to think this map-burning could ever happen. Especially since major social changes have only taken place after a revolution.
Revolutions are messy, painful, and violent; but maybe they don’t have to be. There has to be a better way for social change that does not involve people sacrificing their lives. It's up to us to think about what that is.