Gloss on the Road: Steppin’ Out with New Tuneage (and a Giveaway!)

The last few months, I’ve felt a great connection to Steppin’ Out by Joe Jackson.

I’m never one to assume I have the ability to interpret the meaning of an artist’s lyrics — we never know what exists in their minds – but whenever I’ve listened to this tune, it’s brought to my mind the materialistic world that humans have manifested — and the one that seems to be burgeoning around me.

The obvious nature of the song seems to be about life, death, and the afterlife — the mist on the window is the haze that falls over our ‘last breath’ as we are passing into the threshold of the afterlife. I watched Henry VIII’d death knoll last night on the final episode of The Tudors and the precise same image existed there as well – he refers to life flashing before his eyes, and while he mourns the splendor of what has come and gone, he looks forward to the greater unknown before him.

We like to think of the next step, the afterlife, of one that is free of fear or wants — one that is the ultimate in peace and happiness.  I see “Get into a car and drive to the other side,” as the metaphor of our journey into the afterlife. It is referring to the fact that all of us will face our death; that we step into the ‘unknown’ and ‘feared’ night (our death), which is really the ‘light’ of our afterlife.

Perhaps life and death isn’t something that is as foremost on many of your minds — I tend to fear to the dark and morose at times — but this song is also about the simple act of aging, and how quickly our life passes by before us, and before we know it, we are out of time, and we are leaving everything we have and love behind.

But what happens next – when we get past that stage? In the aferlife, do we see the restoration to our perfect selves, and ultimate happiness?  Is the taxi is a metaphor for no matter how different we all are, and how much our own individual life experiences vary, ultimately there’s this commonality we share, and that we are all on the same ride, with the same end?

Think about that — and it makes it a lot easier to not judge or reject anything or anyone around you — and appreciate your life, for all its impasses and dramas, for short, important ride it is.

And perhaps I’m being epically dramatic – I’ve been told I have a knack for that – but ultimately, this is why I’m so drawn to this song, and so, a few weeks ago when I discovered that Tom Brislin, whose music I have been following and supporting for around a decade now, would be releasing his own version of this classic – it felt pretty much karmic. And, indeed, it’s already earned a place of honor on my iPod (especially important as over the next few weeks, I shall virtually be living on an airplane – and can use all the valuable new tunes I can get!)

You can get the song right now at iTunes, Amazon MP3, and wherever else you like to get your mp3 fix. (And check out the video below.)

Now, here’s for the giveaway part I mentioned earlier: I think we all have a few tunes in our iPod that move us, for our own reasons – that we may or may not be aware of. Share what those songs are — five people will win a $15 iTunes gift card! To be eligible to win, you must follow me on Twitter (@alywalansky) – and RT my post about this giveaway (lets spread the love!) – good luck! Deadline to enter is March 5.