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One Step Closer

from Counterfeit Heart by Chris Crabtree

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about

There are these characters in the Bible, James and John, who Jesus called “The Sons of Thunder.” They were so-named because they wanted to know which of the disciples would be the greatest in Heaven. I imagine they had big ideas of all the things they could accomplish, considering they were hanging out every day with the guy who spoke and nothing became everything. It strikes me that Zen and his friend Scooter share similarities with the Sons of Thunder. Each of them has grand notions of the nature of reality, God, the afterlife. Each of them may be completely wrong. And, each of them is willing to follow his notion to the very end.

Fast-forward two-thousand years and it looks to me like it’s hard enough for Jesus’s message to get any traction at all. How then could any of his followers to be the greatest in Heaven? How can you become the greatest at anything if no one is paying attention to you anymore? “You once were closer to the shore before they showed you to the door” refers to the miraculous story of jumping out of the boat and walking on the water contrasted to how Jesus’s message is treated by even those who claim to follow it today.

I recorded several versions of this song. This was the only one on which I played an arpeggiated acoustic guitar. I recorded this during the writing of it. In fact, I hadn’t locked the lyric yet so some of them are ad-libbed in the moment as I was singing. I’ve since changed them slightly, but this performance remains my favorite. You can never really beat the immediacy of a raw performance of a song just after (or during) it’s writing!

lyrics

You're one step closer to your dreams
You're one step closer to he who redeems
You're one step closer now it seems
You're one step closer to your dreams

You're one step closer to the Lord
You're one step closer to his word
You're one step closer hadn't you heard?
You're one step closer to the Lord

You once were closer to the shore
Before they showed you to the door
You're not closer anymore
You're only closer to being ignored

You're one step closer to finishing the game
You're step closer to he who overcame
You're one step closer to the book of names
You're one step closer to taking the blame

You once were closer to the shore
Before they showed you to the door
You're not closer anymore
You're only closer to being ignored

You're one step closer to making the news
You're one step closer to your head in a noose
But when you're closer, what have you got to lose?
Go on and shake the dust from your shoes

You once were closer to the shore
Before they showed you to the door
You're not closer anymore
You're only closer to being ignored

credits

from Counterfeit Heart, released November 13, 2015

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Chris Crabtree Kansas City, Kansas

Chris Crabtree is a Kansas City singer-songwriter originally hailing from the sagebrush plains of Texas. He released his first rock album, Counterfeit Heart, in 2015. That record served as a soundtrack to his novel, Zen and the Art of Killing Your Self, also released at the same time. His music draws from the sounds of Ryan Adams, Daniel Lanois, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Bob Dylan. ... more

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