Pink Floyd's "Sorrow"

On November 18 and 19, 2012 PBS aired the 2 part documentary, "The Dust Bowl". This excellent Ken Burns documentary describes the decade long American mid-west dust bowl of the 1930's. Because this is a music blog I feel it necessary to point out that one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs is "Sorrow" from 1989's "Momentary Lapse of Reason".

"Sorrow" was written to describe this tragic environmental story. It is believed that David Gilmour wrote this shortly after reading "The Grapes of Wrath". The opening guitar & constant drum beat both eerily set the tone of a dust storm rolling in while Gilmour's lyric perfectly describe a farmers desperation as his life goes up in a storm of dust. 

"Sorrow"
David Gilmour
The smell of a great sorrow lies over the land
Plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky:
A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers,
But awakes to a morning with no reason for waking
He's haunted by the memory of a lost paradise
In his youth or a dream, he can't be precise
He's chained forever to a world that's departed
It's not enough, it's not enough
His blood has frozen & curdled with fright
His knees have trembled & given way in the night
His hand has weakened at the moment of truth
His step has faltered
One world, one soul
Time pass, the river rolls
And he talks to the river of lost love and dedication
And silent replies that swirl invitation
Flow dark and troubled to an oily sea
A grim intimation of what is to be
There's an unceasing wind that blows through this night
And there's dust in my eyes, that blinds my sight
And silence that speaks so much louder that words,
Of promises broken