World Stops Turning

In searching for something in a style I haven’t focused much on in this blog, I went through The 100 Best Songs of 2022 playlist from Apple Music. I found a song by a band I’ve never intentionally listened to, the Ontario, Canada, post-hardcore, hard rock band Alexisonfire.

Alexisonfire (pronounced Alexis on fire) is a band our musician lad likes a lot; I remember always seeing their CDs around our family home years ago and, more recently, spotted the band’s latest record at his place, though I didn’t immediately recognize the cover as an Alexisonfire record.

After noticing that album cover again today on the Apple playlist, I remembered when, in 2005, one of the band’s members, Dallas Green (b. 1980), started a solo project he called City and Colour, a riff on his name. I recall my son asking me to take him to a show at Winnipeg’s Garrick Centre around that time, when he was in his early teens. I’m sure it was Green’s first tour as that act, and the show was a solo performance. We stood at the edge of the low stage, probably ten feet away from Green, watching intently as he played. He added a backing band as the project developed and became very successful for him in the following years. We saw that group perform in February 2012 at the Burton Cummings Theatre (which I still want to call the Walker, its original name). It was a superb show that came not long after the release of Little Hell (2011).

Back to Alexisonfire, today’s selection seemed to me to be about deep, fiery and perhaps complicated love, and about yearning for intimacy. It’s slightly calmer than a couple of thrashers on the album, like the screaming rock opener “Committed to the Con” and the fast-tempo “Unconditional Love,” though “World Stops Turning” cranks it up after a quiet intro and has a long, hard rock outro.

But having a look at the notes in Apple Music though, I saw the song explanation from Alexisonfire singer George Pettit (b. 1982) which put my interpretation on its ear: “This is a love song Dallas wrote about his band, Alexisonfire. We had the most beautiful moment where he brought us up to his cottage and we sat at his dining room table and for three hours, we just talked, and discussed the history of the band. He let us in on things that had been going on in his life, and it was just a very introspective moment for all of us. And at the end of it, he presented us with a demo he’d been working on of this song, and we just knew that this is going to be the new set-closer. We’ve always ended our set with [2004’s] ‘Happiness by the Kilowatt,’ and we turn it into this 12-minute version. And this song felt like the new version of that—we’re gonna have this big sprawling epic, and I could envision it just blowing everyone’s hair back. It’s a perfect album-ender—we went full Floyd on this one.”

Clearly, with that history, it’s not hard to find Green’s influence all over the song, plus he sings on it, so it felt like a good choice and a reminder of some good times shared at solo project shows he has given.

“Don’t just sit there and wait around
Can’t you see that I’m ready now
I never meant to let you down, oh

I want your love so violently
To feel this pleasure that burns in me
Darling if you please
Set me free

‘Cause if the world, the world stops turning
Our love will keep on burning

I need to feel your breath again
The way it danced across my skin
And shook my body deep within, oh

After all this time
You’re there suspended in my mind
And I’m starving for your love
So set me free tonight

‘Cause if the world, the world stops turning
Our love will keep on burning
And if the world, the world stops turning
Our love will keep on burning
And if the world, the world stops turning
Our love will keep on burning”

“World Stops Turning,” by Jordan Hastings, Wade Macneil, Dallas Green, George Pettit and Christopher Steele.
Lyrics retrieved from AZLyrics.com.

Music is such a wonderful thing to share. It has the power to bring unity, celebration and joy, a bridge between generations who enjoy it together. “Fun,” as one of my Colorado friends sums up such gifts.

“World Stops Turning” is, of course, the closing track on the album Otherness (2022).

Now you know a little about why this is my Song of the Day for Today. Thanks for joining me here. Please enjoy the audio from the AOFofficial YouTube channel:

With my best to you,

Steve