Here is an edited version of something I wrote on april, 6th, 2001. It was for a friend who had posted the lyrics at a spiritual board, saying : "This song, No Luck, seems kind of dismal, kinda like, what the heck, whats the worth going on, because I'm just going to get run down. Seems kinda melancholic and suicidal". It seems to me now he was just trying to provoke me… He's a hunter of a special kind!
Anyway, it worked out fine: it made me react, do my best to find some light in the darkness…
I posted the following back at him and at Free Speech for the Dumb (I was so happy with what I had done):

"The atmosphere of "No leaf clover" is gloomy, ok.
There's a train coming your way and this doesn't seem too good to you who are trapped in this one way track tunnel. A light, soothing your pains and past tribulations had appeared in the distance but... illusion... just another pain, another tribulation coming your way.

But... not just another pain, this is a "big time", not only a train, a "freight train", and no way you can avoid it... time to face your greatest fear...

"Pay no mind to the distant thunder"... Personally, I love storms, it's scary and dangerous but so powerfully beautiful...

"Today fills his head with wonder"... Yes, this beauty is out of grasp of the mind/head : it can only be seen by the heart, so don't pay mind to the thunder, to what's scary, only your mind is scared, turn your attention towards the beauty of it, towards your heart that can see this beauty...
And "find new high lights"... Rise always higher... In spite of the storm... Doesn't it makes you feel like saying "good day to be alive Sir" ?

"Suck up for that quick reward, boy": but do people reward you for doing that ? Does life reward you for living that way? Not too sure... If they do, it doesn't last... Take the reward quick if it comes, and anyway don't wait for another one... Move on... "All the pieces fall to his wish": shits happen... But it's just pieces falling -sometimes hard- into place... What happens to you is just life putting some order to itself... (…) When you read Metallica lyrics you tend to say "Go wonder!" and then "Another fucked up song by another fucked up depressive dude"... And it fits beautifully to the description! But when you begin to see beyond, there's light, and it's not a freight train coming your way.

About this freight train, by the way... To me there's a chance for it to be the big punch you're going to take in the head and that's finally going to get you out of the tunnel, the tunnel being just an illusion created by your own belief that you're separated from Light... Which makes the title of the song even more meaningful (but there I'm not sure, I'm just a frenchy)..."

I still ponder on it from time to time…
Especially on "All the pieces fall to his wish": whose wish ? Talking about God again here? I feel not.
It's not clear but it makes me think of Time, Saturn, Kronos, the symbol of time… Things falling into places only at the "right" time: it's happening now because it couldn't happen before and couldn't have happen after. This is the rule of Saturn. That's why it also symbolizes slowness, heaviness in astrology : some important things seems to take so much time before happening…
I can't help putting that line next to the beginning of Human : "Don't you leave me father time, take me with you".
And the working title of Human was Plod…
Damn, doesn't anyone here has James' exact birth time?

May, 7th, 2001.