We All Need A Hero

by Art Fernandez

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer." In many ways, this proves to be true. Everyone would love to think that we were heroes, and that we would somehow rise to the occasion and lose all concern for our own being to save another. However, when the time comes, we cower to the trenches, hoping for someone else to save the day.

For me, the time where a normal man became a hero was when I was at my weakest. Suddenly, everything around me started to change. I had felt the loss of my Sister, Grandmother, and Mother all before graduating high school. On top of this, I had suffered a major emotional blow with my first broken heart. I felt I had nothing, but at the same time I knew I needed something more in my life. Music seemed to be the obvious choice, and one man would pull me out and through the void in my life. The hole would be filled by one mans words of inspiration. It was “We all Need Some Light”, and later “Somber Days” that would take me past my buried emotions and inspire me to persevere with my goal for a full life. Not only that, but he continued to show me new ways of thinking, despite being of different faiths and of opposite beliefs. He is not just another man, but his struggles are like my own and it wasn’t till I realized that he too had his moment of weakness’ that I saw him as so much more.

What makes this man such a hero? Being the quintessential jack-of-all-trades, Neal Morse started out as a modest singer/songwriter in Los Angeles. Having written all his life, he struggled to get attention. A few play here and there, but a big break would not be in sight for some time. It would not be until he teamed up with his brother, Alan, that he started getting attention. He and his Brother teamed with drummer, Nick D’Virgilio, bass player Dave Meros and, eventually, keyboardist Ryo Okumoto. He would gain great success with what became known as Spock’s Beard, and went on for many many years. However, he was not happy with his plight. He, much like I did, felt something missing. What he found would change his life drastically. He found religion to be just what he had been searching for, and in the years to come it would cultivate to the point he could no longer provide subtle hints to his faith. He must proudly display his passion; something he would not have been able to do within the context of Spock’s Beard and his Prog-Supergroup (with Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy, the Flower Kings’ Roine Stolt, and Marillion’s Pete Trawavas), TransAtlantic. He would venture out on his own. This would not be well received by some in the progressive rock community, who found it to be a mere faze. But Morse stuck to what he believed, and continued to write music that expressed his undying loyalty to the Christian faith.

But what relevance does this have to being a hero? He stuck to his beliefs in the midst of criticism and churned out music that inspires. He writes about his personal experiences in hopes to not only share his story, but to write FOR people who may be going through the exact same situations he went through. It’s about helping them and, in some cases, saving their life. Neal Morse said of the song Somber Days, off the Testimony album: “I had an interesting experience while I was writing this lyric. I was thinking mostly of my dark valley times, but then at the end, at the 'If you're feeling down today' part, I had a vision of someone hearing it that is suicidal, and I felt that they needed to know God was real and that this song was going to help. That's where all the lines about 'all your suffering he has known' and 'help is on the way' are coming from. I don't know that I've ever had an experience quite like that before.”

A Hero changes our way of thinking; they make it their forte to save. Music speaks to us all, however, for me it’s more than just words. It’s an escape from reality and words of wisdom. Neal Morse’s music is special because I believe it to be so. They take on new meaning and accept me and, for that brief moment, I’m with Neal Morse, sitting next to him as he sings to me. A hero is someone who shapes your life in some way and someone you can hope to be one day. For me, Neal Morse is that man. I wish to be half as loving and selfless as him. If I can speak to one person through my music the way he has spoken to me through his, than my reason for life will be complete. Its more than music, they are more than lyrics. They speak to my soul and cry “Live On”