Written by Edward Jerlin
© 2007 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
"The Mirror" was initially inspired by a movie I saw on TV in 1985.
In the movie, the charismatic but enigmatic "hero" grew up in the slums & was a gang leader, but always had a conscience underneath. As the plot twists developed, it turned out he was adopted & his birth mother (who never gave up looking for him after being forced to give him up as a young girl) was a zillionaire. Once his birthright came to light, he cleaned his act up, moved into a new environment with his newfound birth mother, & ditched his old way of life which by necessity included the gang & his old girlfriend. Much of the movie dealt with the adjustments he made to his new environment & his newfound mother. Along the way, he also falls in love & gets engaged. The love story is seemingly almost complete with a happy ending. But not quite...
Meanwhile, in his absence, the old girlfriend takes over the gang, ratchets up the crime, & eventually freaks out & takes the "hero", his mother, & his fiancee hostage, after the "hero" tries to return to his old environment to "clean up/rehabilitate" the old gang, whose loyalties are now divided between their old gang leader & their new one.
The extended hostage scene was riveting to me, as the "hero" tries to talk his captor down, trying to convince her he still truly loves her, values her friendship, will do everything he can to help her, that she shouldn't throw her life away, that she's worthy of love & her life is valuable. She, on the other hand, spends much of the time threatening them, trying to "save face" with the gang, feeling empowered with the gun, trying to decide who should be the recipient of the one bullet she has left.
Which would inflict the most pain?
Killing him?
His fiancee?
Or the newfound mother he never knew?
He eventually talks her down & the movie ends happily as the hostage situation is over & the cops move in. Presumably, the inevitable rehab will ensue after the movie is over, & as a bonus, maybe even the crime rate in the old neighborhood will go down...
. . . . . .
Unlike the movie, the song ends with a gunshot & the captor has apparently either killed the captive...
or himself...
or perhaps just his inner demons (The Mirror)...
Though the "gun" in the lyrics was supposed to be taken figuratively rather than literally, once I made the decision/commitment that all of my music would be for the Lord, it became apparent that the lyrics as originally written evoked too many violent images to be tenable for a Christian audience. (Not that I necessarily divide music into "Christian" & "secular" categories; I believe such distinctions can be meaningless & can depend on the subjectivity and more importantly the discernment of the author & the listener. I've come across plenty of "Christian" music that wasn't, & "secular" music that has pointed people towards the Creator. For an excellent essay on this from a Christian musician's/artist's perspective, click here: "A Christian's Art in the World".)
At any rate, it didn't fit with any of the Everlasting Arms material, & stood out lyrically from most of my other music. So while I liked the music a lot, the song remained on the shelf, relegated to remaining a piece of my musical past...
...until last year when I revisited it & somehow came up with the idea to turn the entire thing on its ear:
- The "aggressor" with the "gun" is now the hero, or the "believer".
- The "defender" is now the sin or temptation in the
believer's life, manifested as either the "tempter" or the "accuser".
What amazed me was how little the lyrics had to be nudged to fit the new scenario. A few lines & a short verse were added, a couple of lines were nudged to bring it into line with scripture & some basic tenets of the faith, & one particularly brutal line was toned down. The whole concept of "The Mirror" now fit in with the "war within" against sin that a believer wages throughout his/her life.
Now it was "spiritual warfare", rather than a "murder story".
The piece was also extended by inserting a brand new musical section (from 5:50 to 8:50) which depicts the inner conflict & the struggle. A guitar solo was also added at the end (from 10:30 onward, the old ending was too abrupt), which depicts the inner peace & ultimate triumph.
As for the recording, while the story line will be FAR easier to follow if you read along with the lyrics, I nevertheless tried to differentiate between the two "characters" in the story by doing a few things:
- The "tempter/accuser" sounds like he's partially coming out of
a tin can, or a phone line, to somewhat mimic the idea of him/them
speaking in the "believer's" ear.
- Except at the very end (artistic license), when the "believer"
is speaking to the "tempter/accuser", he's in a solo voice. When the
"accuser/tempter" speaks, he/they are in multiple harmony voices,
or even echoing voices at times... because the sins are many,
legion even.
- When the "believer" is half talking to himself, the harmonies
flit around as seemed musically appropriate.
- The two "voices" sometimes trade places between the left & right ear.
- As the believer is inundated with voices tempting & accusing him, it's up to the believer to find the "small still voice" of the Holy Spirit.
Food for thought...
