From a Distance
Song Written by Julie Gold
Psalm 33:13-18 . . . From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.
From Songfacts by Bruce Pollock
God was definitely watching Julie Gold that Saturday morning in the winter of 1985 at age 29 when she sat down at her childhood piano and wrote "From a Distance." Delivered the day before from her parents' home in Philadelphia, to her pad in Greenwich Village, the piano had to thaw out overnight before she could play it. But as soon as it did, Julie was there to receive its welcoming message of hope and love and peace.
"I had come to New York with an electric piano," she said. "That was a hideous relationship, but it was all I had. And then for my 30th birthday, my parents thought it would be a beautiful thing for me to be reunited with the piano of my childhood. So they sent it to me in December, 1985 as my birthday present. I wasn't allowed to play it for a day because it was frozen like a block of ice. I slept in this loft bed that was over it and all night I looked over the edge and there it was. And then I came down that steep ladder in the morning and the first thing I wrote was 'From a Distance.'"
Julie likes to say the song took her three hours and 30 years to write, summing up in a song almost every relationship to music and the culture she ever had, especially to John Lennon's repetition of the line "Nothing's gonna change my word" in "Across the Universe." But she'd already come up with "God is watching us," repeated three times, along with the title, while doodling at her day job as a secretary at HBO. "I had some preliminary lyrics," she said. "My songwriting ritual is always scales and arpeggios and chords, but that specific day I remember just feeling so connected to my instrument. And when these majestic chords came out of me I knew they were going to be something I could use. Usually, if I get one good keystone, then I can build the house."
When she finished the song, she performed another ritual on the piano; she kissed the keys. "Why? Because I know what it feels like to write a song and I wonder if I'll ever be given that opportunity again. So I'm grateful every time. I certainly didn't think, 'Oh, my God, this is the song that's going to change my life.' I just knew it was a beautiful experience, a cathartic experience. Then, like I did with all my songs, I immediately went into the studio and made a demo and starting pitching it. And it was rejected by everyone I knew."
In Julie’s Words:
The first person who loved it was Christine Lavin. Christine and I had met when I still lived in Philly and was coming up to New York to do songwriting workshops. She'd give me her songs, I'd give her my songs. We had management, we lost management; we knew each other's careers very well. She was playing at this little club on MacDougal Street called the Speakeasy, and she told me, "Bring me 10 cassettes and let me see what I can do with it." Within three weeks after that, Vince Scelsa played it on KRock. I sat down on the floor in my apartment and listened. Introducing it, he said, "So I play this for everyone out there who still cares." And then he played my demo of "From a Distance."
On May 5th, 1986, Nanci Griffith called to ask to record "From a Distance," because Christine had sent her a copy. This was the first song of mine anyone had recorded. Nanci has since recorded about 7 or 8 songs of mine and she has also recorded "From a Distance" live and multilingual, with Donna Summer, may she rest in peace, and with Raul Malo. And it's because of her recording that other artists heard it, like The Byrds and Kathy Matea, and Judy Collins, and, five years later, Bette Midler.
I was still working at HBO. I'd be at my desk and Nanci would call me from Belfast, and she would tell me, "Julie, you don't know what I witnessed last night. Catholics and Protestants were crying in the aisles, embracing." And I was like, "Wow!" And then I'd go right back to work. I finally quit my job in July of 1989, only because I had already played Carnegie Hall with Nanci Griffith, and I had heard my song sung by all these other artists. But I was still stone broke. I can't even begin to tell you the difference between an album cut and a hit. It's like when you look at a map of the galaxies and you see Pluto next to Jupiter. Album cuts don't get airplay; even if it's on college radio, it doesn't compare to the Top 40. So your royalties are all based on sales.
I can't say one negative thing about what that song has done for my life, for my family's life. It just continues to bless my life. Because of the Internet at least once a month, but sometimes once a week, a stranger will write to me and tell me what the song meant to them. I've traveled and I've met and performed for people simply because of that song. I heard from a lot of people who came out of the woodwork. But it was all about love. Nothing was opportunistic. I have a lovely life and my friends have always been my friends. So all this did was reverberate deeper from the love of my friends. No one came out of the woodwork that I was unhappy to see.
From a Distance Lyrics
From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.
From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
it's the voice of every man.
From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.
From a distance we are instruments
marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
They're the songs of every man.
God is watching us. God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.
From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.
From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves,
it's the heart of every man.
It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance.