This song is on Dan Fogelberg's double album "The Innocent Age" released August 1981
I think I have 2 of those albums in my house somewhere, I know that I did at 1 time-I have this CD
The Innocent Age drew its inspiration from Thomas Wolfe's major novel Of Time and the River
The Rolling Stone Album Guide deemed the album "banal and overblown"
I say the Rolling Stone Album Guide is "banal and overblown" and definitely not this album
Dan Fogelberg - acoustic and electric guitars, bass, Coral electric sitar, percussion, lead and background vocals
Joni Mitchell - vocal descant
Russ Kunkel - drums
Don Alias - congas, shakers, African drums, quido, cowbells
Heart Of Darkness Chorale - chants
Producers – Dan Fogelberg and Marty Lewis
Engineer – Marty Lewis
Recorded at Northstar Studios (Boulder, CO); Caribou Ranch (Nederland, CO); Rudy Records and Wally Heider Studios (Hollywood, CA)
Sunset Sound (Los Angeles, CA); Record Plant (Sausalito, CA)
Mixed at Sunset Sound
Cover Design – Kosh
Cover Photography – Dan Fogelberg and Andy Katz
Liner Photography – Andy Katz
Liner Notes – David Awells
Text – Thomas Wolfe
Across the vein of night there cuts a path of searing light
Burning like a beacon on the edges of our sight
At the point of total darkness and the lights divine divide
A soul can let its shadow stretch and land on either side, either side
And balanced on the precipice the moment must reveal
Naked in the face of time, our race within the wheel
As we hang beneath the heavens, and we hover over hell
Our hearts become the instruments we learn to play so well
So wealthy the spirit that knows its own flight
Stealthy the hunter who slays his own fright
Blessed the traveler who journeys the length of the light
Outside the pull of gravity, beyond the spectral veil
Within our careful reasoning, we search to no avail
For the constant in the chaos, for the fulcrum in the void
Following a destiny our steps cannot avoid
Across the vein of night there cuts a path of searing light
Burning like a beacon on the edges of our sight
At the point of total darkness and the lights divine divide
A soul can let its shadow stretch and land on either side
Wealthy the spirit that knows its own flight
Stealthy the hunter who slays his own fright
Blessed the traveler who journeys the length of the light
In a spiral never-ending are we drawn towards the source
Spinning at the mercy of an unrelenting force
So we stare into the emptiness and fall beneath the weight
Circling the Nexus in a fevered dance with fate
Wealthy the spirit that knows its own flight
Stealthy the hunter who slays his own fright
Blessed the traveler who journeys the length of the light
