Beautiful Funeral Song: “Dance with Life (The Brilliant Light)” by Bryan Ferry

Credit: knappphotography.wordpress.com

In 1996, this wonderful song — written by Bernie Taupin (best-known for his work with Elton John) and Martin Page — appeared in one of my favorite films, Phenomenon. Sung by the incredibly talented Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music fame, I have always found the lyrics of “Dance with Life (The Brilliant Light)” to beautifully capture the feelings and thoughts of the eternal love between two lovers that we all hope to attain and experience in our lifetimes.

“Dance with Life” fits perfectly with the plot of Phenomenon, where a man discovers he has a terminal brain tumor that has given him special powers and that he possesses limited time to savor his budding romantic relationship before his demise. When Bryan Ferry’s angelic voice starts off singing, “I was thinking out loud/One life’s such a short time for love/When a match made in heaven arrives/Eternity is never enough,” it makes anyone who has ever loved someone deeply and romantically realize how true those words can be when the thought of being physically separated, when one half of your unbreakable bond dies, seems unbearable.

To discover true love is a blessing for which we should be eternally grateful.

Bryan Ferry
(Credit: Amazon.com)

“Dance with Life” serves as a beautiful funeral song that reminds grieving loved ones to live every day as though it might be your last while always cherishing — and never taking for granted — your soul mates, if we are lucky enough to find them. To discover true love is a blessing for which we should be eternally grateful. Living life to the fullest and filled with thrilling mutual true love will sustain us when the inevitable event of death happens and during the grieving process.

“…There’s no brilliance like beauty out there
No knowledge as wise as the heart
We all need reason to care
I need to dance with life
Sweep you away into the night
When there is no one else around
I will make every day count
We need to dance with life
Swim in the soul of your eyes
’til we melt into the night
We need to dance with life
And we leave a brilliant light behind
We could lay on the ground
We could look at that light in the sky
Show the moon and the million stars
The stars that we become when we die…”

Read the rest of the lyrics here.