The song is a call not to think of ourselves too highly or our daily concerns – because what we see is ephemeral – but to look up towards that which is eternal and substantial. The song has a number of themes that are reiterated in Thrice’s 2009 song, “Beggars”.
The song title is a reference to Isa...
[Verse 1]
The towers that shoulder your pride
The words you've written in stone
Sand will cover them, sand will cover you
The streets that suffer your name
Your very flesh and your bones
Sand will cover them, sand will cover you
[Chorus]
So put your faith in more than steel
Don't store your treasures up with moth and rust
Where thieves break in and steal
Pull the fangs from out your heel
We live in but a shadow of the real
[Bridge]
Step out from time
See the dust of nations
Step out from time
Hear the stars' ovation
[Verse 2]
Saturn will not sleep until the sand has made us clean
Still we stack our stones and bury what we can
But it all will be undone, and nothing built under the sun
Will ever stand before the endless march of sand
[Chorus]
So put your faith in more than steel
Don't store your treasures up with moth and rust
Where thieves break in and steal
Pull the fangs from out your heel
We live in but a shadow of the real
[Chorus]
So put your faith in more than steel
Don't store your treasures up with moth and rust
Where thieves break in and steal
Pull the fangs from out your heel
We live in but a shadow of the real
Of Dust and Nations was written by Dustin Kensrue & Teppei Teranishi & Eddie Breckenridge & Riley Breckenridge.
Of Dust and Nations was produced by Steve Osborne.
Thrice released Of Dust and Nations on Tue Oct 18 2005.