I Wish Someone Would Create a Video Using This Song.

Inspiration strikes when and where it will, and recently I have been inspired on many levels by a song called “Brother” from Need to Breathe.  Hearing the song on the radio is one experience, listening online to acoustic versions, accompanied by the barest of instrumentals besides driving guitar chords is another level.  At every level, whether it’s the studio version complete with mixers and driving instrumental accompaniments or coffeehouse versions stripped down with guitars and pulsing percussions and vocals, raw and unfiltered by a mic or a mixer, the song resonates – and the brothers Winchester are never far from my mind.

The opening stanza sets the stage:

“Ramblers in the wilderness we can’t find what we need/Get a little restless from the searching/Get a little worn down in between.  Like a bull chasing the matador is the man left to his own schemes/ Everybody needs someone beside ‘em shining like a lighthouse from the sea.”

Sounds like our boys, doesn’t it?  While they may have a regular place to call their own, the bunker, they remain wanderers, forever following a path that surely, to Dean’s mind at least, ends in their destruction.  He may long for something else – and two times experienced it, once with the innocence of a child, and once because of a promise made to a soon-to-be-lost-to-the-cage Sam:  a family, a home, cookouts and football and picnics – the apple-pie life, he remains steadfast in his belief that his life ends bloody and violent.  It’s also clear that the brothers need each other.  Whenever they go it alone, things go sideways.  Sometimes things go sideways because of their love for the other, but the driving reality is that one without the other is lost.

“Brother let me be your shelter/ I’ll never leave you all alone/I can be the one you call/When you’re low.  Brother let me be your fortress/When the night winds are driving on/Be the one to light the way/Bring you home.”

Over ten seasons there are countless times the brothers’ love for each other has carried them through the difficult times.  The fandom by extension has found that love and support.  I’ve never been to a convention, but I catch articles and videos and snippets here and there and hear the same story time and time again:  I found my best friend here, I found people who have supported me in difficult times, Supernatural saved my life – be it literaly or figuratively.  I know a little bit about my life being saved, both literaly and figuratively, and, yes, Supernatural has had a profound effect on my life.  While it may not have saved my life in a literal sense, it certainly has carried me through some tough times, and there is an indelible impression on my life because of it.

“And when you call and need me near/Sayin’ where'd you go?/Brother I’m right here/And on those days when the sky begins to fall/You’re the blood of my blood/We can get through it all.”

William “Bear” Rinehart carries the majority of the vocals, while his brother, Nathanial “Bo” Rinehart, provides support, sometimes softly singing a phrase in duet, as if supporting the idea of brothers carrying each other during the hard times, and then, when the two join their voices on the refrain, it is powerful listening to their blend of voices and realizing the harmony that exists with two voices in perfect pitch with each other, while maintaining their individual identity.

The official video is stark, the two brothers in a large box that is lit while everything around them is dark.  At times the box shrinks so they are stooped, at times there are other images intercut showing younger versions of brothers.  There is a beautiful image of the young brothers standing with their backs to the camera and one puts his arm on the other’s back in a show of support.  Near the end of the video we are treated to the identical image, but this time it is “Bo” mimicking the earlier scene with “Bear” receiving the support as the song fades on the words:  “Bring you home.”

I dare you not to have images of Sam and Dean running through your minds as this song plays.  I see Dean reaching out to Sam at the end of “Sacrifice” telling him to let it go and gripping him in a hug.  I see Sam hugging Dean tightly at the end of “Mystery Spot” after the Trickster’s time-bending torment.  I see moments of laughter, relief at finding the other all right after a violent encounter, I see moments of quiet reflection as they share a beer or sit on the Impala and stare at the stars. 
“Brother let me be your shelter/I’ll never leave you all alone…bring you home.”

I leave you the video off YouTube to enjoy.