Track 4: Selections from "Delirium" part 2

There's a Girl
Written on November 24, 2006

This one fought me, the original was bad, but I liked the bridge, so I built a whole new number around it - changed and fleshed out the remaining lyrics by riffing on the Tubes "She's a Beauty". The melody also morphed from folk to the 60s stylings I ended up with here (with a Bond-esque lead). I like the illustrative words... "Raising the dead", "Beatnik Degas". The spoken background vocals were a nod to Peter Cook's sing-speaking in "Bedazzled".  I wanted it to end with kind of a sour note, so if that sounds a little off... that was intentional.

Lyrics

I drove a straight line, out to the State line, trying to find a place to clear my head

I went unguarded, to lands uncharted, I didn't know she could raise the dead

From the corner of my eye, she appeared like a lullaby

Offering choices with only one way to chose

I hear it repeated, I am defeated, she asks the question I can not refuse

There's a girl who dances at night, glowing green in the blackest of light

There's a girl, there's a girl, who stands above the law

There's a girl who dances at night, glowing green in the blackest of light

There's a girl, there's a girl, she's a work of art, she's my beatnik Degas

Staring at the ceiling, I got this bad feeling, I'm in a no-win situation

She came in a dream, took a hold of a seam, and all I do is smile as I come undone

Chorus

And as my car cuts a path back home, I find her everywhere

She swims through my mind and I breathe her in like air.

Muse
Written on January 2007

Speaks of writer's block, suicidal thoughts (the train line), and the feeling of renewal when you find someone who inspires you. The drums are too strident, a funeral march, I would have scrubbed that and re-recorded them had the project come to completion. I had a scratchy throat (I think I caught something) so I was in primarily to record instruments that day, but laid down this guide vocal, I couldn't sing to full strength but never returned to re-record it.

One of the rare tracks on "Delirium" that had bass, and the only one with keys. I wanted to add tympany on the chorus to punctuate the end of each line... I find you in the blackest corner "Boom, Boom!"

Lyrics

When my words have all gone dead

And all the white noise in my head, knocks me off my chosen course

When I think that I've gone mad

There's no reason to be had, in a world without remorse

I find you in the blackest corner, I find you when I'm without a friend

I find you in the heart of the storm, I find you at the bitter end

I find you and nothing's so awful anymore

When my pen falls cold and sterile

And I'm at the point of peril, watching as the trains roll by

As I conclude my mind's a curse

That's when I find you in a verse, and I know it's not my day to die

Chorus, with... I find you and I'm not broken anymore

And what do I believe in, when I'm falling through the cracks

I must believe in something, 'cause I keep coming back

The Last to Know
Written on January 2007

I love poppy music, from Beatlemania to XTC. I was dinking around with the guitar when this hooky melody struck like a meteor. For the section about Min, I originally wrote "burned", then then the word "cauterized" popped into my brain and that made me happy, such a better, colorful, word. I also used "Power Rangers" in the lyrics, but wanted to change that, and remembered when I thought the Vapors were singing "cyclone ranger" in their song "Turning Japanese" (it was actually "psyched lone ranger"), so Power Rangers became Cyclone Rangers. 

For such an upbeat catchy sound, the lyrics are bitter and self-deprecating. I was hurt and lashing out, and not playing nice here.

Wade told me not to release it until he could do a proper master (he thought it had the potential to get radio play), but of course, it never got that far. I also wanted to add a drum roll at the end, and re-record the vocal there. Oh, and I used so many tracks for the claps, that my hands were in pain (and bright red) by the end. 

Lyrics

Brenda's saying I'm history, I ask her why she was toying with me

She got to flex her feminine wiles and left me stranded at "nowhere for miles"

Hey! Hey! Guess I'm just a little slow (2x)

Hey! Hey! Seems I'm always the last to know

Linda finally had her fill, she tightened the noose going for the slow kill

She didn't get her white picket fence, so she dumped my ass with omnipotence

Chorus

There's always someone with a faster car, someone who can take them far

Someone who gives them a little danger, and dresses like a cyclone ranger.

Chorus

Then there was Min as sweet as sin, I was cauterized by the warmth of her skin

But something shiny caught her eye, and she rode off to the sunset with a samurai

Sweet Madness
Written on December 2006

This was a buried treasure that I stumbled upon while listening to old Fostex recordings. It was a short sliver of a tune but I was captivated and set down to finish and flesh it out. 

In recording it I was trying to capture the Clash's guitar sound on "London Calling", Wade didn't have a doodad that would mimic that sound, so he used Johnny Ramone's Mosrite on the first, rhythm guitar track. On the second guitar track, I was barring chords and bending the strings, and my fingers got so tired and ached so much that I could barely stretch the strings on retakes, and longed for a whammy bar. It all went out of tune by the end of the session, but that just added to its off-kilter sound. 

I wanted my final vocals to echo and bounce, but we never got to that. The title was given, partly, in honor of a Spokane band from the late 70s that I liked.

Lyrics

I, played the game, I went insane

And for a while I found a little happiness, with you

In my, darkest state, I named it fate

It all goes wrong, a persistent infection has murdered my love

But I took you in when I knew without a doubt

Though we fit like second skin, you would have to cast me out

Sweet madness tastes, like such a waste

Peace I'd find if I could only stay in that state of mind

Seattle
Written on April 27, 2007

I was originally going to end the album with a grim little number titled "Eulogy", but I felt the CD needed to close on a more positive note, so I whipped this up. The lyrics are little snapshots of my time in Seattle with my muse. Musically it doesn't follow the tradition "verse, chorus, verse" style. I like experimenting with structure and I consider melodies like this, something akin to walking down a path, one road leads to another and never falls back to a primary chorus. 

I was playing about with minor 7ths around this time as well, and they make their way into this.

The order of events is random - the sale clerk mistaking me for her brother, happened when I bought her the hat (The Ringo hat I called it (which came from an MST3K riff), was like the one he wore in the film "A Hard Day's Night").

Wade really liked this one and much preferred it over the bleak "Eulogy".   

Lyrics

Cigarettes and bubble tea, the Catheters playing on CD

The salesclerk thought I was swinging from your family tree

Jimi Hendrix and bitter coffee, driving aimless with no urgency

It doesn't matter that were lost when I'm in your company

Making Kung Fu moves in the grocery store

The sound of your laughter was a song for this troubadour

Collette, you looked so cute in that Ringo hat I bought you

As we walked, the sound of a drum filled the cool night air

Seattle was ours and to think of tomorrow

Well I, I didn't dare... I didn't dare

Seattle was ours, and I wish I was back there

I wish I was back there

I wish we were back there

<  To Delirium part 1