Notes:
This week we’ve got a wistful little number about ambitions failing and what you do when that happens. It is a traveling song. Parts of it are about leaving behind the city of Philadelphia and the friends, band-mates, and missed opportunities that I left down there. Other parts of it are about a girl. In either case the song discusses losing faith, first in one’s self, and then in something greater. It is about trying to find that faith again by looking for it elsewhere. The song is a little cliche, but it knows that it is and it just doesn’t care, because cliches are reflections of ways that people actually feel about things. This song is nothing if not honest.
We’ve got Nick Mastors back again this week, and I’d like you all to wish him luck as he and his girlfriend Liz are embarking as we speak on an adventure in Costa Rica! Nick provided much of the thick Americana in this tune with his lovely mandolin part. I have to say that I’m jealous that he beat me to playing a mandolin on this website, but he did it very well if I do say so. We juxtaposed the mandolin with thick synthesizers (the original working title of this song was LazerFolk), as well as triumphant guitar harmonies.
The accompanying artwork is a photograph of Boston in the fog taken by Eben Lindsey, my older brother. He is an extremely accomplished photographer and I suggest you do yourself a favor and take a look at his flickr page. I felt that this photograph was emblematic of the isolation and wandering that this song is attempting to elicit. I am quite thankful to have such a talented brother who is generous enough with his work to allow me to use it on this blog.
I have obtained a new synthesizer! Expect your brain to melt this time next week.
Here’s hoping your Monday doesn’t totally suck.
~Jesse
lyrics
Lyrics:
North in an old sedan
I broke my fall one autumn
Like a dream I thought I’d never land
And I was a bitter man
Good God I’d lost most of my heart
To a fruitless plan
When I came home again
Familiar trees they could scrape the breeze
One hundred feet above where I had left them
And I was breathless then
And I’ll lose my breath on a strangers breast
When I get my chance again and I will thank her
Lets get this right
I’m telling you It was the virgin on the turnpike
And the offer of a another kind of life
And I’m comin’ up light
Could be I’m burnt out on the savior
And I’m not so good with favors and I ain’t right
And It was getting late
So I dragged my fool heart
Clear across town in a vulnerable state
Well she was the going rate
And I lost my cool when she saw me
‘Cause she knew she could see through me in every way
So just off the interstate
Like some mud kicked kid I looked down into my bleeding heart
And it spoke to me like a brand new language
It was something like an act of faith
I was lookin’ at Jesus and the Buddha read the Bhagavad Gita
They was talkin’ about Krishna, God I wished that I was with them
Well let’s get this right
I’m talkin’ about the virgin on the turnpike
And the promise of a another kind of life
And I’m comin’ up light
Seems that I’m burnt out on the savior
‘Cause I’m not so good with favors and I ain’t right
credits
released December 27, 2010
Nick Mastors
Jesse Mitchell Lindsey