You learn a little something when you start playing rock music. Or you don’t; I suppose the likelihood that you don’t pick something up is probably roughly equal to the likelihood that you do. Regardless, the rock came from the blues, and the blues is all based, more or less, on a certain progression. I don’t know any music theory, but it’s essentially a chord, the perfect seventh higher than that chord (or some variation of the chord), and what (I think) ever is the first chord’s perfect ninth. If I’m wrong, so be it. If someone played the progression for you, you’d recognize it no matter what key it was played in.
Anyway.
Most blues and blues-based songs can be traced more or less to this progression. There’s some country, some rock, and I’m sure even some polka that uses it. I’ve done it plenty of times, the Beatles did it at least thirty times; it’s just inescapable. Well, one day, practicing in the old Smith/Harshman “dining” room, I just kind of started playing a little E to A (and later, Amaj7), with an advanced-blues progression of C#m to B to E at the tail end of what we will from here on out refer to as “the half-verse measure.” Remember how I don’t know any theory? I’m bad with terminology, too!
The song came about because I started fucking around with a normal blues progression, singing retarded lyrics (as I will often do, whether I’m feeling out a melody or not), and after a line or two, Don immediately came in with the punchy one-two drum beat, and we kept going ’round and ’round. Sam came up with a guitar riff on the spot which was later abandoned (and I’m now thinking should be reincorporated somewhere, anywhere, please). After a few minutes of fucking around with it, I started singing seriously. Well, as seriously as I ever sing. That was the first of May, 2006.
It’s debatable what I sang the first few times we played the song. I’ll try to show a sentient thought process through the revisions below. You can hear the beginnings of the final chorus in the May 1st practice. Two choruses in, I changed a shaky early melody to what it is now and got closer to the finished chorus lyrics.
Because I name every song we do at practice when I’m turning the recording into mp3s, I named it “Country Song”–because that’s all it was, our little country song–and it stuck. That name, as per usual (with me, at least), flavored the lyrics I wrote for it.
I’m seriously going to give you almost all the lyrics ever written, riffed on, or joked about for this song. Don’t worry, I let a ton of revisions disappear with my C drive when I installed a new version of XP on my computer, so you’ll be spared the true scope of the process. In fact, I only have on surviving file with lyrics in it, so ashamed am I usually of previous revisions when I write a new one. Anyway. Let’s watch my brain slowly, slowly try to make something cohesive out of a rather opaque chorus:
May 1st lyrics:
it’s been a long time coming just around the bend
I don’t want you coming if it’s with him
everybody wants something to turn out right
I’ve seen it a lot, and I’ll see it again
if you don’t figure out who are your friends
and your enemies are just friends without wings
you go on
______ ____
you come along
and risk everything (?)
you analyze
around your head (?)
are you an angel or are you just dead?
I told you my offer
I’ll give you my last
we used to talk of the future
now we only talk of the past
then you came out there (came out there)
you came out there
then you came out there (came out there)
you came out there
you came out there and answered everything
sure, i’ve got some questions
you wouldn’t answer true
I never thought I’d question you
I understand now
I’ll answer for what I’ve done
if he answers (?) I’ll be out by one
and I saw you out there (saw you out there)
I saw you out there
and I saw you out there (saw you out there)
I saw you out there
you make me sing, yeah, you make me sing
you answered everything
The next recording I have of “Country Song” is a month later, after I’ve had ample time to come up with real lyrics. Well, somewhat. You’ll see. I certainly kept adlibbing. In the intervening time, the lyrics had gone from weird lines like, “Well, I met your mother, she’s a sonofabitch, got that something something and seven year itch,” which I liked because it made no sense, and which Sam hated. There was this period of two or three weeks where I was trying to make the chorus lyrics be about drowning someone until they gave up their secrets (”I held you down there”), but it sounded too much like lame oral sex inuendo, so I dropped it.
We’d also talked a lot about renaming the song because we wanted to take it seriously, and calling it “Country Song” felt like we were slighting it, which we weren’t.
A side note: this song is entirely about an ex-girlfriend, but the “__________” lines aren’t omitted out of kindness; I just can’t tell what I’m singing.
Anyway.
June 15th lyrics:
been a long time coming
just around the bend
I know you see me wandering about friends
well, I’ll tell you don’t have to worry about them
well, I’m taking out my patience and I’m wearing it thin
I got all these reasons for interferring (?)
______________
______________
but you left me out there (out there)
you left me out there (out there)
but you left me out there (out there)
you left me out there (out there)
I make you scream
you make me sing
until I tell you everything
well I’m trying not to budge
I’m trying not to grin
just want to find a place to stick it in
someone to share a bed with while you’re away
you might say I’m lonely
desperate too
but no one’s desperate to be around you
but I’m desperate to be _______ too
but you left me out there (left me out there)
you left me out there
but you left me out there (left me out there)
you left me out there
you make me sing
I make you scream
until you tell me everything
June 22st:
been a long time coming, just around the bend
I see you woman, you’ve got your friends
but no one’s really looking for them
_____________
_____________
and that was how it was and that was fine
but you left me out there (you know it by now)
well I know your father, yeah I know your mom
and I know both of them wanting me gone
so I’m riding the next train out of here
I’m packing up my boots
and I’m packing up my things
packing my guitar and some brand new strings
and see if better accommodations can be arranged
but you left me out there
_______________
I always been around for that starting gun
yeah, I hope I’m around when that days
_______________
_______________
well I got me a right to take that ride back to the country
you left me out there
August 16th:
been a long, long time, just around the bend
I’ve seen you wanting, watched you bend
I’m always up for what you try to sell
_____________________
_____________________
but you won’t give up much around me
chorus change:
I make you laugh, you make me sing
and now you’re thinking about putting off
yeah, you can’t stand getting enough
there’s nothing that you have that I want
when I’m taking your intentions and what they were
and I’m taking it all to another girl
and leaving you on this country road
chorus
At some point, I think I stopped kidding myself what I was writing about, and I started focusing on saying it the best way I could with the exact points I wanted to get across:
- the idea of a big time girl in a small time town, and never wanting to give up that status by putting yourself in a bigger pond (oh, the fish part comes in later)
- the idea of moving on to bigger things (from the country to the city)
- the idea of someone driving me nuts until I write a song about it and spill all my secrets
- somehow making the chorus make sense with the verses.
There’s some snide remarks thrown in for good measure, of course, because that’s the way it’s supposed to be done (right?), but I doubt anyone understands them but me. Which is how it’s done (right?). This is how it’s sung (sing it when it comes around on the gi-tar):
1, 2, 1 2 3 4
you’ve spent your whole life running down that country road
getting back in shape and staying close to home
with looks like yours, there’s no telling how far you’ll go
you always turn around before you hit the county line
you’re a big fish swimming and it suits you fine
you’ll be married here, you’ll be buried here in time
it’s no surprise
that you left me out there (left me out there)
you left me out there
I make you scream; you make me sing
until I’ve told you everything
the day you gave me walking papers, well, I took a hike
hitched a new direction on the old turnpike
and I hit the city limits by early light
and I found the things that I’ve been searching for
all those just-like minds and those open doors
so I don’t think much of the country anymore
since you left me out there (left me out there)
you left me out there
I make you scream; you make me sing
until I’ve told you everything
well, I know one day I’m gonna come back home
gonna see you walking down that country road
we’ll stop and talk, and I’ll say I ‘ve got to go
and you’ll bat your lashes and you’ll give me a smile
the prettiest thing in a country mile
but I’ve been thinking in city blocks since the time you were mine
and you left me out there (left me out there)
you left me out there
I make you scream; you make me sing
until I’ve told you everything
And yet, that wasn’t the final word on lyrics. While I’m perfectly happy with the lyrics as they are on the Longer Days EP, I don’t sing them that way live. Generally, the lyrics chance in this way when we play the song live:
the day you gave me walking papers
well, I took a hike
hitched a new direction on the old Turnpike
and I hit the Verrazano by early light
and I found those things that I’ve been searching for
all those just-like minds/mine’s
and those open doors
so I don’t think much of Jersey anymore
and
one day I know I’m gonna come back home
gonna see you crawling down that country road
