Feb 2022 folk storytelling full-band guitar acoustic
Inspired very, very loosely by some mythology. This isn't a retelling of the Bran story or anything, I just used it as a jumping off point. There's a tiny bit of Paradise Lost in here as well (that was actually the working title), though I can't really give a reason for that. In the myths, Bran asks his companions to cut his head off and take it back to Britain when he's mortally wounded. They take it back to England where it continues to speak and entertain them. (I'm not linking to the Wikipedia page like I normally would because it's not completely relevant to the song. The story in this song is really just someone who's lost their ability to sing/lead/whatever and it's being observed by someone who knew them in their prime.
The kind of vagueness of the story here is no doubt part of the reason I had to keep putting this one down for several days (I started it Sunday), and I'm not totally sure it's the best it can be, but it was the best I could make it right now. Actually my frustation with this song was the reason I wrote the previous song "D-E-A-D," which has the severed head in it ... though in a completely different context of course.
I did the vocal and guitar free (no click), then overdubbed the drums and the keyboards. Somewhat dumbly, I didn't fix a couple little places where I had an extra bar, so I had to edit all the instruments after the recording was done to fix that. It's not so much that the extra bars annoy me, it's just that they weren't adding anything to the song.
For this kind of whisper folk/jazz production my touchstones are usually the Knopfler track Rudiger (on Golden Heart) and the Tom Waits track Kiss Me (from Bad as Me) (they've both done a couple other tracks like this and obviously they're also copping the sound from old recordings).
Gm Eb
He’s a ragged angel of shame
Bb Gm
As thin as a matchbook and as thin as a flame
Eb F
And he’s warming his wings while trying to hum
Eb Gm
A tune like a sermon from the lips of the dumb
Eb Ddim Gm11 Gm
Like ashes and charcoal
D7
It carries a memory of love
The prince of a skeleton crew
The fisher king wounded on park avenue
Everyone has a chance, one chance to guess wrong
But as a rule you don’t regret one decision this long
And if you think it’s easy
Try dragging that burden alone
Once he was the better of us
Mighty high praise though we didn’t make a fuss
And he walked in the night, alone with his voice
in towers and tunnels, defiant with joy
If you heard it as we did
You might have made the same choice
Like many he’s wished he was dead
Maybe it's selfish not blaming himself
To crawl to the stage and take his last bow
To give up himself to tear Pandemonium down
But a raven’s throat
At best make a heartbreaking sound
@bethdesombre Feb 2022
What images you use here! This paints a vivid but/and mysterious picture. The "once he was the better of us" stanza does a good job of putting a frame around the pieces that come before.
@paulroe Feb 2022
Very cool mellow sound.
Literary and mythological references a major plus! Nothing like northern European decapitation tales and mortally wounded folk to make a gripping tale :-)
@whispermouse Feb 2022
Love the natural feel here - this sort of thing is why I really want to learn to play drums!
The story here is one that any of us will see played out if we stay in one music "scene" for any length of time. I think maybe we all live in fear of the day when we find that G chord a bit harder to make than it used to be.
Really enjoyable harmony, interesting without being jarring. And of course the lyrics hit nicely.