a bit of a strange one musically this month, in that i can't really pinpoint who i was trying to rip off! i kind of had a vague idea of making a lo-fi, psychedelic kind of groove thing (pocahaunted, sun araw, caught ship (who i've listened to a bit this week) etc) but, by the time it took shape, there wasn't much lo-fi and everything seems to get telafonicanised. which is ok, i guess. there were a few melodic things, like the last line, which was always the intention of bec's lyrics, referencing the beatles' 'she's leaving home'. the first vocal idea was a fairly monotone ian curtis type of thing, but that didn't work too well amidst the repetitive music. normally i need to de-melodicise my songs (david, marcella and bec have all independently suggested i do so at different times over the years), but this time, at bec's suggestion, it was decided it needed more melody, to counter the music. so i actually used the first little bit of melody from 'she's leaving home' as the starting point ("wednesday morning at..."). although being set against a minor key it probably isn't immediately obvious. but there it is.
As Adrian has just stated, I wanted to write a song that countered the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home". I wanted a prodigal song where home is a good place. I wrote it in phrases that kinda float and join with each other in different ways depending on how you say it/sing it. As usual, I wrote a complete whole and then Adrian said to write more so I had to undo some seams and "let it out" a bit more but I think it still works as a narrative arc. Was fun!
She's Coming Home
Wheels on the tarmac
Steaming horizon
The height and the distance
Once she was Wednesday
And choosing was leaving
The depth and the weight
And the distance between
The emptiness rising
Like endless destruction
Despair and the silence
The vanishing vision
The darkness consuming
Like cancer and coffee
Blame spreading out
Like blood in the water
The emptiness rising
And bringing her under
The mess and the media
Tedious beating
Of heart, mind and radio
In through the window
The ache of blank solitude
Squalor and servitude
The inner corrosive
The rust and the rubbish
Of madness and memory
Tedium timeless
The breathing monotonous
Breathing and absence
Of one Other breathing
The waiting for nothing
The lonely control
The choice and the keeping
The space and prediction
Of residence distant
Flat plain kilometres
Every direction
Every perspective
Is loss and the absence
Of goodness and grace
Grim face of honesty
Honesty speaking
Speaking her name
In the unlikely place
The sun and the exit
The exit quite open
The slope and the landslide
Of prodigal hearts
Wheels on the tarmac
Steaming horizon
The height and the distance
Now she is Sunday
And choosing returning
The high and the free
And the distance behind
She's coming home
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