This piece arose and was recorded July ’83 with an acoustic guitar and a bit of imagination. I wanted something that was musically a bit “angular,” and was not feeling that pop songs were the best way to assert one’s ideas and individuality. This piece presents another of my best attempts at composing in an odd time-signature: 13/8; one which I do not feel I could have managed more effectively. At the time (7-20-83), I wrote in my journal:
It’s basically a story about imaginary fear created by anticipation, exaggerated like I usually see to do so, and drawn out to a morbid level. A guy is going to the train station to pick up his girl, but the fear and consequences of imaginary circumstances destroys him way before he even gets there, so that he is actually shrieking “Stay on the train!!!” by the end.
No question it’s supposed to evoke a bit of the Cure, with the wailing voices in the background and the sense of the imaginary world being stronger than the real, in the mind of he who is willing to believe in the mind’s right to create such horrors… Fine, but only for those who live for experimentation. This is to be a minimalist example, but the musical complexity enters, with the background guitar, distorted and in 13/8, which corresponds to the verse:
You’re in my compartment I fell out of love Sat by the window Closed my lids I hear your mind in the back As it slips and skids
My problem with the lyrics is that I don’t understand all of them. “I lie face down?” “While I was there I hid?” It must really mean “I shut myself out… “
1983_1101 : Stay On The Train
Description
This piece arose and was recorded July ’83 with an acoustic guitar and a bit of imagination. I wanted something that was musically a bit “angular,” and was not feeling that pop songs were the best way to assert one’s ideas and individuality. This piece presents another of my best attempts at composing in an odd time-signature: 13/8; one which I do not feel I could have managed more effectively. At the time (7-20-83), I wrote in my journal:
It’s basically a story about imaginary fear created by anticipation, exaggerated like I usually see to do so, and drawn out to a morbid level. A guy is going to the train station to pick up his girl, but the fear and consequences of imaginary circumstances destroys him way before he even gets there, so that he is actually shrieking “Stay on the train!!!” by the end.
No question it’s supposed to evoke a bit of the Cure, with the wailing voices in the background and the sense of the imaginary world being stronger than the real, in the mind of he who is willing to believe in the mind’s right to create such horrors… Fine, but only for those who live for experimentation. This is to be a minimalist example, but the musical complexity enters, with the background guitar, distorted and in 13/8, which corresponds to the verse:
You’re in my compartment
I fell out of love
Sat by the window
Closed my lids
I hear your mind in the back
As it slips and skids
My problem with the lyrics is that I don’t understand all of them. “I lie face down?” “While I was there I hid?” It must really mean “I shut myself out… “
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