I've always liked a lack of repetition in songs and since this is actually three songs in sequence, there's no repetition until the end, when all three songs take turns repeating a line. Later on, when we get to the song "Repetition" you'll get the full brunt of Knees Calhoon's attack on mindless repeating in music. This song is just a ballad about wandering lovers.
Too bad I can't reduce the reverb on the vocals. That's a problem with just about all of the recordings I made back in the early 90s: I can mix them to sound much, much better, but I can't take off the dripping effects I drenched the songs with back then.
Jimmy Webb wrote a book about songwriting back in 1998 called TUNESMITH and thanks to Gavin O'Keefe's recommending it to me, I finally read it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had taught myself many of the tricks he advocated. In fact, it reminded me that one of my old songs from the early 70s was written on the piano with Glen Campbell in mind, and it was Jimmy Webb songs that made Campbell into one of the biggest cross-over stars of that time. So I redid "Boston Trilogy" and asked Gavin to add some viola and voila! A Knees Calhoon Jimmy Webblike song.
BOSTON TRILOGY 2014
Which is better?
BOSTON TRILOGY
(The Original Version)
Written: Kirtland NM,
summer 1970, Monterey Street, Farmington NM, 1972
This is actually three
separate songs blended together. A couple of them were written in the style of
Glen Campbell, who was popular at the time, and they were all written on the
piano. Oddly, when Knees recorded them in the 90s, he decided to use a guitar
arrangement for all three. The blending almost makes sense.
Boston girl just common
people,
But she’s been down
On the streets far too
long now,
No one wants her
around.
She comes to me with
tears in her eyes,
Tears she can’t cry
Oh what can I tell her
That she doesn’t
already know.
So if you see her on
the road,
Won’t you please be
kind to her
Try to help her with
her load
Cuz she’s got such a
long way to go
She’s all alone but
she’s comin home.
I’ll treat you like a
fragile flower
Til you feel like
growin,
It’s a sadness deep
inside to see you fallen.
Like a soothin shade on
a summer day,
My love is overflowin,
Your kiss is like the
gentle touch of pollen.
Our words are blown
away by the eastern wind
And washed into the
earth by the rain.
We look up to the sky
as the clouds drift by
The grass grows tall
around us
Hides us from the train
That’s chuggin through
the countryside
Headin down to Austin.
It’s been a year since
we ran away from Boston.
Floral Web
