I don't know how other songwriters do their thing but Knees would consider a song "written" when he had all the words, chords and melody in place. So in 1973 on that day, he wrote the two songs. But when they were recorded in 1993, all that was left from the 1973 event were sheets of paper with the words and chords listed and a vague memory of the melodies. So the work I did in 1993 in arranging and recording was probably just as "important" as the actual writing of the songs.
I quit playing professionally in 1987 so the arrangements and harmonies were those that occurred to a guy who had gone six years without thinking about or playing music very much.
I quit playing professionally in 1987 so the arrangements and harmonies were those that occurred to a guy who had gone six years without thinking about or playing music very much.
Written: Electronics Class, TVI, Albuquerque NM, 1973
Knees was exceptionally bored one day in vocational school and wrote the lyrics to two songs, Death on the Horizon and Who Cares As Long As I Get Mine? (a C&W contrarian song). At noon he decided to take the rest of the day off and went home and wrote the music to both. It's pretty obvious that once again Neil Young inspired this one.
Were you down by the river
In the cold last night
Did you see someone
lyin on the sand
Did you hear the sound
of someone
Cursin black and white
Did you feel the blood
on your hands?
Tell the world there’s
death on the horizon
Murder in the hearts of
the people you love
If a song would stain
the killer
With the blood of his
victim
Would you dare to sing
the words
You’re thinkin of?
Was he black, was he
white?
You never did say
If he was a friend
Did you know the other
guy too?
Did you get a
premonition
Of the coming of the
end
Just what the hell are
you gonna do?
Tell the world there’s
death on the horizon
Murder in the hearts of
the people you love
If a song would stain
the killer
With the blood of his
victim
Would you dare to sing
the words
You’re thinkin of?
Was he wrong, was he
right?
Pointy
