F# B
There’s three ways out of every box:
Fall out the bottom, or you crawl out the top.
F# B F# B
There’s three ways out of every, every box.
B Bb B
But if you can’t find your way out,
Then you just burn it to the ground,
B Bbm – Abm B – Bbm – Abm F# B
Then you’ll disappear like smoke into the clouds.
There’s three ways off a merry-go-round:
You either jump, or you let it slow down.
There’s three ways off a merry-go, merry-go round.
But if you can’t put your foot down,
Then you just burn it to the ground.
Then you walk away real slow back into the crowd.
Abm B
There’s always somebody there for a laugh.
Then you’re the only one that’s left.
B Bbm F#
Now that’s what you get left behind in the wreck.
There’s three ways off a burning bridge:
You pray for rain or you learn how to swim.
There’s three ways off of every burning bridge.
But if you can’t find strength and you quit,
Then you can just burn up and sink.
Then you’ll drift away real slow down into the ground.
** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **
Good evening, cover song music video fans. I’m coming at you this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a selection from a band that will be releasing a brand new studio album tomorrow. The band is Spoon, and the album coming out tomorrow is Transference. I’ve only heard the single “Written in Reverse,” but that one song was enough to capture my interest.
And I couldn’t be happier, since there is little that makes me as excited as having a reason to go to the music store on a Tuesday afternoon/evening.
So, to help bide my time until tomorrow, I learned and practiced a different Spoon song this weekend and finally recorded it earlier today. The song is “Jonathon Fisk” and it is from Spoon’s 2002 album Kill the Moonlight. I had this album recommended to me by a friend just after New Year’s Day, in anticipation of their upcoming new release. I listened to it a couple times, then put it aside. Out of nowhere last week, I had the urge to hear it again, and now I can’t get enough of it. Kill the Moonlight is quirky and upbeat and experimental — all the aspects of great alternative rock music that I love!
So, it is with great pleasure that I pass along “Jonathon Fisk” to you for your consideration. Apparently, the song was written about a bully that songwriter Britt Daniel had experience with in school. Later, according to Daniel, the real-life “Fisk” attended a significant number of the band’s shows.
Interesting how life turns out…
Speaking of the oddities of our modern lives, has anyone else seen Up in the Air? It was every bit as good as I hoped it would be, but what a downer! Let’s just say that one of the characters turns out to be a… Well, a big fat doo-doo head, for lack of a better euphemism. I literally sat through all of the credits just staring at the screen in disbelief. Really though, without saying too much, I would highly recommend this one, if for no other reason than the fact that George Clooney is awesome.
Some say that we have the same chin, which I take as the highest form of compliment. Go ahead, try not to stare dreamily at my chin while you’re watching my video tonight.
In unrelated news, I’m coming up on crunch time here, as the second marking period for my school ends tomorrow and midterms run until next Monday. What does this mean for me? Well, I have essentially a week to enter and finalize grades for all my classes. I’m currently in the middle of the pile I wanted to finish by this evening, so I naturally decided that I had plenty of time to kick back and watch a couple hours of television. Now that that’s over, it’s back to work for me.
Thankfully, I had this Laptop Session post to write, so I’ve been able to procrastinate just a little longer…
But, at long last, it’s back to gradin’ for me. I hope you enjoy tonight’s video and that you’ll come back soon for another week’s worth of new material at the greatest cover song music video blog on the web today.
D… D F C G
The selfish, they’re all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time.
Me, I figure as each breath goes by,
F G D
I only own my mind.
The north is to south what the clock is to time.
There’s east and there’s west and there’s everywhere life.
I know I was born, and I know that I’ll die,
The in between is mine.
F G D
I am mine…
D G Am D
And the feeling, it gets left behind.
All the innocence lost at one time.
Significant, behind the eyes,
D Cadd9
There’s no need to hide…
Cadd9 D
We’re safe tonight.
[D – F – C – G (x2)]
The ocean is full cause everyone’s crying.
The full moon is looking for friends at hightide.
The sorrow grows bigger when the sorrow’s denied.
I only know my mind.
I am mine…
And the feeling, it gets left behind.
All the innocence lost at one time.
Significant, behind the eyes,
There’s no need to hide…
We’re safe tonight.
SOLO:
D – F – C – G (repeat)
D…
And the meaning, it gets left behind.
All the innocence broken with lies.
Significance, between the lines.
(We may need to hide)…
And the meanings that get left behind.
All the innocents lost at one time.
We’re all different behind the eyes…
There’s no need to hide.
Outro:
G – Am – D (x3)
G – Am
** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **
It was definitely one of those “clouds parting” kind of Chris Moore Mondays for me.
First of all, I should clarify that “Chris Moore Mondays” is the title we use around here to remind you all that it’s my job to post a great cover song music video for you each and every Monday evening. Next, I should explain the “clouds parting” aspect. Well, I woke up around 5:30 this morning and was having serious difficulty getting myself out of bed. Then, I noticed I had an email from bobdylan.com.
Long story short, I had woken up to find the link to a free download of the new, unreleased Bob Dylan track “Beyond Here Lies Nothin.'” It will be track one on his upcoming album, Together Through Life, to be released on Tuesday, April 28th. Sorry, Jim — this means that your birthday the following day is going to be something of an anti-climax. 😉
In all seriousness, this is an exciting bit of New Music Tuesday news. After all, there were five years of separation between 2001’s Love and Theft and 2006’s Modern Times. Now, it’s been less than three years and there’s a new release. Based on the first track alone, I couldn’t be more excited. It’s a pretty simple song — only three chords and a basic verse, chorus, repeat structure with a few instrumental breaks thrown in and a classic Dylan chorus style in which the lines in each chorus are slightly different. I wasn’t sure what to think of the lyrics at first, but they’ve really grown on me today as I’ve listened to the song repeatedly and learned to play it. I’m still not sure what to think of lines like “The whole world is my throne” or “And every window’s made of glass.”
The conclusion I’ve come to is that this is a deceptively simple song. In the beginning of the song, Dylan sings of a lover in terms that express fairly standard love-song mentalities. Still, by the end of the track, he compares himself to a ship in harbor with the sails up. This implies that the ship is about to leave harbor, or perhaps that he is ready to move on to something — or someone — new. And yet he goes on to tell his lover that she should lay her hand upon his head. In typical Dylan fashion, even a love song has darker overtones, as played out in the chorus lines. The choral sections really are my favorite lines. “Beyond here lies nothin,'” he sings, “But the mountains of the past” or “Nothin’ done and nothin’ said.” There is simply nowhere else he would rather be than where he is, as he acknowledges that there is nothing “beyond here.” The questions, of course, are 1) where is “here”? and 2) does he really want to be “here” or are there simply no better options?
As I mentioned, it’s a fairly simple song. Even I was able to figure it out in short order. It’s three chords — Am, Dm, and E — easily within my register with an uptempo beat. It’s actually caused a bit of a debate among Dylan fans who have disagreed over the use of accordion in the song and the state of Dylan’s vocal abilities. As far as I’m concerned, the instrumentation is excellent, raw and loose but very intentional and fitting, accordion or no accordion. As for Dylan’s voice, I read one user’s take on the fansite expectingrain.com. He essentially said that Dylan’s vocals have deteriorated even more than they had on Modern Times. My reaction is simple:
Really?
I mean, if you’ve followed Dylan over the past decade and enjoyed Time Out of Mind or the aforementioned two albums, then you know that his gritty vocals are fitting. He may not stand a chance on American Idol, but I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing! Another post that I read made a great deal of sense. This user basically argued that Dylan’s vocals on studio recordings and during live performances should be weighed separately. I agree with this — while his vocals may be a bit difficult to understand and follow in concerts at times, his studio recordings haven’t failed to impress me — including vocals, instruments, etc.
Needless to say, I hope you enjoy my take on this brand new Dylan song. If you’re a guitarist, you should check out my chords and lyrics (see the link above) and have fun playing it yourself. And, without further ado, I wish you a good night and a great week…
