Comments on: the River Girl

the River Girl

verysleeping — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:53:07 -0800

A song by my band, the Notes and Scratches, kind of about Vivian Eliot and featuring a bunch of water. I sing and play the acoustic and the harmonium.

By: verysleeping

verysleeping — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:59:17 -0800

This was the last song we recorded on our last record; you can kind of hear that we've been awake for two days and are seeing our second sunrise...

Hope you enjoy it, and hey, the Mefi Music Challenge is a great great thing, nice work everyone!

Lyrics:

There's one route to make your way out:
The road that runs straight through the hospital gate.
Follow that east to the blood-muddied creek,
there's a rowboat there tied to an oak tree.

Untie the boat, board it, push out.
The lost wind will coax you on through to the current.
The overhung trees are the lushest green curtain;
the worm's always cursing the finches.

I remember the silences and I remember the shouts.
I remember the nurses explaining, saying her time had run out.

Cicadas will sing to you, jaybirds and starlings,
the creek will soon merge with the river.
Look in that water, your paleness reflected,
tired and beautiful for it.

Offer your skeletons' names to the water;
it's deep, it'll surely remember.
Look 'round the next bend, our house on the river.
I hope you can make it here Vivian.

By: melissa may

melissa may — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:45:58 -0800

I've listened to that whole record a bunch and I love your voice and music so much. What a great song this is. Hooray!

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:14:02 -0800

I'm starting to feel stupid for having nothing more to add than "Wow, that's a beautiful song," but I don't.

Wow, that's a beautiful song.

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:33:58 -0800

Hooray for The Notes and Scratches! It really is a wonderful song/album. Thanks for sharing it here.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:38:47 -0800

Danged good, man. Shanty like nobody's business—shades of McGnarley's Rant and Jason Webley. The whole production is just lovely.

By: ORthey

ORthey — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:27:21 -0800

This is fantastic - full and deep.

The ending is truly and thoroughly KICKASS.

By: wemayfreeze

wemayfreeze — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:31:05 -0800

Hey, that's great. Really well mixed; a great full sound. There's a late-Tom Waits sound to it that I like.

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:32:51 -0800

verysleeping, I think I'm a little slow because I just noticed that you said the song was about Vivian Eliot. Man, now I like it even more.

I just wanted to say that "The Hours" is my fave song on the album, but this one fits in with the theme and all that...

By: headspace

headspace — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:09:35 -0800

I love this so much.

By: donnagirl

donnagirl — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:04:37 -0800

Just gorgeous; loved it so much that I had to chase down the album melissa may and sleepy pete mentioned and buy it.

totally not affiliated or even acquainted with very sleeping, totally not getting a kickback

By: gamera

gamera — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:05:10 -0800

Great song. I've listened to "In the City of Eggtimers" about a bazillion times. Guess I better get off my ass and get the entire album.

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:22:18 -0800

Yes buy it! The Notes and Scratches are not only a wonderful band, but verysleeping and the rest are some of the nicest people (let alone musicians!) that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:56:26 -0800

Very nice. Reminded me of Tom Waits too (even before I saw wemayfreeze's comment).

By: verysleeping

verysleeping — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:31:11 -0800

Wow, thanks everyone for the very very nice compliments. I ought to mention that all of the musicians I play with are unbelievable geniuses. I show up with a few chords and a sore throat and they all transform that into songs like this...