The Heartbreak Blinders' Greatest Hits

The Heartbreak Blinders' Greatest Hits - MP3

Lyrics

at the city limits black top ribbons
twist into a cloverleaf
the crown jewel zig-zag's white green name tags
measuring the gravity

the shadow cast by your brilliant past 
tries vainly to lay flat against the road

(refrain:)
someone put you in the car
and belted you in facing forward
and put the heartbreak blinders on the stereo
someone made up someone's mind 
and someone left someone behind
it doesn't matter that you didn't want to go

reflective paint the patron saint of
movement boasts devout support
it's such a shame that no one claimed
an inch of your unspoiled shore

sleep pulled over on a shoulder
someone had the sense to call their own

(refrain x2)

Music

chords

will upload soon. song's in C major.

structure

A B C A B C D C, as standard as they come.

Author's Comments

The chord progression of the verse of this song is the same as the excellent OK Go song "Let It Rain" (Though they do wonders by throwing in a measure of 3 every so often). I wrote the verse before I realized this, and abandoned the song for a while out of shame after I did. But there are only so many chord progessions (First Coat's "Lime" uses these chords, just swapping the second and third ones), and my refrain is really the focus of this song anyway, so at some point I stopped feeling guilty about it.

This song was initially much slower, kind of adult-contempo fare. I envisioned it about two thirds as fast with an acoustic guitar, rhythms recalling the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize?". The live version as performed by the Passerines adopts something akin to that arrangement.

This demo was recorded during one of the many peaks of my rabid Bicycle Day obsession; this was my best attempt at arranging a song the way they would have. Hence the guitars on the refrain and as much drumming as I could muster. I remember trying to write a decent bass part, and going back to listen to Elizabeth Hill's work on a Bicycle Day record, looking for some specific qualities I could try to copy, and then I realized there was no trick to it. It was just what I would have been doing if I was awesome.