Electric City

Electric city

Lyrics

I've been down every one of the streets in this town
too many times, too many times
if i could fight i could make me some money tonight
with these hands of mine, with these hands of mine

i've told lies and I've known some lying men
but i swear to god I never lied to him
but he turned around, blew a hole in the solid ground
electric city got me down

ch: one hand fits where the other one don't
one foot follows where the other one won't
if there's a bad man driving the train won't stop but it'll pick me up

i've been down to the dock at the edge of town
to ease my mind too many times
if I was all right I could make me some money tonight
but I can't decide, I can't decide

cause there's a task at hand down where all of those buildings stand
built six feet wide and ten stories high
i could see them all shot to shit with a wrecking ball
in the dead of night, noone in sight

ch repeats

Notes

Loren recorded this song for me a few years ago and i recorded this version on my computer (!). Its in C.

Comments

Becky! I'm super duper excited that you've posted this tune. Here are some of the notes I took while listening to it the first few times:

• You're doing this really interesting thing that none of the rest of us do, which is writing music that sounds like folk music to me. I don't know anything about folk music, or if what you're doing technically qualifies, but from the first notes, your last six or seven songs have had this pronounced "traditional" flavor to them. The key ingredient in this, I think, is in the tone of your lyrics. The instrumentation and arrangements help, as well. This song in particular has a timeless quality such that I feel as if I've heard it before, possibly before I was born. I think that's a really powerful thing to be able to tap into. So, however consciously or unconsciously you've managed that: well done.
• "If I could fight I could make me some money tonight/With these hands of mine" is an exceptional line. Even better coming from a tiny lady like you.
• I've been impressed by your tendency to only change chords when you need to. I usually start songs with chord progressions, and too often end up letting the changes fall every two or four bars like clockwork. But it sounds like you really let the rhythm of the melody dictate the changes; the refrain in particular is a good example of this. The changes fall on a lot of offbeats on this tune. You also do a lot of walking between chords, which is nice--I'm always tempted to cram in other chord, but it can really gum things up. You really let the song guide the arrangement, and write so efficiently. I aspire to that, but you make it sound easy.
• I think the first two lines of the chorus are wonderful.
• If I could change anything about this recording, I'd throw in a little dynamic variation. I'd love to hear a little country shuffle rhythm section and a harmonica stumble in on chorus. This is a minor quibble, though--since the song is so short, I don't mind the sameness of the arrangement, I'm just greedy. : )
• Yay! Thanks for putting this up, it's making my last several days.

P.S. I think some of your lyrics got pasted into the notes section, so i moved them up into the top section. I also put some "pre" tags around them so the line breaks happen where you typed them. You can remove them if you don't like it this way, but I thought it might help.

Gabemcelwain 12:21, 16 March 2007 (PDT)

Gabe! I'm so glad you like it - thought perhaps you hadn't heard the other version. Thanks for fixing the code:)

I'd like to add some percussion soon. The mandolin is also back from the shop, so that might make an appearance. More once the semester ends I think.