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about

This song started as a poem by Steve that he never intended me to set music to. But I snuck a look at it and loved it as a song. For my progression to make sense, however, he had to add an extra line to each stanza which he did without complaint.

I recorded four vocals for this song, two low and two high and split them out like I was doubling guitars.The intro noise is actually the sound of some kind of short in one of the channels on the mixing board. We ran it through an Echoplex and some other effects. The middle section is a compilation of a bunch of strange stuff, surprisingly, a lot of it the human voice.

lyrics

The thunder of the cannon, a crackling in the air;
rolling down the river to the bay;
The smell of fading summer, the banners of the fair;
They mark the passage of a pen scoring deep then back again,
like scratches cut in facile softened clay.
Gone between the nighttime and the day,
like scratches cut in facile softened clay.

Seeking the elusive sound hear it resonate;
I'm still left when meaning comes to naught;
the clatter of the train wheels, the closing of a gate
patterns built of vain belief,
nouns show up in bas-relief,
holding fast to beauty dearly bought.
Keep the visions after they've been caught.
Holding fast to beauty dearly bought.

Images go sailing past, the flowers of the heart,
that pass along from eye to hand to mind.
And promise they (as liars do) to always play their part;
To seek the treasures laid between
the shadow vision and the dream
Fool's gold on the street for fools to find.
To tell them what it is would be unkind.
Fool's gold on the street for fools to find.

credits

from 3 Solid Blows to the Head, released May 18, 2021
Music and Lyrics by Adam Stemple and Steven Brust.

license

all rights reserved

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about

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Adam Stemple Minneapolis, Minnesota

Adam has played so much guitar it'd make your ass hurt. Road dog for 20 years, in town Irish bars for another 20. Played everything from metal to folk to ethno-gothic-sludge-jazz. Winner of two Minnesota Music Awards.

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