NOTES:
This started life as a band tune with a little Buckley/Radiohead leaning. When I was writing it, I was very much thinking about “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. One of THE greatest songs ever written. Period. It ended up quite different. we just replaced almost everything, sped the song up (if you can believe it was slower) and came at it from a different angle. I loved the chording – very jazzy but didn’t feel too tricky, tricky – the way Brian Wilson uses his chords – unassumingly complex. I’m a big Mark Ronson fan and I wanted a little vintage twist. We also tried to mix it in the way The Heavy mixes their tunes – drums hot and nasty. Modern vintage. Love that. I wrote a horn part that Kenny Kearns multi tracked and then Jay Davidson and company beefed it up. The last thing I did on it was the intro part. We weren’t entirely happy with the tune and we just couldn’t put our finger on it. I almost forgot I had written an intro for it a while back. The intro idea came because I heard a radio show of only intros to some of our most popular standards. I couldn’t believe how beautiful they were and couldn’t imagine how they had been omitted from most recording of these tunes. I’m talking great American classic standards from Cole Porter and the like. Just lopped off. They were amazing and gave the tune so much more insight. That stayed with me. So, one night I was hacking about and found a chord progression I really liked and then realized how well it would flow into this song, setting a really cool mood and key change. I remembered and recorded it and slapped it on the beginning. So glad I did. It gives it that smoky jazz feeling and sense of detail in composition that I think the song needed and fits. We wanted it to sound like it was something from an old recording that just flows into the song. Lyrically this took ages to fully form but it contains one of my favorite lines: “day breaks like a wave so hold your breath and you can float below”. Man, do I know that feeling. It’s about being who you are, past adversity and struggle. It’s about surviving and overcoming the darkness or shit hurled one’s way. Getting out of a dark time and back to you, what your made of.
LYRICS:
Sit around and watch the tired on your stereo
Pick up the pace, put on your face so you can hide behind it
(But) I know it’s you
Read your press with all the rest and now believe it’s true
Holding on to almost gone until you came unglued
I know, I know it’s true
It’s over yr shoulder
You’re walk through the fire has not burned you down
It’s over yr shoulder
Day brakes like a wave so hold your breath and you can float below
Almost celebrated reasons to be jaded so it never shows
But I know, I know it’s you
(CHORUS)
You are standing, you are lighter than air
You are perfect and need no repair
It’s you that’s writing on the wall
You’ll never be there
Never be there
(CHORUS)
Shoulder, Shoulder, Shoulder
It’s over yr shoulder
(FIN)
