These Lines

by Sarah Passemar




This song began with chords. Sitting in a white, plastic, one-piece factory chair in the backyard concrete patio of the band's new house in La Plata, I began fiddling around with a guitar, and I started writing down the slightly irregular chord progression.  It felt as if the chords already existed, and I only had to figure out which strings to touch on the guitar to make it right. (They probably do in at least 27 different famous songs...)

When I started singing along to the recording I'd made of the chords, I stopped short: - the timing was funky.  It turned out, I'd accidentally written it in 5/4!  I figured it was probably because I had just been screwing around with Dave Brubeck Quartet's jazz piece, "Take Five" on the piano an hour or so before.

The inevitably depressing lyrics followed with no trouble.  The idea for this song had vaguely occurred to me a couple months before.

Someone mentioned recently that I should write an upbeat song.  Haha, very funny.

I can't remember the last time I cried
But I'm feeling safe now behind these lines

When I'm alone I feel fine
No one can touch me from here

No
I'm not scared,
I am fine
I am fine
Please don't go
Please don't come
here again
I am fine

When I'm alone I have time
No one can take what is mine

I can't remember the last time I smiled
But these bitter lines go for miles and miles

There is a mark on the wall
And I feel nothing at all...

Angels

or "That Radiohead wannabe song"
by Sarah Passemar


A couple things lent themselves to making this song.  The first was probably a Man Man song I'd never heard before.  The chords called to me, so I copied the chords and stole them.  The second thing was that Pato, Seba and I were working on covering a Radiohead song* a month or so before, and the song was in my head.  The third was that I was interested in the possible concept for the band's second album, and I wanted to try an experiment.

When I finally played it for Seba, I said, "It really sounds like a Radiohead song.  Can you tell which one?"  He said, "Nope."
But then when I played it for Jesus, (without the disclaimer,) he said, "You've been listening to too much Radiohead."

 I don't think this song will be done ever again because of it's similarity to that other song, but I still like it anyhow.

Lyrics:


I beg
of you
To let me have
Some silence
From the wasps
And the stings
of my sorrow
.
Fate
Wherever you go
Wherever you take me
I'll follow
Even though
We've already been
Here before
.
Last night
In my sleep
You gave me words 
of wisdom
Take 
me in
I will follow
.
Come 
my child
Rest 
your head 
on my shoulder
I'll never 
lead you 
astray
.
Just breathe
 in my breath
And let my life
Refill you
You only 
Had
To Ask
.
But I
-No more doubts 
Can't believe
-No more fears 
You're here with me
-Time to o-   pen
within me
-Up your eyes
This can't
-Time to open
can't be real
-Up your thoughts
 Be real
-open your heart 

*(Trivia: if you're a Radiohead fan, try to listen to the song and guess.)

In the Morning

Original chords by Jesus; Guitar played by Seba; voice, arrangement, lyrics by Sarah Passemar



This song has a beginning, like most things except God, and here it is:
My band (The Garden Abides) was improvising in Neuquen, Argentina in December 2009 before our concert, and a tiny portion of the jam was caught on Jesus's poor-quality phone recording.  After which, I completely forgot about it.

When I made my way back to Neuquen the following month, the band said the tune had been stuck in their heads.  So I took the chords that Jesus had composed, and wrote lyrics around Mamina's kitchen table on a blue sheet of scrap paper.  (What is it about scrap paper that inspires the poetic juices to flow like a newly cleaned drainage pipe?)

The next day, Seba, Pato and I went to Pato's house on Lake Pelligrini in Rio Negro, and I put an arrangement together, adding a couple chords and making it weird.  Seba helped me fine tune it, and we recorded it there.  Pato started working on a bass line, and Seba started doing cool slide-guitar bits, but I drank some of the local water and was completely incapacitated, and unable to record the bass line and slidy bits.  I blame the sunrise.



In the morning...
In the morning
I lie in my bed
In the morning
I repeat what you said
in my head

over and over...

Everything can wait
Everything can wait
Everything can wait
until six days from now

Your apricot heart
Was pitted last week
By the garbage truck man

In the morning
I shut out the day
But all of my Dreams
Keep leaking away
Through the cracks in the wall

In the morning
In the morning
In the morning
Still don't know if you lied
And now the morning
ocean's new tide
wants to spill from my eyes

Over and over...

Everything can wait
Everything can wait
Everything can wait
until six years from now

My brain takes its turns through it's
regular waves and I
wish you were here

Darkly Dark

by Sarah Passemar



I agonized over the lyrics of "Darkly Dark,"
I began writing it somewhere in Bolivia, kept working on it for days, tried writing a melody for it, but it wasn't "right" until I was able to sit in front of a keyboard in Neuquen.  Then everything fit, suddenly, and I composed/recorded it in 4-5 hours.

The song began from the phrase "Darkly Dark," which sat in an "interesting for poetry?" document for some time before I honed in on it.

So this is the second 'serious' song with lyrics I've written.  (The Troll song doesn't count as I can't listen to it without hiding my face behind something.)  

Darkly Dark

A shadow is trespassing
On the garden of my mind
He waits behind my vision
Where he draws a darkly line


And his path solidifies
As his steps unveil the snow
And with savage trepidation
Webbed winds begin to blow


To whom do you belong
Will you let me see your face
For Darkly Dark, you're waiting
Matching footfalls. masked disgrace.


My lips are sealed tightly
By a slender veil of ice
Your whispered words aren't truth
But neither are they lies. 


You plague me with impressions
That you plant inside my mind
You stand inside the garden
That I thought I'd left behind.


To whom do you belong
Will you let me see your face
For Darkly Dark, you're waiting
Matching footfalls. masked disgrace.


To whom do I belong
Would you let me see your face
For Darkly Dark, you're waiting
Matching footfalls. masked disgrace.