In the Key of K

The new album, Out of Time Out of Tune, is streaming everywhere! You can buy physical copies here.

And now for something completely different! I always considered this to be a filler song from my second 1998 cassette tape, Out of Time Out of Tune. I have only ever played the music for this song one time–the day it was recorded. As an exercise, I wanted to make a song by chance in one take. So I recorded the drums with no preconceived ideas–just a stream of consciousness flow. Followed by an improvised unplanned bass track and then some improvised, unplanned, no key signature guitar noodling. I wrote the lyrics that afternoon too, I think. The vocals were planned around what all the parts were doing and were the only part that wasn’t recorded as an improvised one-off. Literally one take for drums, one for bass, and one for guitar. The vocals took multiple takes to get right–or as close to ‘right’ as I could get it. It’s is really different from any of my other work of this era–for good or bad? You decide!

//
Lost
I came around.
And I lost the found
Then I went to sleep.
Lost in the dreams.

And I won’t live to let me down.

It cannot be.
I feel no sympathy.
Are lost and found the same?
Know the lost remains.

And I won’t live to let me down
I can’t I won’t watch the hopeless drown
And I won’t live to let me down

I cannot be.
I feel no sympathy.
Are lost and found the same?
Know the lost remains.

Dream of sleep this night. 
Still my thoughts of right.
See when I can’t think.
Lost in the scream.

And I won’t live to let me down.
I can’t, I won’t watch the hopeless drown.
And I won’t live to let me down.
I can’t, I won’t be the hopeless drowned.

It cannot be.
I feel no sympathy.
Are lost and found the same?
Know the lost remains.

Dream of sleep this night.
Still my thoughts of right.
See when I can’t think.
Lost in the screams.

And I won’t live to let me down.
//

The guitar part is less tonal and more for feeling. I wasn’t worried about staying in key–more interested in exploring ideas. There are a couple of moments where a few good ideas emerge from the fog but largely, this is filler song to me. But I still love it!

Want to play it? Sorry, this one isn’t meant to be played again–at least not like this. It’s a song created by chance and creativity. If it were to be performed again it would need to be completely improvised music, performed by people who haven’t heard this version before. The lyrics would, ideally, be the same but improvised over it with different rhythm patterns and pitches than what was done here. To me, the content of the lyrics are the main song component.