In the Key of K

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

As mentioned elsewhere, at this point in my life I really felt stuck and wanted to break free to see the world and experience new things. That is what this song is about. That and metaphorically opening your mind to new things, places, and experiences. It was the closing song on my second album that I originally released on cassette tape in 1998, Out of Time Out of Tune (re-released in 2026).

Lyrically this song has three verses all with the same words.

//
Meandering

I know I’ll be back again
And I will leave just like I came.
You can’t see how I adore
The open road with nowhere to go.

There’ll be a new place.
There is a new life.
And starts a new day.
Now I’ll be on the Way.

Note: the last line changes every time:
Now I’ll be on the Way.
Now I’ll be on my way.
‘Cause I’m gone today.
//

Musically this one starts with some tasty bass. The guitar has a little harmonic thingy (12th fret, 3rd and 4th strings, if memory serves) then enters with chords. The form is: Intro A B C solo A B C solo A B C solo, more or less.

Intro Bass:
—————————————

—————–——3————-——1-3-
-5-0-5-0-5-0-3-5—-5-0-5-0-1-3——
—————————————

Section A–bass continues, guitar mimics with power chords:
|D5**C5|D5*Bb5 C5 Eb5 F5|
This is fun to play but the last four chords are eighth note fast. All of these chords should be played off of the fifth string.

B section:
This is a little weird for power chords–most people play them based off the fifth and sixth strings but here they appear elsewhere on the neck too–here they are based off the fourth string. Just two note power chords (technically called dyads), tabbed below.
——————-
——————-
—————16–14–
-12–14—-14–12–
-10–12———–
——————
G5 A5 E5 D5

Here is the rough timing. the main target chords are A5 and D5.
|G5A5* E5| D5***|

The B section would probably stay in tune better if it’s played on the adjacent strings. The bass I used back then had REALLY bad intonation so everything up the neck was always really out of tune. Do what you want!

The C section uses an inverted power chord.
—-
—-
-8–
-8–
-6–
-6–
Eb5/Bb
The “/Bb” part of the chord means that Bb should be the lowest sounding note. In context:
|Eb5/Bb* Db5*| repeat
After the last repeat there is a simple little lick that goes like this:
———–
———–
———–
——-8-6-
-8-6——-
———–

The solos here were wholly improvised and never played the same way twice. This song had no punch-ins so all the parts are played in one continuous take. There were not enough tracks to do multiple takes of the solos–or have a separate track. In those days you played it all way through and accepted it wouldn’t be perfect. At least that’s what I did. 🙂 Anyway, I was going for emotion over tonality–trying to get the feeling right.

My memory of how I originally played this song is almost completely different to how it sounds. There may be errors but if I played it today I would do it as written above.