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SONGWRITERS
CORNER
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ACROSS
THE RIVER
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 Before
we worked with Pete Solley, Woody and I were in New York
recording an earlier version of "Put me out of my
pain", with producer Stephan Galfas. The studio had a
9’ grand piano and, over the course of the session,
Woody came up with this beautiful, sad melody.
The song still had no words when I went over to his house
a few weeks later. As he played me a cassette of the song,
the floodgates opened. Words came to mind so quickly I had
trouble writing everything down. I wrote frantically for
an hour, finding myself late for an important family
function.
I was not conscious of doing so at the time, but I had
used the song to express the loss I felt over the end of a
long-term relationship. I had called her "little
thing" – hence the line, "chasing after little
things, bigger things were lost."
We originally recorded the song with voice and piano, and
then redid it with a full band for the CD.
- Mark
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NATASHA
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 The
band was offered a chance to play at a party for 30 or 40
au pair girls. After some reluctance, Woody agreed to play
for free. There, he met Natasha, a French au pair who
spoke little English. They would date for over a year.
Woody had a habit of writing songs containing his
girlfriend’s names so it wasn’t long before he brought
in an upbeat number with the lyrics, "talk to
Natasha", solely.
Natasha was a bit mischievous, with a lot of experience
packed into her few years. I had plenty of material to
draw from, when it came time to fill in the lyrics.
-Mark
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VANCOUVER
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 I
had recently returned from skiing and snowboarding in British Columbia. Woody came over after dinner to work on songs. We were talking about my trip and I was strumming a chord progression when Woody joined in with, "I went up to Vancouver." It started out as a joke, but before long, we had a B section and a chorus to go with our verse. I had spent some time hanging out in Portland that fall, and that worked into the song as well.
I worked on the words in the weeks to follow. When it was time to record, we added organ and harmonica, for a Dylanesque feel.
-Mark
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Isabella
Rossellini
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 Isabella
Rossellini is SO beautiful, I was even a little teary, seeing her in some super-sad close-up, and this song came right out.
Then through a year of pre-production and de-production, Mark and I wrote about a zillion versions of it, culminating in this sophisticated arrangement, with a little Burt
Bacharach-like turnaround after the first chorus.
-Woody
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Long Way Home
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I was at a bar
and a friend was telling me how he was a pilot and used to
fly bombing missions in Vietnam. The fact that he
considered it one of the highlights of his life and still
owned an M-16 was somewhat disturbing.
Woody and I had been working on a song with the lyrics,
"long way home." With some poetic license, Roger’s
story found it’s way to song.
-Mark
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METEOR
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HISTORY
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SONGWRITERS
CORNER
Examine the evolution
of a song - from concept to completion with the band.
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