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Spoken version
A recorded reading of “Stayed for the Song”. If the player does not load, use the original audio source.
At one yellow light the bar holds the road open. Dust settles where the bus was. Your key warms in my coat, a small tooth of metal against my ribs. He keeps my brother's ring beside his glass. The case leans by the door. No one asks what is inside. From the back room you play three notes, stop, play them again. The chain still catches. The fan turns once. You strike a match beneath the lamp and the room takes on a second kind of daylight. He watches the gun hit pine and keeps his hands in sight. Then he pushes the ring into the light. You say, Take the back road. You say, Do not say my name. Rain comes through the screen, and the three notes follow it. I leave his door unbroken. The gun stays in the grain. By dawn, the key is still in my coat. Behind me, the song continues through the room, through the rain, past the place where my name would have ended.
Instructional lyrics
[Intro 4b softer] [Verse 1] The bus left dust on the road Your key burned through my coat The bar wore one yellow light And the dead fan turned slow He held my brother's ring Like a debt in his hand I set the case by the door And let the silence stand [Pre rise] You kept the back room open With the chain still on the door I heard three notes behind you And forgot what I came for [Break 2b stop] [Chorus bigger double vox] I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song I laid down my gun And walked into dawn [Verse 2] He watched the gun hit pine And kept his hands in sight He pushed my brother's ring Into the lamp's hard light You struck a match and told me Take the back road out I left his door still standing And walked the long way out [Pre rise] The three notes kept on ringing The rain came through the screen I had a road behind me And a road I had not seen [Break 2b stop] [Chorus bigger double vox] I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song I laid down my gun And walked into dawn [Bridge strip to vox+pad] I could have made a widow I could have dug a grave You sang the part I forgot The gun can stay where it lies [Chorus x2 stacked chorus] I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song I laid down my gun And walked into dawn I came for the gunfight I stayed for the song You left the door unlatched I walked into the rain [Tag 2b reverb tail] Stayed for the song Stayed for the song [Outro 4b reverb tail]
Song info
Original song. Cinematic border-noir blues-rock, slow 6/8 at 92 BPM, minor key with a brief major lift in the final chorus, nylon-string guitar, tremolo electric guitar, dry kick and snare, hand percussion, low toms, sparse trumpet and accordion accents, intimate low-register lead vocal opening into rough doubled choruses, dusty room reverb and short guitar slapback. Restrained verses, instrumental break after the second chorus, full-band final chorus, unresolved ending.
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