The Comeback Trail #2 - Bus Depot Blue

What!?!  Another blogpost!?!  COMEBACK TRAIL, YO.  Here's a song I recorded on my cd Hurtin' Dance Party (2002).  After the fractious demise of The Dogbreath Brothers, I played solo for a couple of years and the initial concept was that this would be a solo album.  However I excitedly invited all kinds of people to play on it, the result being some very fresh live off the floor recordings as we learned and recorded the songs on the fly.  The sessions also acted as the genesis of two distinct combos:  the heavy-hitting and unpredictable Mansmell  and the dreamy and atmoshperic Whelps. 

But I digress here...Bus Depot Blue is a simple narrative C&W song that would have been part of the Mansmell repertoire, but we never performed it live too much because it's kind of quiet and sensitive and Mansmell was anything but.  People wanted the rock, they wanted to see Calvin Dick lose his shit on a set of drums.  The studio version features the Wurlitzer Sideman, a mechanical drum machine circa 1950's.  Playing lapsteel is Tolan McNeil.  Pretty sure we did 3 takes, not sure which one we used.  I remember Tolan not being totally stoked about his part, but I think his snakey intuitive playing makes the song.  Not only did we rarely play the song back when it was current, I never play it now.  Ever.  So it was kind of strange I sat down to play and it popped out.  Here's the version I just recorded and below it is a link to the album version.

Bus Depot Blue, studio recording.

Bus Depot Blue - David P. Smith

Snot-nosed kids with Grandma, knapsacks and sweethearts
seats adjoined row on row all vinyl and chrome
Ghostly figures on the screens of coin-operated TV's
like flickering memories of a time we used to know
This big and modern bus depot is the end of the road
You're riding Greyhound to Saskatoon
you might as well be flying to the moon

And I'm sick with hurt and I'm confused
I'm sick of arguing till dawn
I'm sick with booze and missing you
and you've barely been gone
My heart is in my mouth it might fall out on the floor
and I can still see you walking out that automatic door

Yodel

A hundred mile high prairie sky towers sullen and grey
The night glides in on silent wings sucks the light out of the day
Clouds fall to the ground, rain is all around
you're headed east, I'm headed west, I guess that you know best
Travelling down this highway, my heart filled with regret
a note to myself - remember to forget

Remember to forget the joy that we had
remember to remember the crap that made me sad
there's nothing on the radio 'cept preachers and white noise
but it's better than listening to the echoes of your voice

Yodel