I'm gonna burn the silo when you go. I'm gonna burn the silo when you go. I'm gonna burn the silo. You'll see the flames and maybe know. I'm gonna burn the silo when you go. I'm gonna hang the livestock when you go. I'm gonna hang the livestock when you go. I'm gonna hang the livestock And put an ending to the talk. I'm gonna hang the livestock when you go. Because I'm halfway drowned in this soggy little town And I can see the silo on the rise. Because I'm halfway sunk in this soggy little town And I can see the silo touch the sky. I'm gonna burn the silo when you go. I'm gonna burn the silo when you go. I'm gonna burn the silo. You'll see the flames and maybe know. I'm gonna burn the silo when you go.
Joe Pernice Bony Gap Music (BMI), admin by BUG/BMG
In 1991, not long before the Gulf War started, Stephen Desaulniers and I were working together at a cafe/bakery in Northampton, MA. I was in a year off between undergarduate and my MFA at UMass. Stephen had dropped out a couple years earlier, and was returning to have another go at his BA.
We became fast friends, and the topic of music came up. Turns out we had very similar tastes, though his knowledge of traditional country and bluegrass music went much, much deeper than my own. he turned me on to a lot of essential music back then. Someday we’ll do a deep dive into the origins of our musical trip as a band. But today you get the abridged version.
Stephen and I decided to get together and play some music. Though we knew we mined similar grounds, we both soon after admitted we were apprehensive about actually playing together. There’s always the real possibility that the other is a bad player or singer. Or that he writes songs about knights and damsels and shit like that.
Suffice to say, we hit it off playing together as well. Literally the first song we played together was a slow version of Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves, a song made popular by Cher in the early 1970s. Both Stephen and I had been deeply affected by that song when we were little kids. Jimmy Webb stuff too.
From that day we were off and running. But my main priority was my studies. I hadn’t even started my MFA when our band was born. We named ourselves The Scuds in my living room on South Street in Northampton while we watched that dude from CNN rightfully lose his shit on live TV while America bombed the shit out of Baghdad.
Time marched on. After a couple years of playing in an electric band (The Scuds) with UMass grad student Bruce K. Tull on electric guitar, we realized our hearts weren’t in it. (By the way, Stephen to this day says the “K” in Bruce’s name stands for One Thousand.) We realized it was the mellower sounds of our post-rockshow hangouts at Bruce’s house (AKA The Woodmont Hotel or simply The Woodmont) that we loved most. And so evolution happened. Again, a long form history should be written for the six of you and my mother who care.)
Silo was the first song I wrote for the Scud Mountain Boys. I remember it clearly. It was during my first of two stints living at Crescent Street in Northampton. At the time I wrote it, The Scud Mountain Boys were a trio. Tom Shea had not yet joined the band. His band Hoolapopper was a local sensation. Tom is a great songwriter, singer, guitarist and drummer. We had no idea he could play drums when we enlisted him on mandolin. In fact, he didn’t really play mandolin when he joined. He learned on the way because he’s one of those guys. He would get a melody out of octopus if he blew in the right place.
As a trio, before Tom joined, we recorded what would be the Pine Box LP. We recorded in the kitchen of The Woodmont, live to four-track cassette. We used three SM58 mics. One of them picked up both my voice and my acoustic guitar. Stephen sang into another. The third mic was on Bruce’s amp. Stephen’s bass went direct into channel four. There were no overdubs. It’s all live. We weren’t planning on it being a record. In fact, those recordings were meant to be preproduction for some studio sessions we did in January of 1994. They exist somewhere and were not very good. I have not heard them in 30 years. Maybe they don’t suck as much as we thought. Anyway, we decided to move on without releasing.
Later in 1994, we again recorded in the kitchen of the Woodmont. Thom Monahan had moved to Northampton from Danbury, CT to play bass with our friend Zeke Fiddler. J Mascis had recently produced Zeke’s LP Waterproof on Spin Art Records. Zeke played Thom a copy of our Woodmont four-track sessions. He was really into the recording. He offered to record us on his Tascam 1/2'‘ eight-track. We did that in September of 1994. Those sessions would become our first LP Dance The Night Away.
By the Dance The Night Away sessions, Tom Shea was a full time member of the band. That’s why he’s on the Dance The Night Away version of Silo, and not Pine Box version. Again, in September of 1994, the recordings that would become our second LP Pine Box were as good as dead to Stephen and me. It was only after we made Dance The Night Away that Bruce brought to our attention that there was something to those recordings. He’d massaged the takes as much as one could in the four-track analog world of 1994.
As for the song Silo I was listening to a lot of Doc Watson and Appalachian murder ballads. The only real trauma I’d ever experienced was heartbreak and a decade-long fight with an inexplicable clinical depression. I tapped in, and Silo squirted out.
When the Scud Mountain Boys started, some songs I had written in previous years migrated into our catalog. (I wrote Letter to Bread when I was 17.) But as I said, Silo was the first song I wrote specifically for this band. It’s probably the SMB song people most request I play live. The Pine Box version really captures the pureness of the earliest band incarnation.
The version included today is the abridged arrangement I do solo live. The studio version has a couple guitar solos that are greatly missed if I play the original song form live.
I played a Martin D35 acoustic and sang and played live into my iPhone. No external mic. Was trying to keep it as real as possible.
As always, thanks for listening.
Take care of yourselves and those around you. And please, register to vote. Remind everyone you know to register to to vote. Remind them to remind everyone they know to vote. I’m no man’s idol. And no man’s my king.
Silo