"The Purple Rain"

If you were here we could hang out all night 
and wash our rags till they were almost white. 
I stopped there on my way, but it didn’t seem right. 
No longer knew a soul. No soul knew me.

I never called you and you never came.
I stayed a couple streets away from blame.
Holed up in a poem made of pith and pain.
I often read the end before the start.

I remember you to her sea-bound train.
Remember you to her fruited plain.
Purple mountains in purple rain
won't always separate the shining seas.

Here's a man one heartbeat from a ghost.
Here's a vein, it spiders coast to coast.
One thousand quiet cuts
I do believe we're close.
Been bleeding out for years and years and years.

I remember you to her sea-bound train.
Remember you to her fruited plain.
Purple mountains in purple rain
won't always separate the shining seas.

Remember me to her sea-bound train.
Remember me to her fruited plain.
Purple mountains in purple rain
won't always separate the shining seas.
The wake is washing over me.

(Words & music by Joe Pernice, Bony Gap Music, administered by BUG/BMG)

I just finished writing this song last week. The chord changes had been banging around for a few months. I knew what I wanted to write, but it just took some circling and gathering before I was able to focus.

A fuller, studio version of this tune is already in the works. I messed around with a harmonica part: A steady, no-vibrato monophonic line in the vein of “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother” by the Hollies or “A Jar” by Wilco. (That’s the kind of harmonica I like.) Problem is, I’m a worse harmonica player than I am illustrator or surgeon. Should the final version have harmonica, you can be sure I did not play it.

As for the recording here, I tracked it in my basement bicycle shop. I sang and played live which I prefer these days. I don’t like singing while wearing headphones, and I avoid doing so whenever possible. The guitar is a nylon string acoustic made in Canada by La Patrie. (I love this guitar.) Both the guitar and voice were mic’d with meat-and-potatoes Sure SM58 microphones. I have some pretty nice microphones, but there’s something about a $100 SM58 on my vocals that’s pleasing to my ear at least. (Plus, you can use a 58 to drive some nails should that be necessary between takes.) I went straight into an Avid Apogee Duet onto two tracks in Logic. I did a down and dirty mix in Logic and hit SEND.

Thanks for listening. Be back soon. —JP