A tragedy. As one of the forum’s most miserable bastards, that isn’t going to surprise anyone.
This is the song I wrote in order to participate in
@kafla s brilliant Binladeda Challenge...where several of us took one of Steve's super instrumentals and made of it what we would. I'm not writing much at all lately...so it was lovely to be able to take part in this...and big thanks to Steve
@Binladeda . I'll get back into shortly, more than likely.
Eliza Lane
On this God-forsaken frontier
Winter’s cold and time’s are hard
I ain’t asking for permission
In my own back yard
I was hanging up my six gun
Washing away the Mark of Cain
I was building me a place to hang my hat
With Eliza Lane
If your eyes had ever seen her
You wouldn't need me to explain
How a man could gamble everything he's got
For Eliza Lane
Then they’re flashing me their badges
To see how much a man could take
With their rules and regulations
Gonna make a big mistake
She possessed a grace and beauty
That could take away the pain
I found everything a man could ever want
In Eliza Lane
Now they bring their Iron Horse
I watch it glide across the plain
And I saw it turn its unforgiving gaze
To my Eliza Lane
It was always heading for a showdown
To make the tragedy complete
My Eliza is not a stranger
To men falling at her feet
And they brought along a circus
I felt obliged to entertain
But they scattered when they heard the shots ring out
Down Eliza Lane
Even though she drove me crazy
There ain’t no prettier ball and chain
Than the girl I loved and had to leave behind
In Eliza Lane
Music, guitars and bass: Steve Wild
I was reading a book about this incident when the challenge was suggested on the forum. It happened a few miles up the road from me in 1991, The story seemed to lend itself so well to the old country/western theme. The road where it took place was called “Eliza Lane” and, knowing that, the lyric just about wrote itself…so don’t blame me.
I won’t ramble on about the story. I hope the video explains. If there’s any merit in the lyrics, it’s because of what they're trying to say that isn’t in the video and wasn’t in the book.
The original news report is here…
I made a video for the song with low-quality clips from the local news that I grabbed from YouTube…I was a bit conscious of the song’s length…and the fact that I had too many lyrics for such a slow number, so I had to make every chorus a continuation of the story rather than repeating myself and then also trimmed down the original version to the one that’s currently on soundcloud. The video is the original full 5 minute + version.
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/581275836I’ve always loved doing the forum challenges whenever I can.
It’s been brilliant listening to how everyone has interpreted Steve’s lovely, evocative backing track.
I had written a load of comedy “production” notes…but I was worried that some people might think I was taking the piss…because I just don’t get/can’t be arsed with all of that knob-twiddling fader-fiddling stuff…I’m not trying to make a virtue out of my caveman approach to production…I just honestly can’t hear that it makes enough of a difference for me to get over not being very interested in that side of things. I just try to get everything to sound ok. That's all.
