NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI: HOW THE WEST WAS WON AND WHERE IT GOT US

  There's something invitational about this song that compliments the final song ELECTROLITE and is wonderfully non-intrusive. WEST allows you to settle into the album before the next song punches you in the face. There's a lot of great imagery here, some religious and some based on concepts of western 'civilization.' Perhaps the band in touring through the US and then the world is uniquely situated to report on how everything is misguided and how isolated we really are here in the states. Or maybe this is Stipe using his talent for capturing imagery like a photographer and piecing it together. Or maybe he's just saying some stuff that sounds cool. In any event, this is a solid beginning to the pastiche that is NAIHF.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON AND WHERE IT GOT US

Blood from a stone

Water from wine
Born under an ill placed sign
A stroke of bad luck

Wrong place, wrong time
This flyer is out of line

The story is a sad one

Told many times
The story of my life in trying times
Just add water

Stir in lime
How the west was won and where it got us
Ah!

Canary got trapped in the uranium mine
I struck bad luck now the bird has died
A marker to mark where my tears run dry
At the crossing of blessed and alkaline

The story is a sad one

Told many times
The story of my life in trying times
Just add water

Stir in lime
How the west was won and where it got us
Ah!

I didn't wear glasses cause I thought it might rain
Now I can't see anything
I made a mistake chalked it up to design
I cracked through time space godless and dry
I point my nose to the northern star
Watch the decline from a hazy distance

The story is a sad one

Told many times
The story of my life in trying times
Just add water

Stir in lime
How the west was won and where it got us
Ah!

  A very simple song guitar-wise as it relies on the organ/piano/bass. I didn't tab out the keys as it's basically variations on Bm and G for the verse and the chorus follows the guitar notes. If any song points to their lives after this album it's this song.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON AND WHERE IT GOT US

Intro/ Verse

e|--------------------------|

B|--------------------------|

G|-------0-2h---------------|

D|-4-2p-4----4-2-2-4h-------|

A|-------------------0-0-2h-|

E|--------------------------|

Chorus

e|-2---2---3---0-------2---0-|

B|-3---3---3---0-------3---2-|

G|-2---2---0---0-------2---2-|

D|-0---0---0---2-------0---2-|

A|---------2---2---x3------0-|

E|---------3---0-----------0-|

Feel free to walk up to the Bm from the A with a Bbm

In the Middle Bridge, Buck uses the strings below the guitar bridge as in Strange Currencies, but strummed