REVEAL: SATURN RETURN

   This song has always fascinated me. It's a real 'what the fuck' moment on the album which is full of them, but this is the strangest track. As I mentioned before, Peter notes the song is built from leftover bits from other songs, a piano line and some doodling. The lyrics as explained by Michael are about a woman working at a convenience store, one night she takes a ladder to the roof and has an epiphany to change her life. The more I listen to it, the more I appreciate the song and I love the performance from around the time Collapse was released, just before the break-up. Some excellent lyrical stuff going on here!







SATURN RETURN

Easy to poke yourself square in the eye
Harder to like yourself, harder to try
These Elvis poses, postcards, and neoprene
Roses a dollar a stem
Everyone’s sleeping or pulling a long haul
The keys in the cooler

It's 3 a.m.

And Saturn is beckoning no one
Is off on its own
Is offering up

Late shift convenience store cut out the lights
Telescope roof towards the northwestern sky
You pull the ladder up, no one's the wiser
You find your sights and discover

Saturn is orbiting nothing
Is off on its own
Is breaking from home

Harder to look yourself square in the eye
Easy to take off

You found the ladder in the pattern of your wrist
You’ve seen and you’ve marked horizons
Mother was difficult she made you cry
Cover the mirror, look to the sky
You climb into your rocket ship triumph
Lift up and hold out your hands

Saturn is orbiting nothing
Is off on its own
Is breaking from home

Saturn is orbiting nothing
Is off on its own
Is breaking from home

Saturn return when you chase down its moons
Throw them into a new gravity

Harder to look yourself square in the eye
Easy to poke yourself, easy as pie
Easy to take off, harder to fly
Harder to wake Galileo 

   Most of what's below is following the piano chords, but I've thrown in some attempts at the doodling. There are forms he returns to and there's some well-placed feedback and some discordant open strings going on, so experiment. Not noted are times when the song hangs on the Fm post chorus. Also, The Capo is SUPER IMPORTANT!!

SATURN RETURN

CAPO 3 (All frets and notes mentioned are relative to Capo position)

Intro/Outro (Fm)

Guitar 1: Slide on the B String between the 2^nd and 7^th frets, the recurring form being the 6^th to 7^th fret

Guitar 2: Approximation Below- the key is the 4^th fret stuff, the rest is emphasizing some of the slide notes from Guitar 1

g |------2-1-1-1-1-0---|

D |-----------------3--|

A#|-4-1-2-2-2----------|

F |--4-----------------|

C |--------------------|

G |--------------------|

Verse (Fm-Cm-Bb-Ab)

g |-1---0---3---1----|

D |-3---1---3---1----|

A#|-2---2---0---2----|

F |-0---2---0---3----|

C |-----0---2---3----|

G |-----0---3---1----|

  

Chorus (Fm-Cm x3, Db)

g |-1---0--------1--|

D |-3---1--------3--|

A#|-2---2--------3--|

F |-0---2--------3--|

C |-----0--------1--|

G |-----0---x3---1--|

Chorus Riff (Fm-Cm x3, Db)

g |-0---0-1------------|

D |-3------1-----------|

A#|-2-----------3>5>7--|

F |-0-----------2------|

C |--------------------|

G |----------x3--------|

Bridge (Ab-Db x3 Cm)

g |-1---1-------0----|

D |-1---1-------1----|

A#|-2---2-------2----|

F |-3---2-------2----|

C |-3---1-------0----|

G |-1---1---x3--0----|

REVEAL: DISAPPEAR

   Upon first listen, this seemed like a bridge song to the rest of the album but over time it became perhaps my favorite. I love a lot of the imagery and the conviction of the character to have no convictions. Revisiting the song has left me with a simple story that could be a little too slight, maybe some more time with the song while recording could've beefed it up a bit. They played the song for their Unplugged set and then might never have played it again--at least according to setlist.fm, they played it as many times live as 'I Got You Babe.' I think it could've been good amped up arena-style, but hey what do I know. Great lines here, I am partial to the opening of 'dragged my feet across the seat' and the 'comic's perfect timing squeezed.' Michael's lyricism is something not often talked about, but he captures so much with so little and avoids the obvious enough that when he hits derivative lines they stick out. Great tone on this one!




From Unplugged:


DISAPPEAR

I've dragged my feet across the seat
And jumped out the passenger side
The only thing worth looking for is what you find inside
But that had not yet appeared, lost, invisible, here
Tel Aviv and Agadir
Taroudant or Olomouc
Before I learned to see

The vanishing point appear

I looked for you and everywhere
I looked for you and everywhere

There is a calm I haven't come to yet
I spent half my life figuring what comes next
I telescoped in, I'll finally win, I'll finally win the prize
That now my eyes see
A comic's perfect timing squeezed
I'm headfirst fighting everything
The crushing force of memory erasing all I've been
The vanishing point appears

I looked for you and everywhere
I looked for you and everywhere
Tell me why you're here
I came to disappear

Look at this face
Can you believe it?
Am I living in a beautiful vacuum?
Because I can't see it
The vanishing point appears

I looked for you and everywhere
I looked for you and everywhere
Tell me why you're here
I came to disappear

Tell me why you're here
I came to disappear
I came to disappear

   This is a fairly boring song to play and might be why it was only played live the once, I can see Peter getting sick of it quickly--he pretty much strums the guitar in the Unplugged version which is a good choice for those of you trying this at home. But it's inventive in other ways, including the bass and switched up picking rhythms that are subtle but add an ethereal quality--almost as if the song is constantly swirling and never landing. It has a waltz-timing that is jarring on its own, but feels just right with all of the orchestrations.

DISAPPEAR

Verse (Am-Em)

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

B|---1------0---|

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

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

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

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

Bridge to Chorus (C-G-Am)

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

B|--1-1-1---3-3-3--|

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

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

A|-----------------|

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

Chorus (G-D-C-Bm-Em)

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

B|--3--3--1--3---0-0---0-0--|

G|---0--2--0--4-0---0-0---0-|

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

A|--------------------------|

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

Middle 8 (G-F-Em-D-G-F-Em)

e|-3-3---1-1---0-0---2-2---3-3---1-1---0---|

B|-3--3--1--1--0--0--3--3--3--3--1--1--0---|

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

D|-0-----3-----2-----0-----0-----3-----2---|

A|-2-----3-----2-----------2-----3-----2---|

E|-3-----1-----0-----------3-----1-----0---|

REVEAL: SHE JUST WANTS TO BE

   There are some lovely parts to this song, I'll always love pomegranate afternoons and the angels lines in particular, and the intention of the song is wonderful. However, this is one I've never fully been on board for primarily for the presumptuousness of the narrator. Michael has certainly used female characters in his songs before, but its difficult to know who the narrator is here with the strong female pronoun usage--which is a rarity for Michael. The usage seems to take some power away from what should be a triumphant moment in the character's journey as, let's face it, these are three dudes writing a song about how a woman feels. Another weakness is the plodding bridge from the verse to the chorus. That said, it's not a bad song and they played it well live. In addition, the lyrics below reflect what is sung on the album and in the first live shows. It's a small thing (as always) but he's definitely singing 'she's off on the ride' in the first verse, but the lyric changed sometime after recording to 'she's off on her own.' How can I be so sure? There's a live version of the band  playing the song in 2001 in Cologne on YouTube where there's a close up of him singing 'the ride,' but on another feed of that same show the camera lingers on his lyrics monitor which says, you guessed it, 'her own.' Is it weird that he disregards his own prompter? Yes! In later live performances, Michael truly makes it 'her own' and while those are the official lyrics it's not what is recorded in the studio. He also over time changes the first line's 'places' to 'faces.' These are small things, but if not for these interesting diversions and inconsistencies do I really care enough to write this blog? Well, probably.




She Just Wants To Be is at 16:45


SHE JUST WANTS TO BE

It's not that she walked away
Her world got smaller
All the usual places
The same destinations
Only something's changed

It's not that she wasn't rewarded
With pomegranate afternoons
And Mingus, Chet Baker, and chess
It's not the stampeding fortune of prim affectations

She's off on the ride but she knows now

Is greater than the whole of the past
Is greater and now she knows

She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be
She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be

It's not that the transparency
Of her earlier incarnations
Now looked back on weren't rich
And loaded with beautiful vulnerability
And now she knows

Now is greater and she knows that

She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be
She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be

Now is greater

Now is greater and she knows that

She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be
She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be

She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be
She just wants to be somewhere
She just wants to be

It's not like if angels could truly look down
Or stir up the trappings and light on the ground
Remind us of what, when, why, or who
That how's up to us, me and you
And now is greater than the whole of the past
Is greater and now she knows that
And now she knows

   Fun song to learn and play. Peter adds some interesting fills and then changes up the chorus a couple of times near the end. I added the keyboard line in the bridge to chorus and then separated where the 2nd chorus goes into a repeated pattern. I mentioned my dislike for the bridge to chorus above and honestly, I don't think it needs to be solved as it is what it is, but it feels like an instrumental was handed to Michael and he didn't fill the space. Instead of take it out completely, they left it in. It definitely lends a feeling of 'otherness' to the song which I think was what they were trying to do for the entire album, if that's the case--success!


SHE JUST WANTS TO BE

Intro/Outro

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

B|----1---1-3-0--|

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

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

A|------------2--|

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

Verse

e|----0-------0----|-------0---|

B|----1-------1----|---1----0--|

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

D|-2--2-0-3-3-3-0--|--2---2----|

A|-----------------|-3---2-----|

E|--------------x7-|-----------|

Bridge to Chorus

e|-1---0---|

B|-1---3---|

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

D|-3---0---|

A|-3-------|

E|-1-------|

Bridge to Chorus Riff A

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

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

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

D|--3--3-3-0--0-0-|

A|-3-3--3-0-0--0--|

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

Bridge to Chorus Riff B (Keyboard)

e|-3-5-3--0--|

B|-------3-3-|

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

D|-----------|

A|-----------|

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

Chorus (Am-C-Em/Am-C-G)

e|------12-----12--15-----12---------15--|

B|-13-15--13-12--12--13-15--13-12--12----|

G|-------------------------------12------|

D|---------------------------------------|

A|---------------------------------------|

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

Lead

e|--------------7-8-7------------------7-8-10-12-15<---|

B|-8-10h-8-10-10-----10-8-8-10h-10-8-10----------------|

G|-----------9-----------------------------------------|

D|-----------------------------------------------------|

A|-----------------------------------------------------|

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

e|--------------7-8-7---------------------------------------|

B|-8-10h-8-10-10-----10-8-8-10h-10-8-10-12-13>12>10>8>10-6--|

G|-----------9----------------------------------------------|

D|----------------------------------------------------------|

A|----------------------------------------------------------|

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

Chorus 2

e|-----12-------------15----12-------|

B|-12----12-13--12--12--13----13-12--|

G|---12-------14--12------14---------|

D|-----------------------------------|

A|-----------------------------------|

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

Chorus 2 (Pattern)

e|-----12---------15----12------|

B|-13----13-12--12--13----13-12-|

G|---14-------12------14--------|

D|------------------------------|

A|------------------------------|

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

Last Verse Fill

e|-17--12----|

B|---15--13--|

G|-----------|

D|-----------|

A|-----------|

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

Chorus 3 (Outro Riff)

e|-0-0--------------12-----------12--15--12--15--12--12-|

B|--0-0-12-13h-13-12--13-12-12-13--13--13--13--13--13---|

G|------------------------------------------------------|

D|------------------------------------------------------|

A|------------------------------------------------------|

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

Chorus 3 (Loosely last time through)

e|---------12------12-----12---|

B|-13-13-12--12-13h-12-13h-----|

G|-----------------------------|

D|-----------------------------|

A|-----------------------------|

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

Final Am after outro

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

B|--------1-0-----|

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

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

A|-----0--------0-|

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

REVEAL: ALL THE WAY TO RENO (you're gonna be a star)

   In general, there's something about the Southwest U.S. that captivates Michael and I throw this song into that general mix. This song would've fit on NAIHF near Low Desert. Peter interprets this as a pretty depressing song as 'Who goes to Reno to be a star?' He never met anyone from Elko I guess! I remember thinking this song was about divorce, because, you know ... Reno. However, the song hews pretty close to the dreams and crushed dreams of the misguided. But sometimes you have to be a big fish in a small pond--or at least find the pond that suits you. The band was going for a real Jimmy Webb feel on this as a semi-tribute to one of their favorite writers. The video was directed by Michael Moore and the AV club of a Brooklyn High School, it's pretty great so I've included it below. I've always enjoyed the song, but in the context of this album it sort of washes over me--and I can't decide whether that's the strength or weakness of REVEAL--maybe as I get further in it will clarify. The track is a little obvious with the parenthetical title, sort of a throwback to ITEOTWAWKI(AIFF), but the song doesn't really need an alternate title IMO. Also, for those keeping track here's something else Michael has 'fastened on a sleeve.'





 ALL THE WAY TO RENO (you're gonna be a star)

Humming
All the way to Reno
You've dusted the non-believers
And challenged the laws of chance
Now, sweet
You’re so sugar sweet
You may as well have had 'kick me'
Fastened on your sleeve

You know what you are, you're gonna be a star
You know what you are, you're gonna be a star

Wing
Is written on your feet
Your Achilles heel
Is the tendency
To dream
But you've know that from the beginning
You didn't have to go so far
You didn't have to go

You know what you are, you're gonna be a star
You know what you are, you're gonna be a star

You know who you are
You know who you are
You know who you are

Humming
All the way to Reno
You've written your own directions
And whistled the rules of change

You know what you are, you're gonna be a star
You know what you are, you're gonna be a star
You know what you are, you're gonna be a star
You know what you are, you're gonna be a star

Humming
All the way to Reno
All the way to Reno
All the way to Reno

You're gonna be a star

(you are, you are)
You're gonna be a star
You're gonna be a star

(you are, you are)

You're gonna be a star

   Pretty straightforward twang on this one, sort of reminiscent of MAN ON THE MOON, even the opening chords are similar and the C chord sounds full if you add the G on the low E string. Peter does a form of the Gm below, but I like to play the barred version better. When he picks the chords live, he adds the pinky on the G note of the high e string during the C chord, sort of like The One I Love. There's some doodling at the end I didn't tab, but it mostly sticks to the chord forms--however, if you switch to a C chord at the 8th fret and a Gm on the 3rd barred, you can duplicate the high to low slide if you strum up.

ALL THE WAY TO RENO (you're gonna be a star)

Riff 1 (C-Gm)

A|----3-1--------------1-3>5-3---|

E|-3-3-3-1-1-3-1-3----3-------3--|

Riff 2 (Dm-F)

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

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

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

D|--3-5--3-5-5---|

A|-5----3--------|

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

Riff 2 (Dm-F)- easier open version

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

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

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

D|-0-3---3-3-----|

A|--------3------|

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

Verse (if picking, add G note to high e string of C chord)

e|-0---3--------1---1--|

B|-1---3--------3---1--|

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

D|-2---5--------0---3--|

A|-3---5------------3--|

E|-0---0---x3-------1--|

Chorus

e|-1---0---1---6---3------|

B|-3---1---3---8---3------|

G|-3---0---2---8---3------|

D|-3---2---0---8---5------|

A|-1---3-------8---5------|

E|-1---0-------6---3------|

Chorus Riff 1

e|-1-1-0--------|----------------1--|

B|------1-3-3-4-|-3-1-----------3---|

G|--------------|----3-2-0-2-3-3----|

D|--------------|-------3---3-------|

A|--------------|-------------------|

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

e|-1---0---1---6---1------|

B|-3---1---3---8---1------|

G|-3---0---2---8---2------|

D|-3---2---0---8---3------|

A|-1---3-------8---3------|

E|-1---0-------6---1------|

Chorus Riff 2

e|-1-1-0--------|----|

B|------1-3-3-4-|-1--|

G|--------------|----|

D|--------------|----|

A|--------------|----|

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

Middle 8

e|-1---3--------1------|

B|-3---3--------1------|

G|-2---3--------2------|

D|-0---5--------3------|

A|-----5--------3------|

E|-----3---x3---1------|