UP: PARAKEET

   I can't believe there are only two songs left on the album, but okay that's only because I thought it would never end. The band are going solidly in the direction of REVEAL with these last two offerings. Parakeet is a simple melodic tune, a powerful story about leaving a domestically abusive environment, and going through the song again in detail points out how good the craft is. I still don't consider UP to be an album that begs for repeated listening as much as say MURMUR or even AFTP, but its songwriting is so admirable. The risks the band are taking with drum machines and more emphasis on keyboards is extremely brave, not to mention the clear and thoughtful lyrics. There's a reason Mike thought Michael should include the lyrics as part of the packaging--he's saying more on this album than he's ever said--even if it shatters a lot of the mystique the band accrued over the years. Speaking of mystique, the lyrics included are technically incorrect on this song as with others. Another reason for this blog is to correctly deliver what is happening in the studio over Michael's intention of the song, which is what you can find most everywhere else. More than any lyricist it's Michael's right to define the song as he sees fit as he sees the lyrics poetically--a document of his work over what he delivered into a microphone in a single take. Cool, but this is an accuracy blog more than anything else to replicate the album tracks. Hey, I gave him the first 'lately' even thiught I think he's saying 'baby.' Parakeet to me feels like the band ready to try something completely new, sort of Monty Got a Raw Deal and Saturn Return pulling in either direction.



PARAKEET

You wake up in the morning and fall out of your bed
Mean cats eat parakeets and this one's nearly dead
You dearly wish the wind would shift and greasy windows slide
Open for the parakeet who's colored bitter lime

Open the window
To lift into your dreams
Lately, baby
You can barely breathe

A broken wrist, an accident, you know that something's wrong
You fold the leavings of your past, no one knows you've gone
The sunspot flares of the early nineties light up your wings
And scan the shortwave radio it's tracking outer rings

Open the window
To lift into a dream
Baby, baby
You can start to breathe

The tectonic dispatcher shifts to smooth the ocean floor
And flattens out to warmer winds of Brisbane's sunny shore
Where buddhas tend to mending wrists
A tea made from the leaves of eucalyptus fragrances and coriander seeds

Open the window
To lift into a dream
Baby, baby
You can start to breathe

Open the window
To lift into a dream
Baby, baby
You can start to breathe

You wake up in the morning to warm Pacific breeze
Where mean cats chew on licorice and cannot climb the trees

   There is no guitar on this song, but I've transposed the keyboard chords and a few of the filler riffs. For those piano players out there it's mainly straight chords. This opens up the interpretation for a guitar player, I enjoy playing the Verse stuff in the power chords off of the A string--meaning the opening G chord up at the 10th fret, and then moving down the fret board to the B chord in one position. But you can also go with straight up barre chords.

PARAKEET

Chords

Gm-F#m-E

D-C-B

Em-C-Am-Bm-D

Em-C-Am-Bm-D/B

How I play the Bm-D/B

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

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

G|-7---7-8---|

D|-9---7-7---|

A|-9---------|

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

Piano walk Riffs (After the E in the verse)

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

B|--10-10---|---7-8-10--|

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

D|----------|-9---------|

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

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

End Riff (strumming the chord at the end is nice)

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

B|-9-7-7-9-9-9-|-9--------|

G|----8--------|-8--------|

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

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

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