"The Drifter"

"The Drifter" is about somebody who wanders home the day after an extremely hard night of partying. This is not something I've experienced, so I can't say I really connect with the song. Also, I never really liked the way the music turned out. However, it is included on the album at the insistence of my bandmates who think this is a great song.

I wrote the music near the end of March 2008. The yodeling part was inspired by "The Lonely Goatherd" from The Sound of Music. After I finished the music, I wrote some filler lyrics in five minutes, and recorded a demo for the band. At the time, Lisa had been raving to me about the remarkable life of Stede Bonnet, so I thought, maybe I could turn it into a pirate song. The song went like this:

When I was in town
A rich and favored child
I was sentenced to be loved and forgotten
My stuffy civil life
With oh my nagging wife
I desired more of an adventure

So I gathered up a crew and leased a boat
And then, we set sail from the coast
Towards Aruba, Martinique, and Kokomo
We're sure to put on quite a show

[instrumental]

This week we'll plunder five
In my matching suit and tie
We'll show them what nobility's made of

We're the pirates from a new and fancy mold
With cannons plated in gold
If you work for me, ten coins I will bestow
On you, everyday we're afloat

Yo-ho, lay-ee-oo...

I've seventy hired men
I manage now and then
When I'm not below heating my kettle
Would they ever leave?
That's a silly inquiry.
They have got the brawns, but I've got the money

So we sail into the waves of history
And we'll do this articulately
If they say I'm weak, well, fine, just let them say
But my friend, Blackbeard, will shut them away

Yo-ho, lay-ee-oo...

Despite such great lines as "They have got the brawns, but I've got the money," we decided that the original set of lyrics were stronger. I tweaked them a bit to form a story, and then brought it to rehearsal. There was a bit of a group effort on the arrangement: Ciana and Russ figured out the "Egyptian" countermelody during the chorus, Devin wrote the trumpet lines at the beginning of the song, and Molly wrote her vocal harmonies.

As fun as it was to play, "The Drifter" is really not my best songwriting, and I thought it was sometimes repetitive and boring. So, I decided to make it a little silly, and loaded it up with sound effects like the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine." I brought in my friend Hana to play a harp line to transition from the bridge back to the verse.

Who played on the recording? Steven (lead vocals, guitar, percussion, melodica); Molly (backing vocals); Maya (viola); Devin (trumpet); Hilary (cello); Hana (harp)

Lyrics:

The night I wasn't home
I was a little stoned
I was tripping out to the beat of a disco
Whatever happened next
I bet it was complex
I woke up in the heart of San Francisco

With me and you and everyone we know
From all of the places we've found
All the smiles and eyes and sparks from long ago
They spun like a merry-go-round

I walked along the shore
I walked along some more
I found it hard to talk and hard to swallow

With me and you, and people I don't know
We played on this big haunted ground
All the smiles and eyes and sparks from long ago
They spun like a merry-go-round

Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh

Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh

So then I reached the park
As it was getting dark
I was introduced to a stomach in peril
My senses came to light
As the world sank out of sight
I found my rented home in a street oh-so-narrow

Oh me and you and everyone we know
Flew out of the old lost and found
All the smiles and eyes and sparks from long ago
They spun like a merry-go-round

Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh

Yodel lay, yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee, yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee, yodel lay ee ooh