FIVE days now until the release of MOUNTAIN. We have some very cool announcements coming, and more good news. We have surpassed expectations and could not be happier about things happening in the Cold Stares world. So much of our success and these good things are because of YOU, our fans being relentless in spreading the word. Press release on Sleeping With Lions coming shortly today. In the mean time I\u2019ll break down one of our favorites from the album \u201cFriend of Mine\u201d\u2026.<\/p>\n
This one comes from my love of the poetry of delta blues. Son House, Skip James, story songs about real people. Lots of hidden stuff in this song, but it\u2019s mainly about our character who has seen nothing but bad luck. In the end, he knows things are going to go south and when he stands before God he\u2019s thinking \u201cHope I\u2019m gonna find you\u2019re a friend of mine\u201d. I always loved the line in the first verse \u201cI ain\u2019t gonna lie I ain\u2019t gonna pay rent\u201d, which I borrowed theme wise from Thorogood\u2019s version of \u201cOne Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer\u201d, where the landlord says \u201cthat don\u2019t confront me, as long as I got my rent by Friday\u201d. Our character is down on his luck and already decided he\u2019s not paying the rent. The following line \u201cDevils in the meadow and the dogs been sent\u201d, means I see the trouble coming, and about all I\u2019m going to do is let the dog out to go handle it.
\nVerse two things have caught up with the character and the police are at the door. Probably a number of things they could be there for, and perhaps none of them our character has done, but he knows his string of bad luck continues. Doesn\u2019t say how the incident proceeds, but we know that he\u2019s got bullets beside the bed and we find in verse three that he\u2019s now on death row and heading to the gallows.
\nThe line in the chorus \u201cI\u2019ve been standing on the levee since I was 6 years old\u201d is a reference to the Levees we hear about in the delta blues songs. Lower Mississippi was notorious for flooding, and a lot of early delta songwriters referenced the Levee as kind of the last defense against the flood. I always loved Son House\u2019s \u201cLevee Camp Blues\u201d, which also is where our song \u201cJohn\u201d was inspired from. Anyways, “standing on the levee since I was 6 years old\u201d, simple interprets into- I\u2019ve been waiting around since I was 6 years old for something bad to happen. Fairly hopeless, and maybe that’s the environment that our character grew up in, or around, but he\u2019s felt damned from very early on. This is one of our songs that I would consider \u201cSouthern Gothic\u201d. It certainly lends itself to the southern gothic novels, and for characters that I\u2019ve grown up around all my life. Hope you enjoy-<\/p>\n
13 blackbirds sitting on a fence
\n17 dollars that my good girl spent
\nI ain’t gonna lie, I ain\u2019t gonna pay rent
\nDevils in the meadow and the dogs been sent<\/p>\n
Oh Lord bless my soul
\nBeen standing on the levee since I was 6 years old
\nOh Lord when it comes time
\nHope I’m gonna find your a friend of mine<\/p>\n
16 bullets on the side of the bed
\nTelephone ringing right beside my head
\nKnocking on the door it’s the county law
\nTrying to figure out what I\u2019ve done wrong<\/p>\n
Oh Lord bless my soul
\nBeen standing on the levee since I was 6 years old
\nOh Lord when it comes time
\nHope I’m gonna find your a friend of mine<\/p>\n
15 years I\u2019ve been waiting on the line
\nPreacher said “boy its about that time”
\nHangman waiting at the gallows edge
\nGonna try to tie a rope up around my neck<\/p>\n
Oh Lord bless my soul
\nBeen standing on the levee since I was 6 years old
\nOh Lord when it comes time
\nHope I’m gonna find your a friend of mine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FIVE days now until the release of MOUNTAIN. We have some very cool announcements coming, and more good news. We have surpassed expectations and could not be happier about things happening in the Cold Stares world. So much of our … Continue reading