Written in September 1995. The lyrics grew out of a couple of lines I made up in conversation waiting to get into a local night club - they became the first and second "chorus," the "oxygen" and "lithium" lines. I wrote the line about "bodies piled up all over the place / even people you thought were blessed" at the beginning of the week in which Mother Theresa and Princess Diana both died. Go figure. The music was clumsy for a while, partly since I had no experience singing or writing melody lines. Eventually it coalesced around the three rhythm guitar parts outlined below. The R1 guitar bit was made up while messing around with a friend, probably the first chord progression I really managed to play a passable improvised lead guitar over. The R3 riff was another "fun" bit I made up once. In 2003, working with my guitar teacher and strict taskmaster, I tightened up the music a bit. I threw out an Am-Dm-Am-Em riff I wandered through before each verse. He forced me to write a recognizable lead guitar riff for the verse chord progression, which I did, and which has a few variations throughout the song. Likewise, the prosaic but pretty Dm-C-F-G part picked up some structured lead guitar lines. Key: A bit indeterminate. Tempo: Medium fast. Just not fast enough to spoil the darkness... There are three rhythm guitar riffs: R1: Em - B - G - D, four beats of each R2: Dm - C - F - G, four beats of each R3 (preceded by a four beat rest):
There are also a few lead guitar riffs that add structure to the song and bracket the few bars that are more improvised sounding. L1: 1 - 2 - 3 - Am | G - F - Em - D | and slide the D note up to E (and E to F#, F# to G, G to A). This riff is the intro, and leads into R1. It is also used as the R3 to R1 transition. L2a and L2b: Although these two make a complete little melody, they only occur together once, in the long R1 solo.
L3a and L3b: L2b flows directly into either of these. L3a only occurs in the long R1 solo.
L4: D - C - F - G | D - C - A - G | D - C - A - B, this is played over the three repetitions of R2 behind the 'chorus.' L5: This is the part when the R2 solo solidifies and starts to unwind. Structure: repeat all these things a lot... L1 R1 x 3, with L2b and L3b R1 x 4, Verse 1 R2 + L4 x 3, Chorus 1 R3 x 3 L1 R1 x (8?), this is the R1 solo. L2a - 2 measures "improvised", L2a + b, L3a + b R1 x 4; R2 x 3. V2 and C2. R3 x 3 Repeat first verse/chorus structure Stay in R2 (x ?) for solo, moving to L5 and walking back down B string, to: R2 x 3, recap chorus lines, lead is just D - C over and over again. R3 x 1 "Single" ending (45 rpm): just stop right there. "Album" ending (33 1/3 rpm): Play to the "single" ending, and take four or eight beats of rests. Start up with R3 again. Double guitar solo over it, using all fifteen notes in the scale (!?), and scream a lot while this is happening. At some point the band all realise it is time to end the song and the inversion walk down from Am to E is left oout in the open as everyone else stops playing for a moment. There are three quick squeals of the opening "bend" part of L2a and we all collapse in a heap of sweat and smoke on a final A minor. Someone, somewhere, intones: "hold everything secure" in the guitar trial out noise. It is time for a break before the next set... (Notes about the notes about the songs) 
© Huw Powell
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