I-79

3 weeks ago by @orinthebard

I-79

orinthebard

00:00

00:00

Liner Notes

For the #finishit challenge. Based on a story that came to me while driving back from vacation along I-79 last year. In the original song the trucker was a serial killer and the protagonist met an untimely death, but that felt cliche so I abandoned it until I finished/rewrote it here.

Something something liminal spaces something something life is a highway

I SPENT TOO MANY HOURS RECORDING AND MIXING THIS. Edit: notes on the mix are welcome. Now that I listen through laptop speakers, the vocals seem way too loud, but what do y'all think?

(Content warnings for potential substance references/mistreatment of a child)

#countryfolk #baritoneukulele #banjolele #logicdrummer

Lyrics

Chasing white lines, chasing white lines
Chasing white lines down the I-79 til she dies
Telling white lies, telling white lies
Telling white lies on the I-79 til she dies

She came from Pennsylvania where she poured hops into vats
Heard Virginia was for lovers and she needed some of that
Followed a boyfriend down to some old mine town
And got trapped in the holler like so many folks who drown down here

Chasing white lines, chasing white lines
Chasing white lines down the I-79 til she dies
Telling white lies, telling white lies
Telling white lies down the I-79 til she dies

Let's be in love til the dawn
I know it ain't as real as the horse I rode in on
Let's be in love for the night
In your rotting trailer with the green mosquito light

He liked to drink, she liked to fight
Their habits needed funding so she went out in the night
And met a man with stoplight eyes
She didn't listen to the voice that said to run and hide

Let's be in love til the dawn
I know it ain't as real as the horse you rode in on
Let's be in love for the night
At the no-tell-motel with the pink flamingo light

Then she heard a cry from his long-haul truck
When he fell asleep after they were done
She jacked the key and opened up the cab

There’s a baby sleeping halfway to death
In filth so bad she holds her breath
Takes out her knife and cuts the ratchet straps

And tries to clean the child up in the rest stop bath
The graffiti on the wall says Lovers— she says “fuck that”
It took saving a helpless one for her to save herself
When she heard her inner child screaming up to her from hell

And in the end, was it still right?
To steal someone’s neglected baby off into the night?
She knows the dark follows to the dawn
And all we really have are beat up bodies we run on

Chasing white lines, chasing white lines
Chasing white lines down the I-79 til we die
Telling white lies, telling white lies
Telling white lies on the I-79 til we die

Let's be in love with the dark
Since we’re all stuck here til the singing of the larks
Let’s be in love with the night
In our rotting trailers, in the gas station taillights

Comments