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Blanche - "Find The River"

Blanche On "Find The River"
"I remember the shape of your head because you stood in front of me the whole show." I saw R.E.M. for the first time after their album Reckoning came out, and being a 6'4" gent with strange hair, that was the complaint a drunken stranger told me a couple years later. "Stay off the highway; word is it's not so safe." Those lyrics from the R.E.M. song "Green Grow the Rushes" were the last thing we heard before a car slammed into us doing 80 miles an hour coming home from a concert many years ago. "Find The River" has all of those things that defined R.E.M., mysterious lyrics that mean different things to different people, the "jangly!" guitars, etcetera ... but best of all, they sounded like no one else. For our Blanche version of this song, we all agreed that we had absolutely no idea what this song meant. So we tried to record it as if we did, so the hazy abstraction was stripped away. We changed the time signature and tried to keep the line "Nothing is going my way" sounding sad, but with an easy listening flair. We wanted the verse plinky and dramatic, and really make the arrangement bare -- like the Kinks, perhaps. For the chorus, we tried to give it an early '70s feeling country politician sound (Eddie Arnold, Charlie Rich...). It sounds nothing like the Kinks or Eddie Arnold, so perhaps we succeeded with what you're supposed to do at the very least when you cover someone's song. Make it your own...

Mike Mills On "Find The River"
"'Find The River' is a beautiful thing. That was actually done at John Keane's studio in Athens. It was pretty much a demo, but the demo was so well done that we ended up using it for the record."

Check out Dr. Dog's cover of "Find The River" here.

"Find The River" lyrics
Hey now, little speedyhead,
the read on the speedmeter says
you have to go to task in the city
where people drown and people
serve.
Don't be shy. Your just deserve
Is only just light years to go.

Me, my thoughts are flower
strewn
ocean storm, bayberry moon.
I have got to leave to find my
way.
Watch the road and memorize
this life that pass before my eyes.
Nothing is going my way.

The ocean is the river's goal,
a need to leave the water knows
We're closer now than light years
to go.

I have got to find the river,
bergamot and vetiver
run through my head and fall
away.
Leave the road and memorize
this life that pass before my eyes.
Nothing is going my way.

There's no one left to take the
lead,
but I tell you and you can see
we're closer now than light years
to go.
Pick up here and chase the ride.
The river empties to the tide.
Fall into the ocean.

The river to the ocean goes,
A fortune for the undertow.
None of this is going my way.
There is nothing left to throw
of Ginger, lemon, indigo,
coriander stem and rose of hay.
Strength and courage overrides
the privileged and weary eyes
of river poet search naivete.
Pick up here and chase the ride.
The river empties to the tide.
All of this is coming your way.

Tags: Blanche