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Busker in the London Underground
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Album   $5
Ode to bungled relationships and international travel
Artist picture
Rob plays things with strings and makes sounds with his voice. Eshinee plays things she can hit with her hands and sings. They both write songs, inspired by eve
Misses and Mystery is the songwriting/performing partnership of Rob Veith (vocals, guitar, bass, and programming) and Eshinee Smallwood (vocals, percussion, and keyboards). They have performed together as part of other bands and have released three albums independently. Diverse in their musical influences and erudite in their songwriting, a typical Misses and Mystery album features a mix of traditional folk, psychedelic rock, and jazzy improvisation.
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic Rock
Peak in subgenre #49
Author
Rob Veith
Rights
2002
Uploaded
February 07, 2006
Track Files
MP3
MP3 7.0 MB • 128 kbps • 7:39
Story behind the song
I came up with most of this song while riding the London Underground back from a friend's flat where I'd spent New Years Eve in 1996. There actually was a busker there singing something that sounded like, "We should always be together." And he was by himself. As with all of my songs, the rest is a bit of fact and a bit of fiction. An ode to bungled relationships and international travel. There's all kinds of stories which can be told about the recording of this song. In the original recording, the engineer didn't get that I *wanted* the drum loop to sound crappy--like it was coming through a boombox. He gave me this perfect, giant sounding loop which contrasted in a nasty way with the loose way Marco and I were playing (on bass and guitar, respectively). And I just couldn't hit the notes on the chorus. I was going to scrap the song, but Eshinee encouraged me to rework the tracks. Marco's bass and Chris's drumming (pulled through Recycle for some editing) remained. I properly messed up the drum loop. Esh and I developed the organ and conga parts. She sang the melody in the chorus. The original recording had a public domain recording of a New York subway, because I couldn't find one from London. Towards the end of the Simple Words sessions, I found a public domain recording from London which is spliced in at the beginning and end of the song.
Lyrics
I had two days to hang in London town. Three pound buys the underground. I walked past a busker getting down; he sings “We’ll always be together.” It’s not hard to find a cat so bold to strum his way out of the cold with a sentiment that seems so old: “We should always be...” Whatever, I picked my path past mews and wynds; I rode the Circle seven times and now the city seems like mine (I’ll get to know it better). No one I know sets out to roam, but it’s so hard to find a home. Over the snow the wind will moan, yeah okay whatever. That refrain has come before from every tongue that wanted more, from every book of ancient lore: we should always be together. The lie is an unconscious thread that lives just until it’s dead, but you might just rhyme instead (it could last forever), but this busker, it seems to me, doesn’t catch the irony-- he’s hoping just for more money and he tries to sing it better. But like Juliet and her Romeo or like John and his Yoko, this busker strums and sings alone. Yeah, okay, whatever. Yeah okay whatever. CHORUS: Through every forever we’ll prevail you and me, through every forever we’ll prevail. Through every forever we’ll prevail you and me, through every forever we’ll prevail. Love, infinity. In the morning with a sigh, sworn blood brothers until we die, like lovers sometimes-- I don’t know why your tears beat in my chest. Through the valley follow me, walking like the elderly, we talked of the future didn’t we (or how we’ve now been blessed). I recall the evening when we sang “The Circle” and “September Rain,” how we cursed the mics and pain (all that work on Nights Like This!). Now you are across the sea. I rarely see you in my dreams. Jasmine mountain evergreen. And I still feel that first kiss. (chorus) I can count the times it’s come past me. I dealt with it with dignity, spoke the words that came to mean “it will last forever.” But now I’ve done the tower and the square. I saw Big Ben and no one cared; there was no one to take my picture there (we should always be together). Like the busker, I stand alone, smudging rhymes on the underground, ignored by the whole commuting throng hiding from the weather. And above it gets so cold; the wind can chill you to the bone and it’s so hard to walk alone. Yeah, okay, whatever. (chorus)
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