Tangytown

13 Oct

Originally composed by Ric Albano on April 5, 2006
From the album Out There Somewhere by Ric Albano
Released October 24, 2020

Listen to the Song:

“Tangytown” is a unique song in the Out There Somewhere collection. It was written around 2006 during the Imaginary Lines project but, although revised several times in subsequent years, it was not considered for release until 2020. The song’s title comes from a Doors song off of Morrison Hotel called “Maggie M’Gill”, which was interpreted about this fictional place which only exists in one’s imagination.

Musically the song is built on a descending piano chord sequence that skips keys at several junctures and is complimented by orchestral synths and multiple percussion instruments. The song was originally recorded with about nine different vocal parts for the closing coda, but this was vastly scaled back for the final version.

Ric Albano – vocals, piano, guitars, bass, drums, percussion, orchestration

Lyrics

So I walked away from it all
To investigate what’s beyond the curvature of this ball
I made a rash decision to break
And direct my tunnel vision towards a new path that I will take

Embarked on my mission to Tangytown
Where the eminent pay homage to gaudy clowns
Without a sound, I just walked away from it all

Oh, I wouldn’t leave that rail alone, although I knew deep down
It couldn’t transport me to a place where I’d cease to be scorned
I must forsake the decision or just own it
I must ice all provisions or prove that I actually condone it

But I found no asylum in Tangytown,
Only miscreants held up high while the saints are brought down
To the bitter sounds of me grabbing hold of that third rail today

Often distorted, not directly ever observed
Oh, and so rarely acknowledged and, God knows, never really heard
This is the vapor trail of a lost and wandering soul
Who tried, so intensely, to escape out of his self-dug hole

Oh, why did I did that hole?
I had to dig the hole!