Saturday, September 22, 2007

Long Weekend

Unreleased Track

A break-up song that sounds more bittersweet than most break-up songs, I wasn’t even sure if it was a break-up song (as opposed to a “take-a-break” song or a song about a lover just being gone for a weekend) until I’d heard it many, many times. I guess that it threw me off since it debuted and was performed when Seth Timbs was immersed in a relationship with his first wife, a time when writing songs about heartache reached its career low, at least until the last batch of Fluid Ounces songs and first batch of Hot New Singles songs.

The song opens and closes with the lines,
“Blue skies in your eyes
As you said [later, “sang”] your good-byes
And I tried to lie and say I wouldn’t miss you
But I’d have to be more dead than alive
And up until now that’s been easy.”
I have discovered this concept to be true as soon as any major change occurs in life: that when sudden change strikes, you look back to just days or hours before the event and simply ask, “Was I asleep?” Whether it’s a break-up or a terrorist attack, life is filled with little wake-up calls that cause us to return to vigilance. And even if our speaker wishes he could go back (when he says, “And up until now that’s been easy”), he’s still implying that he has had just such a wake-up call.

I have always been disappointed that this song didn’t last longer being played live and that it never made it to an official release. It was written in time to have appeared on Foreign Legion, and is the only song I can think of that could have fit into that record’s near-perfect cohesion if it had been sandwiched between “Poet Tree” and “Metaphor,” throwing an actual break-up song in before a series of songs about misery and heartbreak. It could have also worked on The Whole Shebang, a record which I thought needed another track or two to nudge it over the top.

But alas, it has remained unreleased…well, until now.

Download mp3

8 comments:

Jakob Dorof said...

seriously. how can someone shelve a track like this? one of timbs' finest, straight-up...it would've been especially heart-rending had it been given proper record treatment.

also, i didn't even know a demo existed...i previously only had an iffy bootleg which to refer. this is very interesting to hear, but still aggravating in its low quality. that bridge might be in my top five timbs bridges, which says a lot, as he usually saves his best for those. still, the vocal choir effect doesn't hit in on this demo, nor do the drums, which, on the live bootleg i have, hit so hard and groovy when they return that you can't help but dance despite the melancholy.

for chrissakes seth, please record this song!


p.s. juan, you can't get away just dropping this demo on us and not letting us know from whence it came. do you have other recordings from this demo session? when/where was it laid to tape? any info at all? i want more...so much more...

Juan Horsetown said...

This is just a home recording. I have a few other demos, but most all of them are for songs that got the grand treatment on a record.

I have 3 versions of "Long Weekend," and this is by far the best, but I know it's not great.

The only hope for this song is that Seth once mentioned a while ago that he was recording a solo record with the improved equipment that he and Tha B used to make Instant Nostalgia. He mentioned having a new version of "Burning Daylight" on it, and I'd imagine this song has a chance if he is still making working on the solo record.

Anonymous said...

Always one of Seth's underrated tunes...the piano line is so wistful and...well, so Seth.
Great song. I think he recorded the original demo using my drums.
-Jdogg

Jakob Dorof said...

damn man, what seth tune ISN'T underrated?

Juan Horsetown said...

Record Stack

Anonymous said...

Good point, all of Seth's stuff is underrated in the larger sense, but I meant underrated in terms of his own discography.

Juan Horsetown said...

I decided to roll this one out first to begin showcasing the un-released stuff.

What I'd like to know from all readers--
Do you want me to still blog about unreleased songs, especially the ones in which all I have of them are low-quality bootlegs?

The gear I used and the shows I've found before I got my own gear are pretty low quality. Seth discussed on an earlier message board that he didn't want to release a lot of the songs, and so it's a question on whether you, the readers, are interested in some lower-quality songs that are only documented with lower-quality recordings.

Jakob Dorof said...

i definitely am. out with 'em! :D

also funny that "anonymous" replied for me, 'cause i didn't write that...:P

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