From the recording Skyhouse & Scarlet - 2001
Written and recorded in one, late-night session on December 8th, 2000 - the 20th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination.
You can tell at the end that I'd been listening to The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" quite a bit.
I like the catchy, 'Beach Boys' ending (complete with sleigh bells!), the french horn, the ambient synth sounds, and the general vibe of this one. The atmosphere is palpable, and I can still recall how incredibly quiet and bitterly cold it was that night in Moscow.
Some twenty years on, I still feel sad when I hear this song.
Lyrics
Twenty years ago tonight
When I was just too young to grasp it
You were torn so quickly from this world
I just recall the silent masses
And the asphalt and glasses
I couldn't cry, I couldn't feel
My parched and saltless eyes just stared ahead
At the newspapers and the t.v. and magazines
And winked at stupid jokes between my classes
While I thought of asphalt and glasses
I've often wondered how you'd feel
About the things you might see today
About AIDS, and computers, and Madonna
About day traders, and day trippers, and fascists
Do they ever think about asphalt and glasses?
My hopeless words are cold and pale
Like lifeless heroes so perfectly flawed and human
Which we dust off twice a year and remember
But the recollections everybody stashes
Show up in my head, as asphalt and glasses
Blood on the pavement,
Asphalt and glasses