Lament

A hollow tune, a hollow heart

Originally titled "The Old Rock and Roller". One of my favourite CA songs. Gerard sings and I play bar chords on John's cheapo (and I belive first-ever) electric guitar. The guitar was tuned to the main chord of the song and was amplified in my favorite way - by stuffing a Tandy contact mike under the bridge to get that classic "I am playing a biscuit box" sound. BN

I later dismantled that guitar. I have no idea why, perhaps I was resentful about something. Something that Ben forgot to mention was that it only had four strings on it at the time. Incredibly, I taught myself to play the song on a "normally" tuned guitar, although I was never required to play it. Thematically it's not too dissimilar to the King Crimson song of the same name. JP

It works quite well, with threadbare guitar and bleary self-pitying voice. I do not know what sort of old rock'n'roller would use my strange pseudo-archaic poetic style, though, describing himself as a 'dishevelled minstrel, sorry bard'... or using words like 'demission'. I think it is one of Helen Craig's favourites. Recorded September 81. GG