The Song That Left Mnemosyne Speechless

Once upon a time...

"For the 50th anniversary of WNYC's FM station in June of 1994, we decided to embark on a program of commissioning music from diverse American composers to celebrate the occasion. [...] We asked the noted poet John Ashbery for a poem, and then sent it to 12 composers. Their instructions were simple: write a piece based on the poem — it did not have to be a typical voice-with-piano setting; it could use some of the text, all of the text, or none of the text. [...] In the end, a splendid concert took place on June 13, 1994, when thirteen pieces by the twelve composers had their world premieres at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall."

(WNYC Music Host John Schaefer)

Laurie Anderson was among the twelve composers involved, and she

"provided a tape piece, 'This House of Blues', in which she set her own inflected reading of the poem, in slightly rearranged form, against a soft-edged, electronically altered ensemble." 

(Allan Kozinn / The New York Times)

'This House of Blues' was later included in 'The WNYC Commissions Vol. One', released in 2002, almost completely unavailable in 2011.

After a months-long journey through the United States and half of Europe, thanks to a bunch of helpful friends, the CD has recently arrived to Mnemosyne.

The awesomeness of the song has left Mnemosyne speechless but she was convinced this song cried for visual accompaniment. And publicity. That's why she asked lukeslark to create a video for it.

Here's what Luke has to say about his creation:

"[...] decided to take a very simple approach visually, partly due to the fact that the lyrical content is quite abstract and complex and really needs to stand by itself without distraction, but also because I'm drawn increasingly to simplicity, the transparent, like the 'pellucid statues' mentioned by the daughter. Interesting how Laurie's intonation of 'she said' following the daughter's words ties the piece back to her earlier work i.e. 'It Tango'. [...]

My first thought with the song was to use tight claustrophobic blue corridors [...] - but as soon as I found the sky footage I thought, 'that's it!'."

Close open your eyes and behold.

(FYI: lyrics and credits under the video)

No Longer Very Clear 

by John Ashbery

In this house of blues...

It's true that I can no longer remember very well
The time when we first began to know each other
However, I do remember very well
The first time we met. You walked in sunlight,
Holding a daisy. You said, "Children make unreliable witnesses."

In this house of blues...

Now, so long after that time,
I keep the spirit of it throbbing still.
The ideas are still the same, and they expand
to fill vast, antique cubes.
My daughter was reading one just the other day.
She said, "How like pellucid statues, Daddy. Or like a...
an engine."

In this house of blues...

In this house of blues the cold creeps stealthily upon us.
I do not dare to do what I fantasize doing.
With time the blue congeals into roomlike purple
That takes the shape of alcoves, landings...
Everything is like something else.
I should have waited before I learned this.

Credits:

Laurie Anderson, vocals and keyboards
Cyro Baptista, percussion
Joey Baron, drums
Greg Cohen, bass
Brian Eno, drum treatments

Sleep is where you learn to let things go.

The dead in their hideouts.

The spinning world.

Yes, sleep is a vanishing act.

And then again, so is life.

[lyrics excerpt from 'Delusion' by Laurie Anderson]

[photo by Stanford Lively Arts]

"What War Was That?"

"There were those who knew only the sound of their own voices.
There were those who knew the rules.
There were those who freed their bodies.
There were those who couldn't take it.
There were others on their own.
Who was it?
Who was it?"

(excerpt from Laurie Anderson's contribution to
Colin Stetson's new album)

LA: "He's a colossal player. [...] He's a really amazing player."

LR: "He is really astonishing - but honestly - how he can play for more than twenty minutes..."

LA: "... Without dying, yeah..."

LR: "... Without being killed. I mean, the horn is bigger than he is. And he's doing circular breathing."

(Laurie Anderson's and Lou Reed's appreciative words on Colin Stetson

- as heard on the radio)

But It All Looks the Same.

"Look at all the things I've bought
I can't believe what they cost
Just a lot of plastic and numbers on my credit card"

iPhone-a-string @ Stanford
May 2010

Photo source: Flickr / livelyarts

Lyrics excerpts from 'Dark Angel' by Laurie Anderson

Paul Klee, Free Association & 'Me'

It was August, summer of 82.
You had a rusty old car

And me

- I had nothing better to do.

We were goin' in circles.

And me

- I was just hanging on.

You did all the talking.

And me

- I didn't make a sound.

(1)

Weasel keeps hangin' on

Together forever

And me?

- I'm goin' in circles.

I've floated on an icecap with a white polar bear
I've floated up and down the golden stairs
I've seen whales and caught in sails all twiskeetwee

But me?

I don't say much.

(2)

It's your turn to walk along the runway road.

And me?

I sent my better self on ahead.

(3)

Some people know exactly where they're going
The pilgrims to Mecca
The climbers to the mountain top

But me,

I'm looking for just a single moment

So I can slip through time

(4)

1: Hot Pursuit / Paul Klee, 1939

2: Sinbad the Sailor / Paul Klee, 1923

3: Snake Paths / Paul Klee, 1934

4: Tightrope Walker / Paul Klee, 1923

Lyrics excerpts from
'Speechless (The Eagle and the Weasel)',
'The Island Where I Come From',
'One Beautiful Evening',
and 'Life on a String'
- all written by Laurie Anderson

Big Science - to remind us of our insignificant size

Coo coo coo it's cold outside.
Coo coo coo it's cold outside.
Ooo coo coo. Don't forget your mittens.

And so, because it was spring,
and because I had avoided it for so long,
I set off, lowering myself into a hole
and then out onto the wide plain.
A sky full of autumn.
And everything shaking, long blue shadows.

I carry a photograph of a city.
A car comes driving out of a film,
headlights blinking and goes right past.
Hello. Excuse me. Can you tell me where I am?

Hey Pal! How do I get to town from here?
And he said: Well just take a right where they're going to build that new shopping mall,
go straight past where they're going to put in the freeway,
take a left at what's going to be the new sports center,
and keep going until you hit the place where they're thinking of building that drive-in bank.
You can't miss it.
And I said: This must be the place.

Ooo coo coo. Golden cities. Golden towns.
Golden cities. Golden towns.
And long cars in long lines and great big signs
and they all say:
Hallelujah. Yodellayheehoo.
Every man for himself.

Ooo coo coo. Golden cities. Golden towns.
Thanks for the ride.

Big Science. Hallelujah.
Big Science. Yodellayheehoo.

It was such a huge hole, right in the middle of the city.
And so the architects were summoned.
"How about a hill of beans?", says one.
"No, how about something very tall?
Very large number and terrific height that will stagger the senses.
Maybe impersonating people."
"What about a slab of cheese?", says the other.
"Something pure, organic. Something everyone will like".
"Well, a slab of cheese, or a donut.
Something with thoughts of happier times.
Don’t make it look abandoned.
Or like it’s been irradiated.
Another large and noble empty plaza to remind us of our insignificant size."

"How about a fancy banister?
One that goes all the way to Mars?
Or one made of teardrops and spilled ink?"

You know, I think we should put some mountains here.
Otherwise, what are all the characters going to fall off of?
And what about stairs?

Yodellayheehoo. Ooo coo coo.

Here's a man who lives a life of danger.
Everywhere he goes, he stays - a stranger.
Howdy stranger. Mind if I smoke?
And he said: Every man, every man for himself.
Every man, every man for himself.
All in favor say aye.

"Now Winnie, we've got unfinished business, you all know what it is I bet"
So who the hell or what, I said to myself.
Let's look at whose fault this actually was.
Let's throw in the towel, shall we.
Let's look at whose fault it was and assign it right now.
All we're talking about gold and winners -
Let's talk about who the losers are.

Big Science. Hallelujah.
Big Science. Yodellayheehoo.

Hey Professor! Could you turn out the lights?
Let's roll the film.

I smelled a certain something.
I smiled.
Play it one frame at a time, I said.
Let's go back and play it one frame at a time.

Big Science. Hallelujah.
Every man, every man for himself.
Big Science. Hallelujah.
Yodellayheehoo.

('Big Science' lyrics by Laurie Anderson (1980?))

(fragments of 'The End of the Moon', lyrics by Laurie Anderson (2004))

The pictures are screengrabs from a delicate short film called 'Life on a String', composed onto the music of the Laurie Anderson album with the same title, directed by Steven Lippman.

Difficult Listening Hour: The Fifth Plague

Time for another pathetic attempt to puzzle out another hard-to-understand* lyrics by Laurie Anderson: The Fifth Plague (Death of Livestock). This cheering, upbeat song can be listened to online at the official website of the album it is included in: The Plague Songs (2006).

The Fifth Plague
(music and lyrics by Laurie Anderson)
(as heard by Mnemosyne)

Beasts of the field we stand
Somewhere between darkness and man
Part of the plan
Part of the proof of the fifth plague

Ah to die in a grove
On a spring day
Tipped over by god
Part of the proof
Part of the plan of the fifth plague

Not the glorious death of the sacred bull
But slaughtered and pitched 'bout rotten junk
into the land of the dead
Where mummified kings and queens wait
in the wrong heaven

Beasts of the field we stand
Somewhere between darkness and man
Part of the plan
Proof of the power of the fifth plague

Like the dying bull in the ring
Stuck by the picadors
The last sound he hears
In this dusty world
The howl of true trumpets
And the sound of applause
As the matador bowes

The Fifth Plague of Egypt / J. M. William Turner, 1800

* For the record again: this version of lyrics is based on Mnemosyne's pure speculation. Please keep my limited auditive comprehension skills in mind when reading the text. (By the way, any help / correction would be deeply appreciated.)

Meanwhile, in Mrs. Lincoln's Head...

I was nearing the end of my journey.
You're alright now.
There's nothing there.
There's nothing the matter.
There's nothing the matter with his face.
Come with me
in a back country road.

Someone just changed their mind.
Please, never a kiss.
Still living, yeah.
That's it.
I was just leaving.
Have a complicated smile.
One small one.

It was an accident.
Take it or leave it -
                              relax.
Let me out of this.
Watch this.
I told you we could make a good team.

Have I left out anything important?
I'm in a bad way, I'm havin' a relapse.
I'll have another gimlet.

OK. The beach.
Let's
        go
        easy.

Who are you?
You had better speak.
Close the door.

Some suggested pictures danced the night away.

We're late. I didn't hear you.
Just a minute. Think of it.

Hey, killer. Just leave me alone.
My ambition, my emotion must not be mine.
Woof! Woof!
- OK. Of course.
Argh. Arrgghh!

It reminds me of the time when we had that terrible experience.

Yes, stranger.
Hardly perfect.
How come I have bruises?
Children grow up too fast.
You are doing fine.
Reverse, well, well,
I'm cutting out.
Wait a second.
Good night.

I need more time.
- Forget it.
That's the trouble.
Steady - sea - spire - sheets - of - ice.

What about the button?
Which island is it?
I hear a sound.
It must have been a terrible war.
Oh boy... what's that, please?
Do you know what I think?
I hear a sound.
Nothing's wrong.
I'm not mad. Let's put it this way -
Go ahead. Stop running,

I've got it.
Go ahead. I'm nervous - I'm not nervous,
Will you cooperate? Open the door.
I am a volunteer.

How can you say everybody thinks it's my fault?
Do you want to know the real cause?
Let me alone.
Well, wait.

It must have been a terrible war.

Oh boy. Please, please.
We're ruined.
You can't stop anything.

I'm not mad.
Understand, anyway, anyway, anyway
Tell me one thing.
Just change the subject.
Something is going on.

Well, this is the backdoor bell,
Actually, anyway,
I hear a sound.

Go ahead and say something nasty.
I can take it.
Wonderful. Go ahead.
Finish the piece.
Let the murderers begin.

It's a very quiet thing.
Well, it's good to see your things moving again.

There is the bell.
Who is it? Well, that would be nice
Well, that would be fun.
Honestly, please, be patient with me.
Sure, I have the rest of my life.
Good luck, Jim.
You said that there was a quick way out
Yes, Mister Miller,
What is that turn-off sound really?
After all, you've never served officially in a war.
Except one.

I suppose this place really is nice. Do you like it?
I deal with the past now.
Look dead. Would you? Never mind. Please, don't rush.
Snap it up.
I said it might be a mistake.

What was she like? Don't worry about the past... dream.

I was...
There are some things I just will not eat.
Yeah, I'm going away.
Who's to say the eyes are honest?
Don't misunderstand me. I am happy.
Well, I suppose I might just free.
It's good to see here today.
Well, maybe... Don't touch me.
Murder is on his mind, no. No,
I can't
gently,
gently
- that's better.
There's no one by my side.
I got caught up by the moon singing.
Well, I'm speechless.

Well, what are laughing at the pain in my left shoulder hunk?
I should be dead.

OK, group.
Backwards.
I need to be alone.
Look, it's human nature.
I'm fine, thank you.
That sounds like a warning.
I'm not nervous.

I am just
    scared
        to death.

This time
    for real
        now.

What about the button?
- You are slowing down.

What else do you remember? Try to remember.
There must be something else.
It must have been a terrible war.

Don't lose it.
Every day is wonderful when I'm with you.
Don't go away.

It's over

(Laurie Anderson as Mrs. Lincoln in

The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down, Act V - The Rome Section.

Music by Philip Glass, lyrics by Robert Wilson)

(any help would be deeply appreciated)

Kandinsky in Motion

We dig down in the ocean.
Swing up to the stars.
We own the moon and the earth.
We're masters of Mars.
We're bodies in motion.
We embody the spirit of motion.

(1)

Our ancestors cowered in caves
Afraid of the dark and the thunder.
Wrapped up in black magic and rage
They were slaves to their hunger

(2)

Now we fly across mountains in planes
We know all about time and big numbers.
We're bodies in motion.
We embody the spirit of motion.

(3)

I love you with all my heart.
You have my devotion.
I loved you from the start.
We're bodies in motion.
We embody the spirit of motion.

(4)

Ooo the weight of the world. Eternal spin.
Puts a dent in my shoulder.
A burn in my spin.
A burn in my spin.

(5)

Some say the future is crowds
fighting for water and space.
Chaotic and dark and loud,
everything used up and taken

(6)

But I say the future's within
the still point of the mind
Where we escape the bounds of earth
And break the bonds of time.

(7)

If somebody asked me to design a religion
I would make it all about snow.
No good or evil and no suffering.
Just perfect crystals spinning
In ecstasy
   ecstasy
     ecstasy
       ecstasy.

(8)

1: Transverse Line / Wassily Kandinsky, 1923

2: Heavy Circles / Wassily Kandinsky, 1927

3: Mild Tension / Wassily Kandinsky, 1923

4: Colourful Ensemble / Wassily Kandinsky, 1938

5: Upward / Wassily Kandinsky, 1929

6: Grouping / Wassily Kandinsky, 1937

7: Circles in a Circle / Wassily Kandinsky, 1923

8: Fixed Light / Wassily Kandinsky, 1932


Photo source: www.wassilykandinsky.net
'Bodies in Motion' lyrics by Laurie Anderson

When Thinking of Walking the Dog Goes Psycho

Concentration. Empty your mind.

Let the rest of the world go by.

Hold your breath.

Hold your breath.

Close your eyes.

Close your eyes.

Now imagine you're at the most wonderful party.

Maybe if I fall. Maybe if I fall asleep

There’ll be a party there

Delicious food.

No wonder these puppets

Are always in a lousy mood

Interesting people.

Americans unrooted blow with the wind

Terrific music.

That came from their radios

That came from their gods

Now open them!

But they feel the truth if it touches them

Oh no.

Well, I just want to go home now
and walk
the dog.

Some things are just

pictures.

They're scenes

before   your   eyes.

Don't look now.

I'm   right

behind

you.

(Photo by Martin Schoeller, 1999. Source here)
('Coolsville' lyrics by Laurie Anderson)

Who Wrote These Rules?

One night I had a dream
and it was a typical dream:
suddenly your long-dead grandmother walks in the door,
and next you fall off a cliff, and that kind of things -
a whole series of interlocking plots
and themes,
kind-of carelessly jump-cut together.

In most dreams,
I'm a somewhat naive dolt
kind-of wandering in and out of the subplots,
not really understanding them,
but
in this dream
I suddenly looked down
and just for an instant
I saw myself,
way below,
sitting at a desk,
writing the dream,
and making up these complex plots for this dolt-like dreamer to
wander through.

Intellectually, I believe in Jung's theory of the self
as a three-storey construction
but I had never seen it physically,
almost architecturally in action.

It was like a relationship
of director to star,
but it was also like
what happens to everybody
when they invent a credible and
more or less consistent personality,
and then they just sort-of live it out.

And it's only when you do something that's
really out-of-character:
Impulsively jumping into a fountain
on your way to work,
Or have a sudden barking fit
while you're waiting for the bus,
That you realize
how tightly scripted
your plan really is.

And you start to ask:
Who wrote this anyway?
Who wrote these rules?

(as heard on Talk Normal: A Lecture by Laurie Anderson, recorded for the 1987 Tokyo International Video Biennale)

The 'Homeland' Zoo

Getting absorbed in the world of Laurie Anderson's 'Homeland' led me to the following fun revelation: that animals appearing in various aspects of the album almost could fill a zoo.


Take, for example, The Beginning of Memory, with the billions and billions of songbirds circling around in the sky, and the lark, whose father dies one day, and whose decision to bury the corpse in her own head marks the beginning of memory.


There's one more bird - another songbird - in 'Homeland': the robin that sings the song of long lost love in Strange Perfumes. Oh, and let's not forget the sky-flying birds at the beginning of Thinking of You.


Some mammals also pop up here and there throughout the album: right at the start, Transitory Life's mouse who realizes that he's in a trap, and, from then on, he is literally condemned to death. [Not really a vision for sore eyes.] And, of course, Lolabelle, who leaves her mark on Bodies in Motion by her barking and playing the piano in her sweet, eccentric way.


Then there's Only an Expert that not only mentions the Pet Solution, but its updated lyrics also contain fish poisoned by, and ducks and dolphins completely coated with oil that spilled out into the ocean.


... plus a bonus from Mambo and Bling (the first vinyl of 'Homeland'):

"[...] the classic problem calculating your odds for accidents that might happen. Like, you have more chance, for example, getting hit and killed in a car crash than dying in a plane crash. But things keep changing, so you have to keep re-calculating the odds and updating the list. You you have to keep adding things like [...] being crushed by a crane falling onto your building. And you have to keep crossing other things off the list, like [...] getting trampled by hordes of horses"

"Ghosts" Accompanying, Part One

Warning: this is going to be a pointless rambling on some of the "ghosts" that are haunting on various tracks of 'Homeland'.

Laurie Anderson has stated a few times during interviews that, during the construction process of Homeland, she'd taken fragments from certain songs and built them into others. Being an avid audio candy hunter myself, it was no surprise that soon I caught myself listening to certain segments of songs over and over and trying to find out what those unfitting-or-familiar-at-first-sight/hearing fragments appeared at certain points of the songs and why. Now I'm trying to enumerate some of the more obvious ones.


1. The Timeless Melody

One of the recurring fragments is the melody sung by Aidysmaa Koshkendey, the female singer of the Tuvan throat-singing group Chirgilchin. Both 'Transitory Life' and 'The Beginning of Memory' begin with the same tune. During the former track, Aidysmaa's singing continues with a second and third line, escalating the frenzy of the hair-raising beginning of 'Homeland' even further. The third line, though less prominently featured than in 'Transitory Life', re-appears at the end of both verses of 'The Beginning of Memory', perfectly nestling into the timeless texture of the song.


2. The Bell of Concentration

The next element is the bell tolling that can be heard twice during the first half of 'My Right Eye' and numerous times throughout the whole track of 'Only an Expert'. Its use in the latter song still needs some further explanation to me (maybe it's the mockery of experts' constant calling of attention to themselves). If one considers the first verse of 'My Right Eye' as some kind of Buddhist exercise,

Concentration. Empty your mind.
Let the rest of the world go by.
Hold your breath. Hold your breath. Close your eyes.

the bell toll leads to another story that Laurie tells in 'Delusion'. It's a practice of concentration: you hear a chime clinging and you have to follow the sound with your mind, and then there's a second cling of the chime but this time your mind shouldn't follow it.

UPDATE: The bell also echoes in 'Falling', the restful counterpart of its predecessor, 'Only an Expert' - similarly to 'My Right Eye', it rings during the part of introversion: "[...] I fall asleep".


3. The Ghost of Dark Times

The ending of 'The Lake' required numerous listenings until I found out what the "ghost" whispered (i. e. Laurie's voice burdened heavily by filters and FXs). The rhythm of the recital sounded too familiar to me but, since my auditory comprehension skills are desperately weak, it took a fairly long time to recognize that the "whispering" is, in fact, the last verse of the previous track, 'Dark Time in the Revolution':

And you thought there were things
That had disappeared forever
Things from the Middle Ages
Beheadings and hangings
And people in cages
And suddenly they were everywhere
And suddenly they’re alright
Welcome to, welcome to,
welcome to the American night.

... OK, now... what the WHAT? Lines like these, stuck at the end of the most intimate, most moving, most peaceful song on the album? How so? Was it Laurie's intention to posteriorly disguise the intimacy of the song? This one really puzzles me. (If you are reading this and have a better solution, feel free to e-mail me.)

(To be continued. Sometime.)

Long Lost Rooms of Matisse

That blue day came and it stayed all night
Blue morning. Blue midnight.
The city fell and then you were gone.
What is love but a robin's song?

(1)

Ooo these days. These endless blue days.
They're perfect in their own way.
Perfect in their own way.

(2)

Ooo those days that come too soon.
Strange perfumes. Long lost rooms.
They're perfect in their own way.
Perfect in their own way.

(3)

Where does love go when love is gone?
To what war-torn city?
Ooo those blue days that stayed too long.
What is love but a robin's song?

(4)

1: Odalisque in Red Trousers / Henri Matisse, c. 1924-1925

2: The Red Room (Harmony in Red) / Henri Matisse, 1908

3: Seville Still Life / Henri Matisse, c. 1910-1911

4: My Room at the Beau-Rivage / Henri Matisse, 1918

Photo source: www.henri-matisse.net
'Strange Perfumes' lyrics by Laurie Anderson

BP Problem - the extra verse on Letterman

Sometimes, when the oil drill breaks,
and the oil spills out into the ocean,
and it poisons the fish and it destroys the whole coastline,
and they bring in the riggers,
and they bring in the experts,
and they can't cap it and they can't stop it,
and oil keeps spilling
and every duck and every dolphin is

completely.

coated.

with oil.

and everyone knows:
it's a problem

So when experts say: let's get to the root of the problem,
let's take control of the problem,
'cause if you take control of the problem,
you can solve the problem.

Now often this doesn't work at all
because the situation is

completely.

out.

of control.

Good afternoon. Pause.

Just a random post of a random goodness on this lazy Saturday.

My mind is blank. I'm barely alive. 
My nerves are shot. I feel like hell.
Guess it's time to check in at the Puppet Motel.

(picture source: San Remo, 2001, Laurie Anderson's live concert after getting Premio Tenco = Tenco Prize, a prestigious Italian award for songwriting)

?

• When the doctor says: "Congratulations, it’s a boy!", where do all the dream baby girls, those possible pearls, go?

• How can I get control? How can I take control?

• Are those two people over there actually my real parents?

• Should I get a second Prius?

• Has everybody here forgotten how to think?

... just some of the cca. 34 questions posed in 'Homeland'. Not your typical pop album, to say the least.

I've died and gone to heaven.

I was thinking of you.
And I was thinking of you.
And I was thinking of you.
And then
I wasn't thinking of you
Anymore.


And when the tears fall
From both my eyes
They fall from my right eye
Because I love you.
And they fall from my left eye
Because I can not
Bear
You.

These are Mnemosyne's favourite lines from 'Thinking of You' and 'My Right Eye'. I heard them in this form in Uppsala for the first time, along with an ethereally beautiful musical accompaniment. During the song there were dandelions bowing on the screen behind Laurie, shot from frog perspective. Beyond doubt it was one of the most moving moments of 'Delusion'.

Now I discovered this very version had been recorded for WNYC New York Public Radio's Studio 360 programme, and can be listened to here:




Personal note: Dearreaders, if anyone of you happens to meet Laurie in person, please say thank-you for this recording on Mnemosyne's behalf.

I pretend that I'm happy, you pretend that you're there.

A hidden gem on Laurie Anderson's official site, prominent example of an enjoyable two-chord song - such a pity it did not make it to the 'Homeland' album: The Lost Art of Conversation.

She pretends she's a movie star

He pretends he's a king

She pretends she's a ballerina

He pretends he can sing.

The lost art of conversation

The lost art of conversation

She pretends she was in England

He pretends he's at home

She pretends she's a renegade

He pretends he's alone

The lost art of conversation

The lost art of conversation

I pretend that you love me

And you pretend that you care

I pretend that I'm happy

You pretend that you're there

The lost art of conversation

The lost art of conversation

If I ever covered this song, I'd stick to the duality of D major and D minor throughout the verses, just like Laurie sings at first and somehow appears to be disgruntled with it for a moment. It may be a fault but it's a creative one, IMHO it fits perfectly to the mood of the song, I'm glad they included it on the website anyway.