Finding Fragments

Words and music © 1983, webpage ©2002 by Joe Monzo




    walkin' down Mansion Avenue
    it seemed like it would last forever
    ah, sittin' on the dock drinkin' beer, just me and you
    with the sun and the boats and the water and the two of us together

    constantly talkin' and slowly getting buzzed
    i only had that one last day to spend
    well i had certain ideas in my head, what i thought it was
    but she knew right then it was turning out pretty much to be the end

    two years later i was walkin' around, and i stood
    in your neighborhood

    and i
    passed by
    the high school hall
    and i found the spot on the wall

    where we stood every night in the dark
    and we wrote our names in a heart

    and maybe they'd shown
    what we couldn't have known
    'cause they never washed it away in the fall

    the kids were all around but i didn't even know
    just like it was when we'd walk by them back then
    oh, now i'm standing here and i can't think of anyplace to go
    and it seems like i'm lookin' right into your lovin' eyes again




While living in Staten Island in 1981, my girlfriend Christine turned me on to Rickie Lee Jones, whose first album had the big hit
Chuck E.'s in Love -- but the song that both Christine and I really liked was Last-Chance Texaco. I bought Rickie Lee's second album (Pirates) right away when it came out later that year, after my odyssey in Los Angeles.

I fell in love with that record, listened to it over and over, and was influenced by it very much in my own work at the time, most strongly in this song, which was written at the very end (late September) of a summer sojurn in Wildwood, NJ, in 1983.

Copying Rickie Lee's style naturally made me think a lot of Christine, and so i used our relationship as the basis for the fictional lyrics. School had started in Wildwood, and the high school was across the street from my apartment, so i mixed thoughts inspired by that with memories of good times with Christine.

The whole song is very much tinged with the wistfulness of both the breakup of that relationship and the fact that summer was over and Wildwood was pretty quiet. I tried to capture this mostly by the persistence of the "major 7th" in chords that are mostly Pythagorean, containing "major 2nds", "5ths", and "major 6ths".

This song has a more complicated rhyme scheme than most of my lyrics, and in the bridge section i also enjoyed using some complicated syncopation in the rhythm and a nice bracing dissonance in a passing chord.

here are some maps of the Mansion Ave. area of Staten Island, NY (courtesy of mapquest.

the red star marks the Great Kills neighborhood of Staten Island

the area around Great Kills harbor, near Christine's house


Download the mp3


    
    key: G
    meter: mostly 12/8
    
    
    [intro]
    
    
    [horn riff]
    
    
    [verse 1:]
    
    G5   A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5      Emin9 | G5  A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5  Emin9  | 
    walk-in' down              Mansion Ave -  nue------
    
    G5   A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5       Emin9   |  G5  A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5  Emin9  | 
    it   seemed like           it would last for - ever
    
      | A6             A9/7(no 3)  |  A6         A9/7(no 3)  |  A6  A9/7(no 3)  |  A6 |
    ah, sittin' on the dock drinkin'  beer, just me and you------
    
    D11/7 (no 3)                                |                     | G5 etc.
    with the sun and the boats and the water and the two of us togeth - er
    
    
    [horn riff]
    
    
    [verse 2:]
    
    G5         A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5      Emin9 | G5  A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5  Emin9  | 
    constantly talkin' and           slowly getting  buzzed----
    
     |  G5   A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5       Emin9 | G5  A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5  Emin9  | 
    i   only had that              one last day to  spend
    
           | A6            A9/7(no 3)  |  A6           A9/7(no 3) |  A6  A9/7(no 3)  |  A6  |
    well i   had certain i-deas in my     head, what i thought it    was---
    
    D11/7 (no 3)                          |                         | G5 etc.
    but she knew right then it was turning out pretty much to be the  end
    
    
    [bridge:]
    
    
                      |(9/8)          |(12/8)
    Cmaj7             |               |Gmaj7
    two years later i  was walkin' a - round, and i stood
    
            | E9/7 (no 3)  Eb9/maj&min7 (no 3)  |
    in your   neighbor  -  hood
    
    
                 |(9/8)               |(12/8)
    Cmaj7        |                    |Gmaj7
    and i passed   by the high school  hall
    
                     | E9/7 (no 3)  Eb9/maj&min7 (no 3)  |
    and i found the    spot on the  wall
    
    
                         |(9/8)         |(12/8)
    Cmaj7                |              |Gmaj7
    where we stood every   night in the  dark
    
                     | E9/7 (no 3)  Eb9/maj&min7 (no 3)  |
    and we wrote our   names in a   heart
    
    
        | Cmaj7
    and   maybe they'd shown
    
    what we couldn't have known
    
    
                | D13/11/9 (no 3 no 5)        |  G5   etc.
    'cause they   never washed it away in the    fall
    
    
    
    [horn riff]
    
    
    [verse 3:]
    
      |  G5              A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5      Emin9 | G5  A13/11/9/7 (no 3)  |  G5  Emin9  | 
    the  kids were all a-round but             i didn't even know----
    
    G5        Gmaj9/7         |  G5      Gmaj7/6      | G5  Gmaj9/7  |  G5  Gmaj7/6  | 
    just like it was when we'd   walk by them back then----
    
      | A6               A9/7(no 3)  |  A6             A9/7(no 3)  |  A6  A9/7(no 3)  |  A6  |
    oh, now i'm standing here and i     can't think of anyplace to go---
    
    D11/7 (no 3)                          |                      | G5 etc.
    and it seems like i'm lookin' right in-to your lovin' eyes a - gain----
    
    


    The chords were determined mostly by fret patterns on the guitar fingerboard. I wasn't much of a guitarist then (and this is still the case), so i basically put my fingers on the fretboard at random and listened to what i got without being too conscious of what notes were involved (which is not the case when i compose at the piano or any other instrument i play).

    The starting point was the G5 chord, which has a very "open" sound since it consists only of the "root" and "5th" and their "octaves".

    Then, by ear, for the verses i was guided by the desire to do something somewhat polytonal, interweaving between those G5's other 4- or 5-note chords above a bass note that wasn't part of the chord. So, for instance, the the "A13/11/9/7 (no 3)" chord in the opening (and main) phrase can also be thought of as a Gmaj9/7 chord over an A bass, or also an Emin11/9/7 over an A bass; and the actual bass part at this point gives first an E and then an A anyway, leaving the interpretation somewhat ambiguous. The Emin9 chord is more straightforward, but even here, the guitar part still has G as the lowest note, giving the possibility of a Gmaj7/6 interpretation.

    In the next section of the verse, "A6" and "A9/7(no 3)" can also be interpreted as F#min and Em, both over an A bass, respectively. And the "D11/7 (no 3)" which closes the verse can also be interpreted as Amin7 over D.

    The unique aspect is that the guitar's lowest string had broken and i never replaced it, so i retuned the "A" string down to "G", and wrote a whole bunch of songs on it that summer in Wildwood, and i was never able to play them the same way after that on a "regular" guitar because the low E string gets in the way -- trying to tune a 6-string guitar's A string down to G and low E string up to the same G throws the tension too out of whack, so it's not a good idea to try it. As noted above, in this song the G is used as a kind of drone in the main section.


  • If you have an opinion about this song or you'd like to record it, let me know.

  • If you like stuff that's more intellectual, I've written a book.



updated:

    2004.08.10 -- added plain poetical form of lyrics at top of page

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