A cover of the song 500 Miles written by Hedy West.
Originally recorded October 16, 2014
I originally recorded this song in 2014 and I intended it to be a cover done by Steam Powered Giraffe with myself, Bunny (Rabbit), and Sam (Hatchworth) doing the vocals.
I created a rough recording with placeholder harmonies and such just to show the rest of the band and for reference if we decided to do it. For whatever reason, I never brought it to the band after talking about it and it got lost under all the other work and projects we were doing at the time. Eventually I just shared the rough recording on my tumblr page because I thought it sounded decent enough to share. I didn't leave it up very long, but some someone took it and uploaded it to YouTube and some of you have probably heard it already floating around. Years later Bunny said we should have done it, but more recently I asked if I could just release this version of it.
So anyways, since that version got positive feedback, I decided I just release it for people to have (and listen to on Spotify).
Well, this is that same version from 2014, except I cleaned it up a bit. I tried to stay as faithful to the rough recording as possible, so that what people liked about that one is all still here. BUT I did change the stereo panning a bit, cut out some hard mouth sounds, lowered the volume on some breaths, and mixed it a bit differently. I also corrected some timing on the instruments and vocals so they match up a bit better. They were all rough recordings.
As one final touch, I also re-recorded the deep voiced part near the end to be less placeholdery sounding AND I re-recorded the word "blow" on the second to last line of the song, because I realized your can hear a text message notification sound on my phone in the old version from 2014. THEY WERE ROUGH RECORDINGS.
There is about 6 years in between those recordings and now, but I grabbed the same Sure microphone I used back in 2014 and did my best 28 year old David impression and re-did those small parts. Ha.
I've always loved this song and a ton of artists have covered it. My favorite by far is a version done by the group The Journeymen. It definitely inspired my version quite a bit.
lyrics
If you miss the train I'm on
Then you'll know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Oh, I'm one, oh, I'm two
Oh, I'm three, oh, I'm four
Oh, I'm five hundred miles away from home
Away from home, away from home
Away from home, away from home
Oh, I'm five hundred miles away from home
Not a shirt on my back
And not a penny to my name
Oh, I can't go back home this-a way
This-a way, this-a way
This-a way, this-a way
Oh, I can't go back home this-a way
[Solo]
If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Every one of Steam Powered Giraffe's tracks is better than the last. And if you've listened to some of their good hits, you know that's saying a lot. b_megamaths
There's a lot of great tracks that I've definitely played over and over on YouTube here, and a lot I've yet to really sink my teeth into. I fully reserve the right to change my mind after listening to this one in full a few times, but for now, I know that Fire Fire's grim, fatalist tone/lyrics and haunting harmonies have long been a favourite of mine. nazmazh
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