Wet Feet

Lyrics:

My Cons have worn through and I’m looking for the prose,
To help me get out from under these woes so heavy,
I see the words that could help me.

Re-sole my hopes, re-shod my desires that I lost somewhere
After all those crossed wires I’d had with you
Months ago which set me on the road.

Driving in circles around this small town
And missing the exits like a tourist in a rental,
Sat on the wrong side, caught out by unfamiliar road signs.

All pointing in directions that don’t correlate
To the numbers on the map of the life that I’d sketched out on a napkin
With you, one day, while sat in a café

Having coffee with you, and we laughed at the plans that we made
Which would never come true, which I guess
We both knew back then.

So I walk through this town with my Cons soaking through,
And my feet feeling heavy when I’m thinking on you,
But perhaps it’s just water soaking my socks.

And I look at the pros, rushing past on the street
In suits on lunchbreaks in cafés where we once sat down,
But I keep walking.

And stop in shop, try on a new pair of shoes,
To keep out the rain, and the water, and you.

© eamon brett 2011

About this song

There was a day when my trusty cons were just completely falling apart, and I got caught in the rain in Galway, and went into a shop and bought a new pair, and a new pair of socks, and changed in a café, and threw out the old pair. I think I get weirdly attached to my converse – they tend to last me a year or two, and usually get associated in my head with that time. So, a new pair of cons is a whole new period of my life. The current pair are the ones I bought when I wrote this song – so they’ve lasted quite a while, and seen me through recording this album. They’re on their way out at this stage, which is telling me I should be moving on to the next little mini stage of my life by now.

The lyrics were written in a café a few days later, and all came in one go. I don’t think much has been altered at all since that first draft.

Musically, the idea of the song came from wanting to have a looping melody sitting under the vocal, and I scored about 10 different melodies and counter-melodies all against each other one day while sitting in one of my favourite cafés in town. One of the melodies had surfaced on the piano, and had this little music-box kinda feel to it, which I liked. Initially the song was a much bigger sound, but as the music and the lyrics began to sit together, everything got pared down a lot more.

It’s one of my favourite songs to sing live, as there’s just something I really like about the little loops in the accompaniment against the longer melody arcs in the vocal line.

recording the song:

This was done on the first day in the studio. I’d already tried to lay down two other songs, and was having trouble finding my feet in the studio. After lunch we started on this one, and it just started to come together for me. There’s a few little niggly things about the recording that aren’t quite perfect, but it has the mood of the song just right. We hadn’t found the best way of recording my piano playing at this stage, so the piano sound is a bit noisier than most of the rest of the tracks on the record, but instead of trying to retake the song, I decided it was better to keep the take that had the feel right, instead of re-recording it later in the sessions again. I did re-take the piano on some of the tracks that were early enough in the sessions, but not for this one. This is that first day in the studio, when things finally started to go right, and I wouldn’t lose that take for anything. It’s the song that really settled me in the studio, and gave me hope that I could actually work in a studio environment and get the sound that I wanted.

When I was writing the song, I wanted horns or some brass instrument to do the alternate melody against the piano and voice, but since we were getting a cellist in for a load of other tracks, I got him to record that melody line instead, and I really like what he did with the part. Aongus added in some extra cello work into the song too – especially that gorgeous line he added to the last section of the song. It really added some magic to the sound.

Song Credits:

mister ebby – piano, vocals
aonghus mac amhlaigh – cello

Demo versions

Here’s the blog post about the demo version of the song. And here’s a video demo version from my room, along with a ukulele version I did live for Golden Plec’s Tea And Toast charity drive.