Skyward

Story Behind The Song by Andy Cairns (Aug 13th, 2003)

For some reason, I wanted to try and write a piece of music like Jimi Hendrix. Stop laughing at the back. I know I can’t play like him. I wanted to try and get some passing nod to psychedelia on the go. I wasn’t on drugs and I hadn’t decided to ‘go 60’s retro’. You see, I’d just bought my first wah-wah pedal. There, I said it. I used to hate the fucking things. Being from a punk background they were considered a self-indulgent toy for boring old hippies. Then I heard Living All Over Me by Dinosaur Jr. I played the opening track Little Furry Things over and over again. I couldn’t believe the onslaught of wah. It was amazing, a wall of noise.

I started looking desperately for other records in my collection that might have wah on them and the nearest was a collection of Hendrix singles. I had these three chords, B Minor, G and D which sounded good together. I started playing them trying to use the wah. I was rubbish and it sounded like a terrible 70’s cheese rock band. The chords themselves sounded good enough on their own. I added chorus chords, a bridge and a solo.

I was at my parents’ house in Ballyclare, East Antrim in the housing estate I was brought up in. The house was grey, the pavement was grey, the people looked grey. It was so fucking depressing that I wanted to get out of there. The chorus of “You send me skyward” didn’t take much prompting in that environment.

When I got together with Fyfe, I had the chords, the chorus, the verse melody and the solo (the only part with wah-wah!). Fyfe came up with that brilliant groove which lifted the song up and made it spin and move. Fyfe had some article about someone ‘taking a hammer to art’, I can’t remember who, but a variation on the line made it into the song as did his opening line “Kissed a man’s feet, then shot him dead”. We pieced the lyrics together and it escapes me what exactly it was about but I think a great deal of the verse lyrics are biographical on his part, I could be wrong. Well, to my knowledge he never shot anybody.

This song was on our first demo tape and had been played live at our first gig. The demo version has a wah solo. By the time of the Babyteeth version it had a great ‘backwards’ intro and ‘drill guitar fury’ ending. Shortly after it was recorded, when grunge started getting really big, people started suggesting we should re-record it to make it sound more like Mudhoney, but we preferred it as it was, a kind of lo-fi punk Hendrix.

Read the story behind the next song on this album.

Lyrics

Kissed a man's feet, then shot him dead
Didn't like his face or what he said
Saw a movie and I finally cracked

It sent him skyward
Skyward

Sick of people asking how much I have
(I don't need this world no more)
The world has slashed its wrists, it's lying dead
(Take away this pain, no more)
My down is bad but my high is worse

You send me skyward
Skyward

Every single day I'm feeling just like before
(Every day is just like before)
Every single day I'm feeling just like before
(You're shooting up my veins, just like before)
Every single day I feel it coming down
(I've got to step back and see where to stop)

You send me skyward
Skyward

It took a hammer to shape his mind
(Take away this pain, no more)
Time after time he closed his eyes
(Take away the pain, no more)
He felt his body trailing all down the years

He fell skyward
Skyward
Skyward
Skyward