Work for the first Underground Railroad album began in January '96 after Kurt came over to my
place and suggested that we put a band together that would "sound like Genesis."
8 months had passed since our previous project, Anne Hand, had totally run out
of steam (due ENTIRELY to drummer and self-proclaimed
"bandwrecker", Nathan Brown and his habit of photographing his
bottom), and it was high time to try something else.
We began at once, writing mostly jointly as well as reworking pre-existing material ("Through and
Through," "Comprachicos"). By the time "Doorman",
being the first new song written, was finished, we realized that we had swerved
off the Genesis path, and decided to loosen up our initial policy (a bit). As a
piece was written an 8-track demo was promptly (slowly) made with Kurt
programming drum parts on his Kurzweil K2000 synth and myself handling bass
duties.
By the spring of '97, we
had a completed demo of the album which included a couple ballads which were
eighty-sixed before recording of the actual CD was finished. It was about this
time that Kurt, inspired, perhaps, by our shared enthusiasm for all things
individualistic, and with, perhaps, high amounts of caffiene and nicotine
screaming through his system, named our embryonic band The Underground
Railroad.
John Livingston, a former
bandmate of mine, was offered and accepted Underground Railroad membership and
was given the demo to learn. We began recording drum tracks on my ADAT during
the summer of '97.
After a year of mixing
drum tracks and recording keyboards and guitars, Kurt recruited bassist Matt
Hembree, who managed to squeeze in our sessions between rehearsals and gigs
with his group, Bindle. Matt learned, ornamented and recorded his parts between
summer '98 and spring '99.
During March and April
'99 we recorded our version of Egg's "Wring Out the Ground Loosely
Now" for Mellow Records2cd Canterbury tribute, To
Canterbury and Beyond.
Guitar solos and vocals
were last to be recorded, and by late summer '99, we found ourselves finished
with the first Underground Railroad album, named after its conceptual center
piece.
William Fredrick Pohl
ps The beautiful painting that adorns the bottom of this page was done by my brother, Philip, at the age of 19.
(lyrics: Rongey; music: Rongey/Pohl)
Budding branches
Straining off the edge
If it still has the will to live
Let it come through
Coursing arteries
Pulling out all the stops
But it wastes away standing there
Waiting for you
See the light ahead, fluttering
While the thundercrest waits above
Well you can throw a quarter in, hope for rain
Chances are few
You spent a lot of time making waves
Taking anything that floats ashore
If your tiny little shred of luck blows away
What can you do?
Sullen-faced, overdrawn
And even an idiot would realize
When your friends are gone far beyond
I'll be there too.
But maybe every day it's cooling off
I just hope someone looks inside
But no one really wants to waste a whole life away
Waiting for you.
(I just read something yesterday)
Keep your head down
Better cover up, stay below
'Cos when it comes to trust you know that I
Haven't a clue.
(lyrics Rongey; music Fowler/Haley/Pohl/Rongey)
Strung in stolen space beneath the ground
What could we have done
The steps they covered up
The things we forgot
Praying for a path from seering suns
Spared from the needs within
Entrusted to the knife
In time we'll think
Sliced up into fragments of a life
Dissolved,
We can never untwist this tangled web
It continues down the chain
Praised and honored
For its flaws
Factory of human monsters
Virgin mind
Shattered treasure
Nothing anymore
Glazed and empty
Crooked growth
Tiny victim
Starless void inside
We who trust
We who give up
What we hold most dear
I remember when he last looked up at me
And smiled straight into my eyes
But now he'll never understand
We'll all three just stare away
Glazed and empty
Crooked growth
Tiny victim
Starless void inside
We who trust
We who give up
What we hold most dear
(music: Pohl/Rongey)
(music & lyrics: Pohl/Rongey)
I.
If you look in the back
Where they keep the old
You'll find it alone
Quiet and shy
With one or two
Of its reproductions
It doesn't want
A place in the sun
Or room among the stars
So stay where you are
A helping hand will only make it cry
Just turn around
And make your way outside
(because)
These invertebrates disintegrate in light
Transparent membrane that I dare not touch
II.
Spread like butter over the cityscape
Everywhere they come together I fall apart
I always thought we were identical
Made of blood, flesh and bone
And gradually dismantling
In this infernal place
You call your mother's home
Drowned in art and flowers
Let me stay the night
III.
We came alone
With nothing but our writings
Sure of ourselves
Now here we are
Stalking around the corner
Fifteen more mouths to feed
If we were weak
Then maybe they'd protect us
There was only one way to know
Up in the back
Up where they keep the old ones
You'll find her there
IV.
It was just after nine
When I rang the bell
He asked who I was
And showed me inside
The air was cool
And the scent of violets...
I climbed the stairs and opened the door
Into an empty room
The curtains were drawn
A web of blackness weaved around my heart
I turned around
And there the old man stood
"There's no need to look behind
We'll bring her back inside
And welcome her again
If she comes around."
(music & lyrics Rongey)
In the cold
In the bracing ice wind of night
Emanate
From the white sea waves of ice
Echoes of our kind
Buying time
Scattered leaves
On the frozen beaches, swept away
Laid to rest
On a dry and angry bed
Through the night they slept
No one's left
That's the way it was when I arrived
Only the sand
Sometimes the wind would blow it up in clouds
Uncovering another fossil
But I was there
And life was there again.
(music Pohl/Rongey; lyrics Rongey)
Through a life of growing older
Gathering motes within a whirlpool
Displacing droplets from whatever lives above
Warm and protected in a cloud
And through it all
Reclining in my corner of a liar's amorphous plan
Tagging behind the millions
It held me so softly
I couldn't escape without vanishing
Looking up into the perforated ether
I saw myself swaying like a leaf
I followed beneath and cradled.
A deluge of the rest of everything
A universe and maybe more
With one leap I had shot ahead
Welcomed into the far inside
And all that still explodes beyond
Unwinding in the center of
Reality's flowing, twisting, curling current
By hunger within was I flooded and freed
I wanted to lift a whole populace
Thrusting up into a fertile heaven
I pulled for a second then I left it to itself
I opened the box and looked on.
Credits:
Bill Pohl: guitars, guitar synthesizer, bass pedals
& vocals
John Livingston: drums
Matt Hembree: bass, background vocals
Kurt Rongey: keyboards & vocals
Recording was done on an ADAT with a Mackie 1604
board. A second ADAT was used to bounce drum tracks. Outboard gear used was 2
Lexicon Alex delays, a Lexicon Vortex, BBE Sonic Maximizer and DBX compressor.
A hodgepodge of microphones was used, with a Rode NT-1 being the best for
vocals. Kurt was chief engineer and producer.
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