Lyrics & Stories Tijuana Bible
Track 02
Lost At Sea
Dustin Welch, Super Rooster Music (SESAC); Jeremiah Nelson, CanopyAgency (BMI)
My heart is a sinking vesselMy head is full of bloodThe voices ringing in my earsAre those of every woman I have loved
ChorusBut I will not set foot upon the mountainThough I know it must be such a sight to seeI will turn and face the wrong directionThis would be a good day to get lost at sea
I'm dreaming in another languageThere's talk of dissension among the ranksThe natives are all growing restlessAnd I've got a bad case of the shakes
Repeat chorus
Somewhere God is in a casketThe dogs are all circling roundWaiting with tireless patienceFor their master to rise up from the ground
Repeat chorus
Played by
- Dustin Welchlead vocals, acoustic guitar
- Jeremy Nailelectric guitar
- Scotty Bucklinaccordion
- Trisha Keeferviolin
- Steve Bernalbass, background vocals
- Eldridge Goinsdrums
- Nathan Singletontwin vocal
The story
This came from the first year I was at Steel Bridge. I was paired up with these two girls, a clarinet player, an accordion player, and this lanky Wisconsin hipster looking guy named Jeremiah Nelson. It must've been fated. Jeremiah became one of my all time favorite co-writers. We'd have full on screaming arguments over one word in some insignificant part of a song. We'd write non-stop, whether it was in a Denny's at four in the morning or in the back room of a bar in the middle of the afternoon. But on this first day, we had this cool instrumentation, so I insisted we were writing a pirate sea shanty, then walked directly to my room to write the lyrics without any of them. They immediately hated me. Jeremiah started in on the guitar melody using all these weird augmented and add13 chords while the clarinet and accordion player went to the liquor store. After a spell, I emerged with the first verse and chorus, and they started realizing we were actually gonna end up with something worth a damn. The girls came up with an instrumental melody and made sure we were stocked with enough whiskey for the undertaking. The last verse came late into the day on the banks of Lake Michigan when Jeremiah announced that somewhere God was in a casket. It was the Resurrection, it was Nietzsche's The Madman: "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him...Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?" So, I say in the chorus: "I will not set foot upon the mountain/although it must be such a sight to see/I will turn and face the wrong direction/This would be a good day to get lost at sea."
Later that night as I sat in my room working it over, putting on the final edit, I discovered I could imitate the Tuvan Throat Singers, achieving an overtone note above the low, gravelly note I was actually singing, basically making it sound like two voices. I've never been able to do it since, but I swear for that one brief moment, I could have been a Siberian Monk.