a minimalistic piano cover of “beth/rest” from bon...

a minimalistic piano cover of “beth/rest” from bon iver’s self-titled (2011). click here to download.

this is the third time i’ve covered it, and will be the last. i never liked this song until i heard the version, “bon iver on world cafe” on npr. then i loved it. i based my cover more on his piano solo version than the album version.

something interesting i learned about the bon iver lp is that vernon thinks of the thing as a coherent timeline sort of piece. “perth” being like beginnings, birth and “beth/rest” being like ending, death. always in love with artists who do this. it’s incredibly inspiring that some are making terrific, standalone songs that also fit in as a bigger piece, a bigger arch in a complete album. and the album also means something. pieces of smaller pieces. then you’re combing the art, the physical artwork with the music, and the words. sounds, images, words. it’s plainly awe to me. it’s something i really want to be able to do. finding word-makers and art-makers and music-makers and big themes made of small stories, people and places. ah.

errant heat to the star
and the rain let in
the hawser rolls, the vessel’s whole and christ, it’s thin

well i’d know that you’d offer
would reveal it, though it’s soft and flat
won’t repeat it, cull and coffer’s that
for the soffit, hang this homeward
pry it open with your love
sending lost and alone standing offers

it is steep / it is stone
such recovery
from the daily press, the deepest nest, in keeper’s keep

all the news at the door
such a revelry
well, it’s hocked inside of everything you said to me

it was found what we orphaned
didn’t mention it would serve us picked
said your love is known
i’m standing up on it

aren’t we married?!
i ain’t living in the dark no more
it’s not a promise, i’m just gonna call it

heavy mitted love

our love is a star
sure some hazardry
for the light before and after most indefinitely

danger has been stole away

this is axiom

as far as the words go. i can never tell with him, so i looked it up in some interviews.

just vernon on “beth/rest,”

“eventually, you start waking up to the fact that you might be ready to spend your life with somebody and still feel good about who you are and what kind of changes you’re going to go through no matter what. and ‘beth/rest’ is that reward. it’s that place you get to be in for the rest of your life… what’s weird is that the record was imagined before any of this new personal relationship stuff had happened. i’m in a really good, loving relationship right now. it’s really rewarding. but what’s weird is that the songs kind of came as this predecessor, as an invitation, to tell myself that i was open to it and knowing that there wasn’t going to be somebody coming along who’s going to change me and want to change who i was. and they were going to let me be who i want to be and like me for it. then it sort of just happened as soon as i finished writing the song.”

timely, perfect. fitting, too, looking from a to b, the timeline of my own experience with this song. perfect and fitting. first time was one grand, sloppy mess of a recording. all parts done at once, detuned piano, horrible florescent lights, etc. newborn baby recording. this time, this time was careful, groomed, cropped, grown. and much like vernon’s remarks on writing the song and then experiencing the song - timely, perfect, fitting.

little, fake bedroom studio.

anyway, it’s been fun this week to take a break from the full band stuff and do a little on my own. now i’m looking forward to getting back into the deadwood stuff coming up here.