I Think I'll Ride
Sometimes life tends to close in just a little bit. Where once there had been limitless possibilities, suddenly the options seem few. The path one has been on looks less obviously right today than it did yesterday. The people one loves most, those whom one has been routinely betraying for so many happy years, have lately begun to look unexpectedly dangerous. One is struck by a sudden whim of survival. I know what I think I’ll probably do, and that soon, one exclaims, albeit inwardly for security reasons. I think I’ll ride!
This is just a short song, but for two minutes and ten seconds it keeps itself pretty busy. The lyrics are right below. Have some fun and sing along!
Nick: I Think I'll Ride is an ode to every cowboy on the run from legitimate fury.
Walt: Done been that there!
The Music
It’s somehow in keeping with the character of this song’s protagonist that the “I think I’ll ride” chorus is set to a sort of demented cowboy lope decorated with a sort of tense ragtimey overburden. You might not find this covered by any music encyclopedia, but pay close attention: it’s here, it’s important, and it’s happening right now. We call it cowrag, and it’s a brand-new genre.
All: That’s for sure!
Verse 1
Dm
I am divided in my mind if to get up now and leave you
C
Might be even more unkind than to stay here and deceive you,
Dm
But I know you are not blind
A7
And pretty soon you will believe your eyes;
Dm
You’ll put two and two together ’cause it doesn’t take a scholar
C
When there’s perfume on the laundry
and there’s lipstick on the collar,
Dm
And one day you’ll burst in on me
A7
With your pistol and you’ll holler, “Surprise!”
Dm
I think I’ll ride
F A7 Dm
Where the wind don’t blow like this,
F A7
Where a man can hide,
Dm
On the other side.
F C A7 Dm
F C Dm A7
Verse 2
I never used to be dishonest but of late I’ve been so often,
As the ice on which I’ve skated up to now begins to soften,
And the choices that I’m facing are
To lie down in my coffin or run;
Far away from you and anybody else I might have married,
In a try perhaps misguided to make life a bit more varied,
For like you there’s some among them
Who from time to time have carried a gun.
I think I’ll ride
Where the rain don’t fall like this,
Where a man can hide,
On the other side.
F C
I think I’ll ride to the end of the line
A7 Dm
And things will be fine;
F C
The weather is sunny, the rivers are wine,
Dm A7
And nobody’s waiting to kill me.
Coda
Dm
I think I’ll ride
F A7 Dm
Where the night don’t freeze like this,
F A7 Dm
Where the air don’t choke like this,
F A7
And a man can hide,
Dm
On the other side.
What others have said
Hey there Nick - I did listen to this the day it was posted (and quite a few time since) but haven't commented until now because I wanted to load a copy of the version of Earth Starts to Burn that I have been working on over the summer. The heat wave you were having down there got me going on it and it took a long time to get it to where I wanted it to be. You'll notice it is a fairly radical departure from the original.
Anyway, congratulations on getting past the half way mark with posting the videos, looking forward to Pledge.
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