Time for a new song! This one’s a bit different than the last few that’ve come down the pike. Longer, a touch melancholy, to match the change of season. Sort of epic, maybe even a little Pink Floyd-y (a little)? Would love to hear what you think!
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If you do Spotify or Apple Music, you can get your jam on right here:
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A little more about the song…
I’ve had the title phrase, “Mission Control”, around for many years, but had never been able to turn it into anything until one day this past April. I had a very windy afternoon alone with my little travel guitar on Stinson Beach, in Marin County, which looks like this.
As the gentle zephyrs blasted sand into my teeth, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to leave until I had at least one verse to go with my chorus.
It got dark .
But as I sat there, strumming and singing nonsense syllables over and over, slowwwwllyy some song form emerged from the random gibberish – glad it was too windy for anyone else to hear me! – and by the time it was too dark to see, I had not only one verse, but had finished the song. In one afternoon! Ten years and one afternoon.
The lyrics are intentionally non-specific, so hopefully you can use your imagination to generate your own mental movie (but if you feel a general desperate lost in space vibe, you won’t be a million miles off ;).
I haven’t released this song to anyone else yet, but please feel free to share it with friends, or anyone else who you think would dig it!
Finally, here are the lyrics:
welcome to the atmosphere / keep the afterburners on
waiting for a signal straight from you
but have I come a million miles / just to circle ‘round the sun?
and your transmissions just ain’t comin’ through
so mission control what can I do?
what can I do now?
mission control what can I do?
what can I do now?
i been waitin’ for you
so mission control what can I do?
i have killed the pilot / and I’ve / spun the engines down
watched the stars come fading into view
but all the stations are abandoned as we drift into the sun
and I can’t find the captain or the crew
so mission control what can I do?
what can I do now?
mission control what can I do?
what can I do now?
i been waitin’ for you
so mission control what can I do?
now everything is breaking down / my systems running low
and I start to wonder what you knew
‘cause I can’t find your frequency / that shows me the way home
just ultraviolet fading into blue
so mission control what can I do?
what can I do now?
mission control what can I do?
what can I do now?
i been waitin’ for you
so mission control what can I do?
10 replies on “New Song! – Mission Control”
Perhaps a tribute to Ziggy Stardust?
Yup – definitely a little Bowie worship going on with this one. Good catch !
Planet Earth is blue, so mission control what can i do?
Absolutely loved the lyrics! It’s so true that what’s left is to create our own mental movie – the plot and characters are up to us but what we have are these beautiful keywords which shape the story (i thought of Morphine songs for instance, their lyrics often had that feeling).
And yeah, it’s crazy how sometimes you have to carry around an idea for some piece and it needs some sort of incubation time before it’s ready to be shaped.
The song itself is strange, i honestly prefer 4×4 version without keys and acoustic guitar in chorus (it’s a space after all!) but solo here is strong. Thanks, Mike!
Hey Andrey – thx for the comment! Yeah, Morphine always had really cool and evocative lyrics, for sure. Also a guy playing a 2-string bass with a slide, which is still about the craziest thing I’ve seen…
I hear you on liking the other version better. I sometimes do too, and ultimately couldn’t make up my mind as to which one I liked most, which is why I ended up putting both of them out!
Not all Baker recordings treat us to classic guitar solo work. Love it
Thanks, Jay! Yeah, I really enjoyed tracking the guitar for this one. Went on longer than I usually do, but when it was all said and done, I felt like things turned out pretty well.
You…killed the pilot?…you bastard, he may have been married or had a partner with some quasi-legal arrangement in some states. Perhaps he knew too much, eh? Like about just where you stole the iconic Pink Floyd oscillating sound at the beginning–a copyrighted expression associated with, but not limited to, bong parties, shroom fests, and heavy petting encounters. And you think you can just drive off in your limo on the way to a groupie orgy? No red M&Ms? Not so fast.
Uh huh, sorry about the pilot, but he just had to go. And I actually insist on ONLY red M&Ms at all my groupie orgies.
Current fav. Dig the backstory and lyrics written here. Let it happen, cap’n.
Thanks, Ski Cat – knew you’d be ready.