This is an oddball of a tune.
It’s one that I forget about from time to time, only to pull it out again, remember I really like it, play through it a number of times… and forget about it again.
Yet, it’s hung around, gotten under my skin, made me think about it, made me remember it.
I don’t know if it has made it into the live sets at any point in the years between, but I have played it, and played with it.
Editors Note: While setting up this page I notice that the document template of the lyrics is actually the way I used to set up a performance sheet (back when I used to print out lyrics and carry a binder to gigs). So it is likely that it did manage to make it into a couple of sets over the years.
Yet, perhaps the most ironic thing, is that the recording is very much how I am approaching the new collections I’m working on.
Very live (you can tell the vocal and guitar were recorded at the same time on this one) – with a minimal selection of backing instruments that, while keeping to sound raw and open, cover a lot of ground.
I even have a tambourine in my wish list… I’m sure my neighbors will be thrilled.
This is Silent Proofs from Songs 2004, recorded in Albany Park, Chicago.
The photo is of the front room on Sacramento Ave. in Albany Park when I first brought the Larrivee home.
If the video is slow to load you can find it on youtube HERE.
Silent Proofs
I could wait for you
If you want me to
Just to see the day
You walk away.
All I want to do
Live in silence too
All the words you lose
All the waste.
All the silence you can find
All the words that won’t be tired
What’s left but silent lies and silent proofs?
If you’re shaking, pale
With all the times you’ve failed
With all your anger stored
Behind closed doors.
I could wait for you
Just wait for your cue
Just pretend I knew
What’s in store.
All the silence you can find
All the words that won’t be tired
What’s left but silent lies and silent proofs?
All the silence you throw, all the chains that you sow in the night
Every chest that you seal, every box that you steal from the light.
I could wait for you
If you want me to
Just to see the day
You walk away.