Reposting "Lift Me Up" because MJ Lenderman And Waxahatchee Covered it live!!

Joe, I need a drink.
I don't think I can walk.
I don't have no feeling in my fingers
slur my talk.
And if I die today
don't cry on my grave.
'cause I'll be laughing when the lay you down
into the clay.
'Cause the party's spinning
I can't stand myself up.
Everybody's laughing
at me throwing up.
I don't need a ride.
I'm trying to say I'm dying.
Lift me up.
Joe, I need that drink.
I'm certain I can't walk.
I don't have no feeling in my fingers
slur my talk.
'Cause the party's over
I can't stand myself up.
Everybody's laughing
at me throwing up.
I don't need a ride.
I'm trying to say I'm dying.
Lift me up.

Joe Pernice Bony Gap Music (BMI), admin. by BUG/BMG

UPDATE: Well, imagine my surprise when my bud Bill Janovitz (Buffalo Tom) texted me from the MJ/Waxahatchee show in Boston: “Scud Mt. Boys cover right now from MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee.”

I kind of didn’t believe it. And then, like most everything that happens, it was on youtube:

I wrote “Lift Me Up” a couple years before MJ Lenderman was conceived, so it’s safe to say I am no longer the person I was when I wrote that, thank God. And after hearing their version I’m more sure than ever that the song no longer belongs to me. I’m cool with that.

They played it again the following night in Detroit. Thankfully they did not play it last night in Toronto as I sat in the crowd. Would have made me anxious. (I’d rather hear about it then actually witness it in person.)

Let me add that the MJ Lenderman/Waxahatchee show was the most moving I have seen in years. I’m a “song” guy, and I love both of their songs. The future is in good hands. (Brennan Wedl’s opening set was excellent. Catch if you can.)

The name Joe—my name, by the way—appears in a lot of popular songs. Joe as bartender could be the most frequent occurrence, especially in country music. I have never been a bartender, but I’ve paid a fair number of them who might have been named Joe. So, Joe as provider of booze is a ready made motif for the songwriter. Set ‘em up, Paul. It doesn’t even come close.

In addition to the above, If I had a nickel for every time I met someone for the first time, and they asked, “Hey, Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?” I’d be a banker and not a musician. So, I earned name checking myself in a song. Pain and suffering, etc.

I wrote “Lift Me Up” in late 1994 or early 1995. Had it been earlier than Fall of 1994 I’m certain we would have recorded it during the sessions that became the record Dance The Night Away. There was a stretch in Spring of 1995—right after the back-to-back releases of Dance The Night Away and Pine Box, when I was writing kind of furiously. Glass Jaw, Kneivel, Massachusetts and most-likely Lift Me Up all happened around the same time.

The band did an early Spring 1995 five-song recording session a Studio .45 in Hartford. Mike Deming engineered and mixed. Three of the songs (Kneivel, Glass Jaw and 1/2 Way ) would be released later by Sub Pop on 7'“ vinyl and the Massachusetts LP. The other three songs (Drowned, Drive Me Around and Son of A Bitch) have never—to the best of my knowledge—been released. Again, had Lift Me Up been written at the time of those sessions, I’m sure we would have recorded it.

The song is one of the “heavier” ones the band recorded. I think we were trying to go a little crazy horse, and why not. (That said—and it’s still been years since I’ve heard the recording—Steve’s Precision bass through a Fender Bassman head always sounded more Paul Simonon than Billy Talbot to me.) Tom Shea used actual wooden drumsticks instead of brushes (!!!!!), and had Bruce driven his Fender Twin amp hard enough to distort like it did to tape, they would have heard him from the space station. I think he used a Rat pedal, the ownership of which was a legal requirement of FOIG (Federation of Indie Guitarists) in the 1990s.

Like most of my songs at the time, Lift Me Up is pretty simple, musically. The band messed around with dynamics to arrive at those of the finished song. The guitar lead outro was a new thing for me. That section—the one that follows immediately after the last chorus—was almost like an entirely different song, especially the major-to-minor change. We all thought it served pretty well to elevate the song musically. And though I don’t believe in God or heaven or any of that, that part of the song always felt to me like our narrator had just left to find out for himself.

Originally I had a vocal melody that went over the last few chords of the song. But no words ever came to fit, and I took that as a sign to leave my voice out of it.

The lyrics are a bit bleak, I know. A ‘guy” is too fucked up to move. I was still at UMASS working on my MFA. Postmodernism was all the rage, though I still couldn’t tell you what it is.

The recording included today was tracked live to my iPhone through a Shure MV88 mic for iPhone. I played a Martin guitar detuned a whole step.

As always, thanks for listening.

Take care of yourselves and those around you.