“Prelude to a Staten Island Ferry Disaster”
Lyrics
The wind is howling at my window
Someone’s knockin’ at my door
And there are soldiers on the front lines
Who ain’t comin’ home no more
Forty five miles per hour
That’s what the weather man said
Some of them soldiers on the front lines
Are comin’ home dead
Well I hope it ain’t my brother
And I hope it ain’t my friend
And I wonder how’s the weather
In that awful place
Does anybody at the front lines
See this is a goddamn disgrace?
The wind is howling at my window
Someone’s knockin’ at my door
Copyright © 2008 Karl Ward
So my friend Brian lived across from the United Nations in this high rise. I was crashing on his couch for a bit back in 2003. He had just gotten a big plasma screen TV, which was a big deal back then. There were really high winds so I turned on this ridiculous TV and started watching the weather forecast. To my surprise, they were showing the weather in Afghanistan. These chords were bouncing around in my head and I started playing them on a Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar I had borrowed from Aileen Morgan. The words came quickly, all flowing from the wind that was actually howling. It wasn’t long after writing it, maybe a few minutes, that I heard about the horrible Staten Island Ferry crash that had just happened that afternoon.
It just seemed so pedestrian to be talking about the weather in this war that was very real for thousands of people, but just another bit of weather entertainment in between commercials for this terrible network. Like a joke, that Americans would literally talk about the weather instead of the war. America felt dark at that moment.
Recording notes
The drums and rhythm guitar parts were recorded in my apartment on Henry Street. This might be the only appearance of my solid state Fender Frontman 25R amp. I think I recorded the quieter electric guitar parts on the Telecaster plugged into the Sovtek MIG-50. I know I recorded the loud rhythm guitar parts on the Fender Frontman, because it just sounded so nasty. The drums are being hit as hard as possible–no one called the cops? I think we just did two takes and then decided not to press our luck. Quinn added the underwater lead guitar and rockets, and we recorded vocals in Brooklyn.
There’s a version of this that Adam and I recorded with just acoustic guitar, snare with brushes, and upright bass that needs to see the light of day. I think I have come to prefer that recording, which we really should have finished.