The Holy Modal Rounders Follow

Here’s a relatively early and complete version mostly from memory, but reminded by the fractured performance on the Eels album. Steve Weber and I shared quarters over several years before and during my time with The Magicians and Apostolic Studios (and his with the Rounders). Shared the stage with them (and Fred Neil/Vince Martin duo) for several months at the Playhouse Café, every night more incredible than the next, both acts at their peaks . Actually watched him write this one at home. By the time Peter formed the Eels, the Rounders were mostly fallen apart, as was Steve in that performance. Of interest for guitar players, it was written and played in a D-modal tuning (high and low E-strings tuned down to D) but played in G, which allows for the opening treble dissonant notes to be played at the same time. Clever…
John Townley, www.astrococktail.com/music.html

My mind capsized, I'm hanging to the hull
I’ll believe in a minute, it's just my skull
There's a jackhammer rhythm a pounding in my brain
And it feels like a flood of torrential rain, torrential rain
My favorite rainbow has just turned brown
I do believe I'm coming down
My favorite rainbow has just turned on
And I do believe I am coming down, coming down, coming down.

The law of gravity's a friend of mine
It's a sensible law, I think it's fine
If a thing goes up eventually it must come back
That's a bonafide certified natural fact, natural fact
But I hate to whine or [come on and] be a bore
But I wish I could have stayed up a little more,
Hate to whine or come on and be like a bore
But I wish I could have stayed up a little more, a little more, a little more.

Oh why oh why can’t you and I fly
Like the bees and the birdies in the open sky,
Flashing, crashing, dashing to the stars
Neptune, Saturn even Mars, even Mars,
But we must bow down to temporal worth
We must all come back to the planet earth
Bow down bow down to temporal worth
And we must come back down to earth, down to earth, down to earth