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Listen to a sample
VC: vocals, Fender Precision bass, Mosrite acoustic, Yamaha Cs1 synth (strings), dijembe, bongos, tambourine
The Story
A long distance romance ended and within a few months my life completely fell apart: I quit my job, found another, got laid off, found out that I had messed up my application to go back to school for my teaching credential…but that’s all best told another time.
The bright side was that I was playing my guitar a great deal and finally becoming quite competent. I was writing and recording demos fairly regularly in my tiny apartment on Derby Street near downtown Berkeley. I hadn’t really heard from Anna since we had broken up, but after awhile I realized that I had given her one of my most prized possessions and decided I needed them back to regain my mojo. One of my coworkers had given me a beautiful necklace made of garnets for my high school graduation that I called my “magic beads”. I sometimes felt that they were magical and protected me and I had worn them pretty much every day since. When Anna left to go back to Vegas, I put them on her and told her she could wear them and that they could protect her while we apart and that she could give me them back when we were reunited. So much for the power of positive thinking! I had written several unanswered letters asking for their return, all of which went unanswered. I tried phoning, to no avail and then found out that she had moved from her parents place and her step-dad reluctantly gave me her new number. Again I tried and tried until one day she finally answered the phone. Immediately she put me off, saying she was in the process of moving, but that she would call me right back. You can probably guess that it never happened. But a few weeks later the beads arrived in a plain manila envelope with not so much as a word attached.
So I did what I usually do when in such a state of misery: I wrote a song. “No Answer” chronicles this escapade and the guitar part was really different for me and was showing my growth as a musician. I use several new chord figures and this song proved very difficult to play and sing at the same time. My original demo was pretty near perfect and I at first hedged a bit about redoing for this album. Right now I’m sure glad I did, because I think this version really is perfect. I had never played bass for this song until I recorded it and I think this really adds an important element to the soundscape.
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Lyrics
Words on paper
Travel through the air
Bouncing on postal trucks
Emotions through ink
Engraved despair
Memories locked in a trunk
But there’s no answer
No reply
No R.S.V.P.
Only longing
And asking why
How can you forget about me?
Love on the air
Notes softly played
A guitar slowly strummed
A story is told
Of a love that strayed
A melody smoothly hummed
But there’s no answer
No reply
There’s no harmony
Only longing
And a faint cry
I’ve faded from your fancy
No answer -- emptiness
No answer -- bitterness
No answer -- such a mystery
No answer -- I can’t let it be
The bell tolls
Over and over again
It echoes as it rings
But still I try
A sucker for the pain
I hang up to sing
Still no answer
No reply
No answering machine
Only longing
And the urge to try
To explore where I‘ve been
VC
5/4/93
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