Home Again:
The Darkland concept revolves around dreams that seem to happen in certain areas. These seem like real environments, because they are revisited in different dreams and the areas seem contiguous. "Home Again" is a sort of narrative map of the areas and the phenomenon itself, including its emotional and psychological components. These are dreams, after all- emotional symbolism is the language they speak. That said, some of the places appeared to be actual, as discovered years later. I located several of them, without trying, after I moved to Portland- a city I'd never visited or, honestly, had any interest in. (I love it dearly now and have for the last 20 plus years.) The majority are still unfound, and of course may not actually exist. But I do wonder.
This is the first place on the album you hear the Roland drums. (Not the first time they were used- that would be "Leaving".) I had played them at Guitar Center but couldn't afford them. I thought they offered a credible alternative- from a sounds perspective anyway- to acoustic drums. They didn't sound anywhere near as obvious as what had been available to me previously, and they were played like real drums, with sticks and pedals. They were a small fraction of the cost of the kind Bill Bruford had played with King Crimson during the '80s, and had many of the same sounds. Instead of being set up like a real kit, however, the entire thing was housed in something slightly bigger than an electric typewriter. There were 8 pads on top and you hit those. Bass drum and hi-hat had pedal controls similar, I'm told, to what comes with a sewing machine. This made it ideal for use in a room in an apartment, which was where all my work was usually done. You monitored through headphones and the whole thing was no louder than a practice pad to anyone else.
I found one used for a few hundred dollars less- the difference between getting one and not getting one, for me. And overall, it did the job credibly and served me well for over a decade. But there were problems. In order for it to play what you did- for the sound coming out to match- you had to simplify your technique, play harder (I did, anyway), and all rolls had to be precise and single-stroke. I found that in order to play them with the best outcome, I had to flip the sticks over and play with the butt ends. Even then, sometimes things didn't track all that well, and no ham-fistedness saved me from audible (but thankfully often still usable) mistakes, a regrettable lack of tonal variations from the cymbals, no volume control over the bass drum, etc. In some ways I came to hate them, to be honest. But they got me through. On the plus side, their timpani sound was, in my opinion, quite good, as were their strictly electronic kit sounds, steel drums, and glockenspiel. I would have loved some tubular bells, but they didn't have those yet.
lyrics
You take the tracks down through industry plains
about 30 miles or so
At the end of the line you'll find my town,
Where the down and the dead people go
The tracks lead straight to a red brick wall,
about 75 feet square
The back sides of buildings to either side,
Looks like a dead end but don't despair
See that light shining through the haze
from the alley to the right
Down the alley you've got to go,
Don't be afraid, it'll be all right
Home again
To a place that only seems to be
Home again
A place I visit in my dreams
They used to call it Hooverville
when it finally got a name
Fifty years on it was Reaganville,
but it all seemed to look the same
Population's grown from times unknown
and places seldom seen
Every color and pride bought a one way ride
To industrial hell and the western dream
Home again
To a place that only seems to be
Home again
A place I visit in my dreams
Well I've got my own favorite places here,
Friends' back street apartments and flats
The boulevard backshops and booklands
Or uptown where the Chateau and the legacy stands
And sometimes I'm back in school again
From grade school through to college
And I never know what I'm doing there
And I feel like I'm crazy and I have to pretend
I'm all right...It's all right...
Everything is all right
But I'm full of shit, don't you know it
I'm scared and don't know what to do
There's community here but I don't belong
An impostor they laugh with and refuse to see through
So I'm
Home again
To a place that only seems to be
Home again
A place I'll visit in my dreams
In a place so ugly and full of despair
For all of us rogues there's still something there
Adventure and the force of life,
Air of damp electrical autumn nights
Ivy hills in the suburbs by the grey morning light
10 a.m. and the schedule has been thrown out of sight
The boulevard waits and the scenes portend
I'm out of the structure and into the cracks once again
Meet me there
When all is said and done
I hope to be as free
As when I'm on the run
Free to haunt the odd places I love best
Meet me there
We'll put things to the test
And we'll be
Home again
To a place that only seems to be
Home again
A place I'll visit in your dreams...
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