Down Below from Down Below by Ted Hefko and The Thousandaires
I lived in Harlem for five years, starting in 2003. My apartment was near the polo grounds and the neighborhood was full of blight when I first got there. Most of the apartment buildings were empty save swarms of pigeons. Gradually over time I lived there they were demolished and replaced with shiny new glass covered towers. To get to Sugar Hill,, I had to walk up a stone staircase that climbed the face of a granite cliff. Not far from there was the historic home of Aaron Burr - Hamilton’s place was a short walk in the other direction. Along the cliff there was a little path that led deep into a wooded area where homeless camped out and neighbors walked their dogs. I took long walks along there myself during the day and my song describes one of these walks, when I witnessed a huge bird take off from it’s perch and go soaring high above Harlem. My songs of Harlem’s history, and strange renewal remained unfinished for years. I prepared for my first songwriting session with Lynn by writing out as many of my unfinished song ideas as I could muster. We went over the meter of this song together and counted out the verses. More than half of the lyrics were from years earlier, but they were all different lengths. I sat down with them over the course of several days in the summer of 2019 and made compromises between them until they matched. I wanted to have Lynn Drury and Jamey Saint Pierre singing with me on it, because we harmonized the chorus in my GMC Safari van before I had even completed the verses. I believe in capturing songs and also moments in time on my albums.
Tracklist
| 7. | Down Below | 4:32 |
Lyrics
On a street named Frederick Douglas in the setting of the sun
The sounds of distant laughter, children having fun
Past the trash cans and recycling I go hiking up to Edgecomb, where the wind blows
Nobody knows,
Up above the rocks and cliffs,
Giant bird, she make her nest soaring o’er the city down below
Down below, down below, the world is always spinning down below
I was here before the condos came,
Watched in wonder as the blighted bricks came tumbling down
Making such mournful sound, runnin’ from the wreckin’ ball
Brand new buildings made of glass and steel,
They cannot reflect the way I feel,
When I see my reflection in just about every direction now
Down below, down below, the world is always spinning down below
Down below, down below, the world is always spinning down below
The world is always changing, ever re-arranging,
Things you know just ain’t there no more
I don’t see the signs or the place I had in mind
All of them are buried down below
Down below, down below, the world is always spinning down below
Down below, down below, the world is always spinning down below
Credits
Produced by Ted Hefko & Justin Carlo Davi
Recorded August - September 2020 at Music Shed Studios, and Below Studio by Mike Dorsey and Ben Lorio
Edited by Ted Hefko and Justin Davi
Mixed by Keenan McRae Artisound Production
Mastered by Gene Paul at G&J Audio
Musicians
Ted Hefko (Lead Vocals, Guitar, Tenor Sax, Bari Sax, Clarinet, Flute)
Matt Galloway (Lead Guitar)
Justin Carlo Davi (Bass)
Chris Davis (Drums & Percussion)
Lynn Drury (Backup Vocals )
Jamey Saint Pierre (Backup Vocals)
Michael Skinus (Percussion on Down Below)
Beck Burger (B3 Organ)
written and arranged by Ted Hefko Thefko Music ASCAP
License
All rights reserved.
Ted Hefko & The Thousandaires stir up an intoxicating brew of the profound and the profane, of virtue and vice and most importantly the volatile in-between. Ted’s songs explore hope and hustlers, saints and strays, drifters and the down-and-out. The band brings these stories to life with the spontaneity of jazz, and the rough-hewn, bare-bones tone of backwoods rhythm and bllues.