Goodnight Irene- New Song?

it's also the same title of a great Tom Waits tune

angryjohnnyN1930 wrote:

it's also the same title of a great Tom Waits tune

...which is a cover of a Leadbelly song.

I've listened to this non-stop during work for the past two days, ha.

i likes it. i'd say that i'm stoked for the album, but really, who isn't?

WingsForWheels wrote:

i likes it. i'd say that i'm stoked for the album, but really, who isn't?

I'd just like it if they came out an announced something officially already. We've been hearing about this for almost a year now lol.

Brian talked about a special 7" release to coincide with a tour next sept in Europe with chuck rather than an album.

back in september Brian wrote on his blog "Working on the "night time" music I spoke of last blog... I'll update that part very soon", so i guess we'll be hearing something once this tour is over, in a couple of weeks maybe (fingers crossed)

Angry Johnny wrote:

great song. ive been listening to it for a couple days now, but having a hard time making out all the lyrics. anyone?

I was at the show in Tilburg and this song totally got to me from the very first notes.

This is what I figured out so far. I'm not a native english speaker though. I'm not sure, or absolutely wrong about the parts between brackets. first verses and chorus:

Darling it's so dark in this house
Except for this light of a slow candle burning.
I know you're somewhere,
I always (keep feeling).
I've got a new song
you might never hear.

Goodnight Irene,
I got your trouble and I read your letters
You sent back (a bomb).
And when you're gone
We're all gonna miss you,
you're perfume and cigarettes and the sea.
My name that you always wore (like grief).
Goodnight Irene.

I was also trying to check out the chords, I think the main riff is something like Am - E - F - G

Come on, help us out!

i hear pretty much the same, although i think it is "You sent like a bomb"... this is what i hear in the rest of the song (i'm not an native english speaker neither so here comes the part where i understand a few words, mix them together and form a full sentence, so please correct cause this is probably gonna be wrong xD):

You were kind of lonesome, you're saint of the sinners
You're voice of the dogs, you fight/find in the rain
So I just keep working, I just keep driving
Nobody writes the blues anymore

And in my mind there is a dream where the telephone rang
Before the ring took a vow and bend in her hand (does this sentence make any sense??)
In her closet with white dresses and (___)
(___) declare a war

someone correct this please?

I would agreeeee with the lyrics. I'm only hearing some differences in the last verse.

But in my mind there's dream where the telephone rang
before the ring took a vow and bend in my hand.
in a closet where white dresses hang
her eyes declaring war.

I've listened to all Goodnight Irene videos on youtube now and I always understand different lyrics. (in the tilburg version I always hear: "I've declared a war.) :/
Anyway, this song is really mystifying me now, especially the end passage where Brian starts to singing: "And in my mind there's a dream..."

I once read that Brian almost got married when he was 18 or so and I wonder if these lyrics are about that time. Could it be a pre-story of WDIWWWY? Really interrested in the interpretation of that song.

I also start hearing:

'Your perfume, light cigarettes and the sea'

It's going to be one of those lyrics where you read them and go... damn, so THAT's what he says, makes a lot more sense than 'You send back/like a bomb'

I used to have that a lot with Bad Religion songs when I was younger, hehe.

Darling it's so dark in this house
Except for this light of a slow candle burning.
I know you're somewhere,
I always (keep feeling).
I've got a new song
you might never hear.

Goodnight Irene,
I got your trouble and I read your letters
You sent like a bomb.
And when you're gone
We're all gonna miss you,
you're perfume like cigarettes and the sea.
My name that you always wore like grief.
Goodnight Irene.

You grew up kind of lonesome, you're saint of the sinners
You're voice of the dogs, you find in the rain
So I just keep working, I'll just keep driving
Nobody writes blues anymore

Goodnight Irene,
I got your trouble and I read your letters
You sent like a bomb.
And when you're gone
We're all gonna miss you,
you're perfume like cigarettes and the sea.
My name that you always wore like grief.

And in my mind there is a dream where the telephone rang
Before the ring took a vow and bend in her hand
In her closet where white dresses hang
Her eyes declaring a war, Irene.

Man that's an amazing song

Solid job with the lyrics man. Seriously.

cpt.eddie wrote:

It's going to be one of those lyrics where you read them and go... damn, so THAT's what he says, makes a lot more sense

i have that with Chuck Ragan i don't know why xD

Thanks a lot!

nice work. it all sounds pretty close to me. guess we will just have to wait and see. as for the chords, Am-E-F-G seems pretty good too. chorus is maybe C-Am-F-G and then C-Am-E-F-G...havent figured much more out but it sounds like the whole song is based around those chords.

thanks so much!
And indeed - an amazing song!

Heard that shit life, was amazing.

Chuck ragan is the dude.

Bea wrote:

cpt.eddie wrote:

It's going to be one of those lyrics where you read them and go... damn, so THAT's what he says, makes a lot more sense

i have that with Chuck Ragan i don't know why xD

Indeed. Old HWM songs are a treasure for misunderstood lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn4ZbZy2ono

Video from dublin. enjoy

hynesie wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn4ZbZy2ono

Video from dublin. enjoy

Nice. Great sound quality.

i'm generally not a fan of live videos of new songs cause the sound quality is usually shit and you can't get a feel for the song...but damn this song is good...really good

So I recently discovered Goodnight Irene. Love it, it's great. In looking up the lyrics I of course discovered the folk song Goodnight Irene, which obviously was not what I was looking for. So I took matters into my own hands and watched a bunch of youtube videos to discern the lyrics. (We had a snow day!) I was gonna post them on some lyrics site but I figured everyone here would enjoy them more (and I only had to sign up for this site) Lazy, I know. Enjoy.

Goodnight Irene

Darling it’s so dark
In this house
Except for this light
My slow candle burnin

And I know you’re somewhere
I always did feel it
I got a new song
You might never hear

Goodnight Irene
I’ve got your troubles
I read your letters
You sent like a bomb
And when you’re gone
We’re all gonna miss you
Your perfume like cigarettes and the sea
My name that you always wore like cream
Goodnight Irene

Grew up kinda lonesome
The saint of the sinners
The voice of the dark
You find in the rain
So I just keep working
I just keep driving
Nobody writes the blues anymore

And in my mind there’s a dream
Where the telephone rang
But before the ring took a vow
And abandoned her
There in a closet where white dresses hang
Well I was declaring war

Goodnight Irene…


I'm not completely sure about the "cream" (could be green?) And the bridge part was a little tricky, esp. the "Well I was declaring war" line.

As others have said, I don't think it's "cream," it seems like "grief to me. And as for that last line, I hear something like "with eyes declaring war"... I hope that's it, because I have that line running through my head all he time.

I love trying to figure out the lyrics to newly leaked/played/etc songs. Gives a great excuse to listen over and over, too.

I'm in the greif camp myself on this one. I don't really know anyone would wear cream anyway lol.