This song was the hardest one to do on the album. I personally agonized over it for months throughout 2021. It was the last one we had to finish. Mike wanted me to trash it and start over again from scratch, but I had an acoustic guitar track, drums, an arrangement, a melody and some lyrics. It took me months to work out all the guitar parts and then show them to Dan to play (he’s a technically MUCH more proficient player than I am). Dan then figured out the delay patterns for the rhythm parts and I tracked the middle solo on B-Bender. We had all that, and it still wasn’t working. I added piano, keyboards, percussion, and then re-did/re-wrote the vocal harmonies and did them with Dan. It started to gel, and the last thing we put on was Mike’s bass up at his house. It’s also a complex story, lyrically. The devil we know is everywhere, and sometimes it feels like we’re all trying to escape it’s evil clutches, and often, we just don’t escape. The last verse holds a lot of meaning for me personally, because Aldo is my Dad who passed away in 2017 and I miss him terribly. I can’t bring him back, but I remember when I came up with chords, melody and lyrics for this song at his house, right near the end of his life when he was really sick from Gioblastoma and we had to move him from his house to hospice. I was determined to put this one on the album, even if it we may never play it live.
lyrics
Looking for you, wherever you go…To tell you the truth, it’s the devil you know.
Mary Margaret’s got a story that she’s willing to tell, on the day she’s feeling up to it.
You gotta lean in real close, ‘cause she don’t see so well, and she wants to put a face to it.
See the spark in her eyes. Hear the crack in her voice, as she reaches back to long ago.
Before the drink and the drug, took her house and her home…left her with this so-called life she knows.
Bobby’s out on Mass. Ave., somewhere close to route 2, holding up his tattered cardboard sign.
Just a couple of bucks, is all that he needs. Score some hits; then he can go get high.
Plastic bag full of clothes, it’s all that he owns. Yeah, he says his life is gonna change.
Passes out in the park, where he’ll sleep until dawn. In the morning, things are still the same.
Looking for you, wherever you go…To tell you the truth, it’s the devil you know.
Aldo’s flat on his back, in a hospital bed. It’s where he’s gonna end his days.
Lived a life that was full, filled with sin and regrets, and some magic moments on the way.
But the cancer is strong, and he’s trying to hang on. You know it’s gonna get him in the end.
Hallelujah, Amen! Another death of a friend! There’s no way back, no, we can’t just pretend!
Looking for you, wherever you go…To tell you the truth, it’s the devil you know
Melodic rock from Boston. The band has been hailed by fans and critics alike as a return of great pop songwriting in the
vein of The Replacements, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Smithereens, even the Ventures. Catch video premiere today: bigtakeover.com/news/VideoPremiereTheLuckiestManintheWorldbySpeedfossil...more
supported by 5 fans who also own “The Devil You Know”
So many great songs, so much great playing. Tavern at the End of the World is just one song, this is an album you must listen to and experience all the way through. Rob Moss
supported by 4 fans who also own “The Devil You Know”
Like most songs on the album this song shifts between two distinct modes that work great separately, but when they combine, they become Voltron and are unstoppable! bradykoch
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