Water In The Fuel

FJE occasionally will tell the story of a song during a concert by doing a prolonged intro, talking about why he wrote the song while the music plays in the background.  He's done it for "White Rose" and "Carmelita: (both of which you can find on YouTube), but my favourite is "Water In The Fuel".  I've seen him do this version a few times, but the first was the best.  He was playing at Ranchman's in Calgary, and it was the first time I saw him after Willy had left the band.  He was playing the Gretsch, adding a new haunting sound to his songs.

The song itself isn't his best wordsmithing by any stretch.  It's a song about a truck driver realizing that his relationship is likely over, and coming to grips on why it happened.  When he thinks "You wanted to buy that little trailer, out on the edge with the money you were saving.  It had a carport, a colour TV, and no place to turn around" he sees that both of them just wanted a better life but their definitions of that better life were different.  She just wanted him, he wanted to work to get more secure, buy new things, whatever.  The point is their path diverged and he's realizing the reasons why and the impact that will have.  

When I listen to the long version of this song, there's one part of the intro that always gets me.  It takes me to times in my life where I've been hopelessly lost without knowing where to go.  It reminds me of times when I know what I was doing wasn't working, but I've continued down the path I know to be wrong anyway.  Times when I've realized that life isn't easy.  That part of the intro (and lyrics to the song) goes like this:

There's a light in every diesel truck and it says water in the fuel.

When it comes on, well it means you have water in the fuel.

Leave that light on too long, and your truck just dies.

Leave that light on too long, and your bus just dies.

Leave that light on too long, and your heart just gets broken........

Well darling I'm coming down on route number 67.

I just got off the turnpike avoiding the Ohio State Inspection.

Johnny Law followed me up the road, then he turned off and he let me go.

I guess this old truck ain't worth shutting down.

Your voice last night on the telephone said you wouldn't be there when I got home,

So when I get to Cleveland I'll head back south.

(Chorus)

The light keeps coming on, I got water in the fuel.

My brakes are gone.

I got a left front tire throwing thread, by tomorrow morning I could be dead.

Baby maybe you were right all along.

You said you couldn't stay with a man who's always going away,

And all you wanted to do was settle down.

You wanted to buy that little trailer, out on the edge with the money you were saving.

It had a carport, a colour TV, and no place to turn around.

(Chorus)

(Bridge)

Remember that winter when the lake froze over,

We drove out there after we unloaded,

We revved that truck and we spun it 'round and 'round.

Then we left it idling out on that ice,

Crawled in the sleeper and I held you tight,

Baby I'm sure on thin ice now.

(Chorus)

Baby maybe you were right all along.

Chords - Most of the song is just G-D-C-C.  The chorus skips one of the C-C progressions.  The bridge adds a Am, if you listen it's easy to pick up.  You can add a little flourish to the second C to make a little more fun.  And again, there's a good chance I don't know my ass from a hole in the ground with these chords.

Run-A-Way Lane

So I'm not necessarily starting this in a logical place.  Chronological or alphabetical order be damned.  If I only had one FJE song to take with me to a desert island, it would be Run-A-Way Lane.

On the Balin' album, this song fits in so seamlessly it's easy to overlook.  It starts out with a few notes on the banjo, which meets up with a gentle guitar and quiet dobro.  The lyrics are simple, just someone lamenting about what there "ought" to be in the world.  The images used in the song (a mountain road, a switchback windin') take you visually to a lonely place.   A fiddle sneaks up in the background with a few notes that make you forlorn instantly.  The last line before the song goes into the dobro interlude ("and you ought to be here with me, that's the way it was supposed to be") is all you really need to know about the motives behind the song.  You get the emotion behind the song without caring that there's no story or chorus to it.  You can connect the times in your life where you just want something that you don't have and don't know how to get.

The dobro bit in the middle and the fiddle at the end are among the most sublime pieces of music I've ever heard.  In a bad mood they connect with that bad mood, in a good mood they elevate that good mood with the beauty behind them.  The fact that the song finishes with the promise that "it will be faded out by then" and the band's friendly banter back and forth adds to the perfection of the song somehow in my mind.  The song conveys an emotion that can take you anywhere, but at the end that emotion comes back to the people that it was grounded in and who produced this art.

Lyrics

Ought to be a train somewhere,
Ought to be a railroad line,
Ought to be a rusted train,
Ought to be a lonely sign,
Ought to whistle blowin',
Ought to be one thin dime,
Ought to be a train somewhere to take me down the line.

Ought to be a switchback windin',
Ought to be a mountain road,
Ought to be a run-a-way lane when there's nowhere else to go.
Ought to be a low gear sign,
Ought to be a dangerous prairie (?),
Ought to be a switchback windin' to make things go my way,

And you ought to be here with me,
That's the way it was supposed to be.

Ought to be a train somewhere,
Ought to be switchback windin',
Take me up into the clouds into all that silver lining,
Ought to be a low gear sign,
Ought to be a mountain road,
Ought to be a run-a-way land when there's nowhere else to go,
Ought to be a run-a-way land when there's nowhere else to go.

Chords are G, F, and C with a capo on the second fret (as far as I can tell....there's a good chance I'm wrong).

The Beginning

When I was a teenager in the 1990s I started down the path that's led me to this blog.  I was watching CMT one night while playing video games (I know, I was a pretty popular kid) when a song came on that I hadn't heard before.  I looked to the screen and saw it was "Rodeo Boy" by Fred Eaglesmith.  I had seen the video for "105" before, and I liked the song but not enough to investigate this Eaglesmith character more. The opening guitar riff of "Rodeo Boy" changed that.  I was immediately drawn in by the swampy electric guitar mixed with a sad steel guitar in the background.  With lyrics like "Down at the old cafe, people throwing looks my way, I guess they don't know what to say" I was drawn in further.  I immediately went to Napster and began trying to find whatever songs I could.  Every song I found I loved.  I started down the slippery slope to Fredheadville.

Fred is the foundation that the rest of my musical profile is based upon.  Everything is compared to Fred.  His music is the reason I picked up a used ten dollar guitar and learned to play.  There used to be a link on his website that went to a site that housed the lyrics and chords for a ton of his songs.  The website still exists in the depths of the internet (located here and run by a fellow named Jason Hammond).  I don't really want to duplicate what he's done, I want to just create a forum where I can take a song and say why I like it (and for anyone who happens to read this).

So that's it.  Just me writing about Fred Eaglesmith songs saying why I like them.