Lyrics
"End of the Line"
The time has come now see those bombs falling from the sky
Oh what a sight, gonna light up the night like the 4th of July
Pull up a chair and come and sit here by my side
If we’re gonna go, let’s do it right, into the night
So don’t you know you’ve got to go back to your home to let them know
Your kind ain’t welcome here anymore so close the door
Why can’t you see you’re history so move along and let them be
There ain’t no room for you anymore so close the door
On the horizon there’s a cloud filling up the sky
Run to the light that was burning bright all through the night
It’s now or never let’s go down to the other side
Feeling the fire, gonna be just fine at the end of the line
So don’t you know you’ve got to go back to your home to let them know
Your kind ain’t welcome here anymore so close the door
Why can’t you see you’re history so move along and let them be
There ain’t no room for you anymore so close the door
La-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da
(You gotta go back home)
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
(You gotta go back home)
© 2021 Andrew J Stenehjem (ASCAP)
Lyric Video
Background Information
This song is sung from the perspective of someone who is taking pleasure in watching the world devolve into madness around them.
The idea for this song started with a marching drum pattern on the presets of my Yamaha keyboard. I was listening to the different preset drum rhythms and when I heard this pattern, I got the idea for the verse parts. The lyrical theme came fairly quickly because it seemed to match the musical theme. The first verse and first part of the chorus were written quickly but it took longer to settle on the second verse after several iterations.
The guitar lines in the quieter middle section always remind me of the music in the movie “Top Gun”. For some reason, the verse piano and singing parts, along with the “La da da da da da” parts at the end of the song, remind me of Ben Folds.
I wanted to try and get a big marching snare drum sound for the verses. I set up the snare drum in different locations, including inside the shower, and recorded it many times to create layers and try to replicate the sound of a drum line.
I also wanted the sound of chains so I used some chains and dropped them onto the kick (bass) drum. I added a lot of reverb and did some other tricks to try and make it sound like a much bigger chain and drum than I actually have. You can hear the sound buried in the second half of the verse parts.
As with all of the songs on my debut album, I wrote, performed, recorded and mixed myself it in my 104 year-old house. Below are some pictures from the recording and a video with just the vocals.
