Welcome to another weekly installment of “Free Tune Friday.” This week’s song comprises part two of our mini-sequence. To hear last week’s tune and other past entries, click HERE.
This week, we continue our Euro tour, moving from Vondelpark in Amsterdam to Florence’s great cathedral. Three weeks on the continent brought us many incredible sights, but for some reason, the Duomo–the great cathedral in the heart of Florence–left more of an impression on me than other, more famous landmarks. In my memory, it dwarfs the city around it, and its exterior panels, a patchwork of pink and green marble, give it a character I hadn’t seen in other cathedrals. The inside is cool and vast, hushed with light gleaming down beneath the dome that gives the structure its name, gleaming between the columns, making me feel like I’m wandering through some ancient forest of stone.
Like the Duomo’s interior, the song is quiet and laid-back, while the commanding presence its exterior evokes is reflected in the song’s title–a bad pun (is there any other kind?) on majordomo. Lots of drippy guitar and two short verses capped by a dual guitar solo characterize the song. Like its companion, “Vondelpark”, the tune reminds me of Yo La Tengo a little, though its brevity and some of the guitar effects are inspired by GBV.
When I return to song-writing (hopefully this coming year), I think I’ll write more of these “place” songs. They make wonderful odes, little mental post-cards; whenever I listen to this tune, I find myself back there, in the square, in the cathedral, like a child, in awe of its majesty and grace.
LYRICS:
Major Duomo
She rises up and stares down at the stacks
That squirm below, strangled under shadow’s hold.
Nothing else competes, nothing else looks complete
Next to the dome that houses the soul.
She calls the shots, dressed up in colored blocks.
Gone with the fold, drawn in by distant stare,
I crawl inside and run on whispered air,
Grasping the bones that hold up the sky.
To listen to this tune, click HERE. To download, right-click on the link and select “Save Link As.” For best results, apply headphones. Thanks for listening! Be sure to come back for next Friday’s installment…
(Written, performed, and recorded by David Stahler Jr. All rights reserved.)