Logan Vath is a good friend of mine. Early on with just a few songs under my belt, I brought my guitar to small venues in western Nebraska for the first handful of times. Vath was an inspiration for me, early and often, as he would sometimes play a set before or after my own.
Since we met in Scottsbluff and Alliance, I've moved to Lincoln, and he's moved all around the world, from his home base in Norfolk, Va., to various stopping points in the South, the Middle East or the Mediterranean for his work in the Navy. We've shared songwriting critiques, and written songs together remotely.
So it's with full disclosure that I present this edition of Music Exam; in this instance, I'm not a journalist but a friend hoping to highlight a song I think deserves a larger audience. Vath's "Forever Your Curse" is a series of analogies to make sense of a relationship — analogies that remain relevant now, some two years after he wrote the song in Biloxi, Miss.
Read on to learn more about its various parts, lyrically and musically, as well as what went into the recording, which presents itself among a full album of songs on March 8. Then learn the song yourself further below with chords and lyrics listed:
Hear Nebraska: Take me through the history of the song, from writing to recording.
Logan Vath: It’s an older song for me. I wrote it down in Biloxi, Miss., right after I'd left Nebraska. I was figuring a few things out, relationship-wise, realizations I was coming to. It’s been recorded in a few different formats over the past two years or so until we wound up with the version we have now, which is settling on a tempo and a bridge section that's a little newer. It’s one of my older songs that I still use because it's taken time to take shape.
HN: You've said before to me that there are lyrics in some of your songs you don't like as much. Why do you think this one sticks around for you?
LV: Mainly, it’s stayed relevant to me. It’s about being someone’s other half even though it’s not ideal. It's not a fairytale by any means. That whole theme has remained constant in my life, over the years being overseas or coming home. There’s just always been a level of distance between those two characters. It's a theme that is still very accessible for me and that I revisit pretty often.
HN: How were the string parts written and recorded?
LV: They were recorded after the fact, one of the last things we did. They were arranged in between me and the string players, talking about what we wanted and humming along to work things out. They were recorded in the same studio I recorded the record in. It was a pretty quick deal. My friend Doug (Makuta) did those with me. There was never any real arrangement besides just laying out loose guidelines. That's pretty much how those came to light.
HN: Who’s singing harmonies?
LV: My good friend Kelsie McNair. She's awesome. She’s done harmony on a few different projects around the area. She’s a really incredible songwriter herself, so I'm really happy to have her on the track.
HN: You've talked about the different iterations of the song and how you settled on this tempo, for one thing. What prompted the change in rhythm from the original song?
LV: I had always intended for it to be slightly slower. I slowed it down a little more for the studio. Obviously, you’re not live and don’t have the adrenaline pumping, so you don't speed anything up. It’s only varied a little bit. One of the main changes of the song was the bridge section, if anyone's heard an older version of it.
Vocally, the bridge always stayed lower, in the same area that the rest of the song is, but I decided to juice up that bridge with a higher vocal and stacatto strings. That was a very last-minute decision while we were recording, trying something new and deciding to stick with it. That will be the way the song is played for however long I play it. Tempo-wise, it’s still a slow song. I want all the words to be heard. Everything about what I'm saying is slow and patient, so the music should match.
HN: The song has a number of metaphors. Do any in particular mean more to you than others?
LV: I don't know if I have a favorite. Opening up, it’s heretics and Bible verses. You have this common idea among two people, to be that Bible verse and the heretic, you’re in line with everything. You agree with everything, but you're still searching for your own causes and your own reasons.
I think with relationships, that’s very important. It’s not always face value, I guess. That’s hard to put into terms. Then you've got the pills to my brain line, which I think a lot of people can relate to. I enjoy playing that song out live. If there's couples, sometimes they'll look at each other and smile.
So I know I’m not alone especially with that line, the pills to my brain. People look at each other and smile or give their significant other a nudge. That makes me know I'm not the only one that feels that way at times. Life can get a little crazy, so it's good to have that person who knows well enough to level you out.
HN: Since you wrote the song a couple years ago, does the phrase “forever your curse” still apply now?
LV: It does still apply. I think it will always apply. The title is saying that I’m happy to be here. I want to be here. At the same time, I’m never going to be perfect. As long as you’re with me, as long as you’re loving me, in many ways, that can be conceived as a curse. It’s sounds a lot darker than I intend for it to sound. But yeah, it still applies.
HN: And lastly, what does it mean to love like a child?
LV: Just innocent, non-judgmental love. "You love like a child, you know it's OK to smile." Those words are me saying, "You love like a child," and the other party saying, "It’s OK to smile." I'm a bit of a worrier in my day-to-day life, and it’s important to have that child love where there’s no judgment. It's love for the sake of love. That’s the thing you love, and it’s OK to smile about it. If it makes you feel good, it's right.
CHORDS
capo 4th fret
C – G – F
C – G – F
C – G – F
C – G – F
C G – F
I'm forever your curse
C G F
You're the heretic, I'm your bible verse
C G F
And as you walk away the congregation will prey
C G F
And then pull a new church from their purse
C G – F
You're keepin' me alive
C G F
You're rain and I'm prairie on the rise
C G F C – G – F
And I know you won't stop till I'm high in the sky tonight
C G – F
You know love is all right, don't fight
C G F
You know love is all right, don't fight
C G F
You know love is all right, yeah, love is all right, yeah
C G F
Love is all right, don't fight
C G – F
And you're keeping me sane
C G F
I'm chemically imbalanced, you're the pills to my brain
C G F
And I take you twice a day
C G F
Oh, I take you twice a day
C G – F
Home is so far
C G F
My porch is the ground and we're staring from stars
C G F
But on three our race will start
C G F
One, two, three, and our race did start
Em G G/F#
Don't stop now there's too much ground to
Em G G/F#
Cover your head as bombs are rainin'
Em G G/F# F
Down the road is a house where we can sit for awhile
And you love like a child
C G – F
You know it's OK to smile
C G
And you love like a child
F
You know it's OK to smile
C G F
And you love like a child
C G – F
You know it's OK to smile
C
I'm forever your curse
credits:
from Better Man or Ghost, released March 8, 2013
cello: Douglas Makuta; piano: Adam Jones & Luke Jones; vocal: Kelsie McNair
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He misses The Underground in Scottsbluff. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.