Dave Matthews #27

nospam@example.com (Gabriel Murphy) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 05:49:00 -0700

On August 1, 2007, the Dave Matthews Band performed a new song named #27. Since then, the show has been performed almost every night and is likely to remain commonplace throughout the remaining part of the 2007 tour.

The mere name #27 "likely" breaks a common tradition with Dave Matthews. Dave numbers all of his songs in the order that he writes them. To put it simply, "#34" was the 34th song that he wrote, and so on for the others. Dave has often said that he has trouble coming up with titles for the songs that he writes. For this reason, some of his song titles may seem elusive (for example, the title "Granny" was made more as a joke than a reflection of the song's meaning.) In the absence of a good title, Dave has turned to soundman Jeff "Bagby" Thomas, who is credited with naming such songs as "Heathcliff's Haiku Warriors" and "Blue Water [Baboon Farm].") When neither of them could come up with a title, Dave has called the song by the number that it was assigned when he wrote it. The first song to have its number as its name was "#34."

It is hard to believe that naming the song is more difficult for Dave then writing the song. Given Dave numbers all of his songs in the order in whicih he writes them, then either #27 has been in a vault since approximately 1995-1996 (when we know #34 came to be) or, and more likely, the name #27 breaks this naming convention as #27 is not the 27th song Dave authored (if it was given a traditional name, it would be something like #7_ or #8_). Perhaps there is something about "number eight-nine" that is just not as catchy.

#27 reminds me of the Summer 200 rendition of Raven- it evolved every night. However, it seems Dave has focued in on lyrics he likes for #27. Nancies.org has yet to update their song database with #27 and the lyrics. After listening for hours, here are the lyrics to #27 with a high degree of accuracy:

As a young man, I was afraid
Of my life, what would I make?
Well, I would make love, what will I hate?
What bittersweet role will I choose to the grave?

Well I'm so old that this oldness has me dying
I hope you'll be by me then
Cause if I'm old until this oldness has me dying
I hope you'll be by me then

I'm sick of you and I'm sick of me
I'm sick of war and I'm sick of peace
I'm sick of sound like I'm sick of silence
I'm sick of the darkness till I'm sick of the light

Well I'm so sick that this sickness has me dying
I hope you'll be by me then
Well if I'm sick until this sickness has me dying
I hope you'll be by me then
I hope you'll be by me then

Once as a boy, I saw what happened
I saw them beat him down to the cold, cold ground
I watched those big boys beat that man down
I was too weak, too weak to take a stand

Well, I'm so weak that this weakness has me dying
I hope you'll be by me then
Yeah, I'm so weak that this weakness has me dying
I hope you'll be by me then

Well I'm old till this oldness has me dying
I hope you'll be by me then

So I will live as I see fit
And there will be those who will not like it
But in the arms of a woman I found my way home
So to the arms of a woman I will always go

And if I'm old until this oldness has me dying
I hope she'll be by me then
Yes if I'm old till this oldness has me dying

Snagged 7th DM3MD Guitar on eBay

nospam@example.com (Gabriel Murphy) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:19:00 -0800

I snagged my seventh DM3MD guitar off of eBay for $3,000, which was a pretty good price considering another DM3MD auction on eBay ending the next day went for $4,861. The number is #45 and it is in pretty good condition.

DMB George 2006 Weekend

nospam@example.com (Gabriel Murphy) — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 21:01:24 -0700

Flew out to Seattle on September 1 and drove 2 hours into George, Washington to catch the 3 night show at the Gorge Amphitheatre. The labor day weekend traffic was horrendus- we ran into the amphitheater just in time as the band broke into Everyday.

We ended up buying $500 worth of camping equiptment and camping out- something I had not done since I was at least 12 years old. I had forgotten how hard the ground is, but also how much fun camping can be.

Polaris Weekend Show Review

nospam@example.com (Gabriel Murphy) — Wed, 21 Jun 2000 15:55:57 -0700

Caught the Dave Matthews Band Summer 2000 tour opener on Monday (6/19) and the Tuesday (6/20) show at Polaris Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio.

The Ampitheater was very nice and the shows were incredible, especially Monday night. The band played several new songs from "The Summer So Far" including Sweet Up & Down, Grey Street, Bartender, Digging a Ditch, JTR and Raven.

Gabriel Murphy's Weblog - Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews #27

Snagged 7th DM3MD Guitar on eBay

DMB George 2006 Weekend

Polaris Weekend Show Review