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No Easy Way Down

from A Decade Into Darkness by Shock Octopus

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Ahhh, ‘ No Easy Way Down’. The song that had many incarnations and many false starts before becoming the behemoth that it is today.
Dave Blair had written and produced the entire instrumental back in 2007. I wrote a lyric and vocal melody to it and the song became ‘Waiting’ - a song was about our frustrations with finding a drummer. It was all cheesy stuff so I went back to the drawing board and came back with new lyrics and vocals. The title ‘No Easy Way Down’ was inspired by Dusty Springfield, but the subject matter had now switched to the melting of polar icecaps, from the perspective of a dying polar bear. We were raising the stakes a little higher this time!

When Dave read the new lyrics, he was a bit overwhelmed at how depressing it all sounded so he asked me to make the end more positive. At the time I thought that my re-written final stanza ‘If I fell right through, would I land back on top of the world’ was a life affirming positive reframe. Later I was informed that it is only ‘happy’ when compared to the rest of my lyrics. Hey – I tried.

No Easy Way Down was a bitch to play live due to its odd and very precise time signature. But once we nailed it, the song exploded and soared. It was another favourite of the early Shock Octopus live set, even though at the time we may have felt that the song was a bit of an anomaly in the set.

We didn’t record it for the first EP because we were going for a crunchy live sound and ‘No Easy Way Down’ would have been too complicated.
I REALLY, REALLY wanted it included on the ‘A Crisis’ LP as it was more at home with the lusher sound of the new tracks written for the album. However, there was some disaster with finding the track masters for the new vocal (or something) which meant that the song lost out again.

Twelve years after its creation, the song FINALLY saw a release, first as a double A side single with another band, Counting Backwards, for an Extinction Rebellion charity single in January 2020. Soon after, it was Track 2 of our new EP ‘Enter The Exit’ and the best track on the EP by a considerable margin. By that stage Magda Wozny had joined Shock Octopus as backing vocalist for the recording, which was the icing on the cake that completed the song and sealed the deal.

Regardless of the journey and the skewed journey that the song took, there is absolutely no mistaking the genius of Dave’s original instrumental, which never changed. It is a powerhouse of progression, build and release. The lush and layered soundscapes eschew conventional song structure (or time signature) and yet it remains catchy as hell. Also, that drum break! All non-vocal instruments were recorded by Dave. Did I call him George Harrison? At this point I’m going for Prince. Anyway, this is his masterpiece.

- Michael Bayliss
Shock Octopus

lyrics

Top of the world
My world is shrinking
King of the ice
My crown is falling

Homeless in homeland
Early too late
Man sends his tendrils
Man seals my fate

Can you feel
Can you feel
Can you feel it falling all around here?
Can you hear
Can you hear
Can you hear ice cracking underneath?

Do you think
Do you think that there is a whole world under here?
I can only hope I can only ever find out
My whole damn world
is slipping
sliding
to the sea
And you know there is no
No easy way down
But a thousand leagues till end of sea
It's unto here I drown
And you know there is no
No easy way down
But under the northern lights I stay

If I - I fell - fell right - right through
Would I land back
On top of the world?

credits

from A Decade Into Darkness, released May 29, 2021
Music: David Blair
Lyrics: Michael Bayliss

Michael Bayliss: Lead Vocals
David Balir: Bass, Drums, Guitar, Keyboard, Programming
Magda Wozny: Backing Vocals

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Shock Octopus Perth, Australia

Contemplative, Existential, Art Rock.

A collective stream of consciousness and social commentary by Michael Bayliss, David Blair and Scott Andrews.

Ride the waves!

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