Midnight in Aspen/Aspen Reprise

(1)

The fog sticks around
As if he were on
Soul goes higher and higher
Till the last

Even chain on jeep is bored
Hyphen
Aspen
Ute (2)

Ice mountain of Jehovah (3)

Freedom of self, town's 
6 p.m.
Rising

He aims the highest bestest powered rifle at the stars (4)
Orion  (5)
It bounces off
The satellite
He was lucky this week
Midnight

Aspen Reprise

At the constellation of Orion
It bounces back
Over imitating
But wait till next week

Hard tough believers, all
Form pure lights spiritual
But as soft 
They ascend and hit the mark
Those old Frog 18th Century Revolters (6)
never said anything about this

It bounces back over irritated
sub-animal jackals  (7)
And the gray-red churned up roots
It misses him tonight
But wait till this time next week next midnight...
 

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

1. This song, broken into two parts on Fall Heads Roll, is an homage to Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) who lived around Aspen, Colorado, and who committed suicide earlier in the year that the album was released. This is in part an impressionistic story of the bullet with which he shot himself, which bounces off a satellite in the present time of the narration, but it is suggested that it later hits its mark, which is here identified as the constellation Orion, the Hunter (see note 4). In a Pitchfork interview, MES talked about the song a bit:

Pitchfork: What compelled you to reprise "Midnight in Aspen" after "Assume"? [The dreamy "Midnight in Aspen" gives way to the aggressive "Assume," then picks up where it left off with "Midnight Aspen Reprise," as if two records are playing simultaneously, and we are switching between them.]

MES: I think it's a pretty sad tune. Steve wrote it, the bass player. He's quite into that sort of organic, sort of Liverpool sound, actually. But I thought I'd couple it up with, like, Hunter S. Thompson dying, and all that. That's the vague idea. Half the songs, I made the lyrics up on the spot. That's the way I work. I have half the songs prepared, and half were just improvised. What happened in New York is they got there before me, and there was that big snow drift, so they were there for like four days on their own, so they came up with all sorts of shit that was quite good. 

Dan:

In the interview broadcast with the BBC Mixing It session on 10 February 2006, MES says that the song started out with the title "Midnight Cowboy," but that the death of Hunter S Thompson is "maybe somewhere in there" (I paraphrase a bit). He says he never met Thompson.

Thompson's ashes were fired out a cannon at his funeral; although this was probably written before the funeral, Joe suggests his plans for this were publicly known. 

Steve Trafford wrote the music, and he later recycled it with Brix and the Extricated as "Moonrise Kingdom."

See "More Information" below for the lyrics from the Mixing It session.

^

2. We originally had "Utah." Aspen is, of course, in Colorado. But (thanks to Kiespijn) we have discovered that Aspen was originally called Ute City.

^

3. There is an Ice Mountain in Colorado, Dan has discovered, around 100 miles from Aspen. The Mixing It version mentions "Jehovah's Ice Mountain replica" (see More Information below).

Kiespijn:

"There might be an Ice Mountain in Colorado but equally there is a ski run named 'Midnight' in Aspen (which happens to intersect one named 'Deer Park'!) and I'm not sure either has any bearing on the song. Maybe it's worth refering to Isaiah 2:2-4 (American version) which talks of the mountain of Jehovah being established above all hills, above the top of mountains, a place where right-minded peeps can stream if they want to make amends for wrong turns in life and do the right thing. I think Smith had an alternative establishment in mind though - the radical, non-conformist community that Joe Edwards and Hunter S Thompson tried to establish in 1969.

^

4. Thompson was a gun afficianado, and was notorious among his neighbors for firing them at odd hours, usually, it seems, in a state of inebriation. He killed himself with his rifle.

Nutterwain points out that his ashes were fired out of a cannon...but this happened after the song was likely written.

^

5. Orion is also known as "the hunter," which is also Thompson's name.

^

6. "Frog" is a derogatory name for the French, so this would seem to refer to the French Revolution.  

^

7. From HST's platform when running for mayor on the "Freak Power" ticket in 1970 (thanks to Kiespijn):

"Change the name 'Aspen', by public referendum, to 'Fat City'. This would prevent greedheads, land-rapers and other human jackals from capitalizing on the name 'Aspen' ... These swine should be fucked, broken, and driven across the land."

^

SaveSave

SaveSave

Midnight in Aspen/Aspen Reprise: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 2005

Lyrics from the BBC 3 Mixing It Session, 2006-02-10(thanks to Fit and Working Again for the transcription):

The portaphone rings over as he ascends the red mud
Higher and higher
Even the chain on the jeep double tyres is bored
He goes higher and higher to Aspen
6 p.m. rising
An altered state of clever-dicks who think they can shut down
They go higher and higher into Aspen 
He was very unlucky this week
Jehovah’s ice mountain replica
He takes his biggest bestest rifle out and fires at the stars
It flashes off, off the stars and the satellites, so Orion
He was very unlucky this week
Maybe next Saturday
Maybe next Saturday when he can shoot as they descend into the marl
The frogs never told me this he said, neither did the group, thank you very much

Return to Note 1