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Movement I · Old Growth Records
The Wild Wood
The debut — a manifesto disguised as botany. Reviewers who counted called it "long." Reviewers who listened called it "very long, and about something." Both pressings sold modestly and are now traded quietly among people who make too much eye contact.
- 01First Light5:40
The words
Broke the seed and found the cold Nobody told me where to grow Reached for a light I'd never seen Between the giants, in the green No one deeded me this ground No one owes me what I've found Every inch I climb is mine Paid in patience, paid in time First light, first light Reaching on my own First light, first light I'm the tallest thing I've grown The wood is wide, the wood is wild Every tree the forest's child And not a one of them the same — That was never ours to tame First light, first light Reaching on my own First light, first light I'm the tallest thing I've grown
- 02The Reaching7:20
Teller has said the last four lines were the first thing written for the record and that the rest of the song was constructed backwards from them.
The words
Nobody grows because they chose to Nobody stops because they're done There is only the reaching And the reaching is not won The seed does not consider What the reaching is about It has one instruction in it And the instruction is get out Reaching, reaching Toward a thing we've never seen Nobody told us it was up there We just knew that it was green And the ones who reach the highest Do not know that they are high They only know there's further And a narrow strip of sky Reaching, reaching Toward a thing we've never seen Nobody told us it was up there We just knew that it was green There is no top. Ask any of them. Ask the tallest one you find. It will tell you there is further. It has never had the time.
- 03Uneven Ground6:10
The only song on the record Reave has described as an argument. He has declined to say which side of it he was on, and has noted that the song does not say either.
The words
Some ground is stone and some is loam Some holds water, some lets go Two seeds fall an arm apart One grows tall and one grows slow Uneven ground Nobody made it, nobody chose Uneven ground And that is where everything grows There is talk now of correction There is talk of levelling the hill But the hill is what the water runs down And the water runs there still Uneven ground Nobody made it, nobody chose Uneven ground And that is where everything grows I have heard it argued fiercely By the tallest and the small That the ground should be made even. I have not heard how, at all.
- 04Rings8:30
The years named in the second verse do not correspond to anything in the band's history and have never been explained. Roth has said they were chosen for how they sounded.
The words
Cut me down and count me Every year I ever had The wet ones and the dry ones And the seven that were bad Rings Nothing in them but the years Rings And a record no one keeps but me Nineteen-fourteen was a hard one You can see it, thin and tight Nineteen-thirty I did nothing Nineteen-forty I did right Nobody reads them while I'm standing Nobody asks me while I grow The only way to know my history Is the one way I would rather you did not Rings Nothing in them but the years Rings And a record no one keeps but me Every ring is a year I stood And did not fall, and did not move There is no other way to prove it And I would rather not have proof
- 05Windfall4:50
Teller has called this the meanest thing the band ever recorded. Reave has disputed the characterisation on the grounds that nothing in it is untrue.
The words
It was not the wind that did it Though the wind was there that night It was ninety years of leaning Just a little from the light Windfall Nobody's fault at all Windfall He was always going to fall And the ones that stood around him Have more light now than before Not a one of them arranged it Not a one of them is sure Windfall Nobody's fault at all Windfall He was always going to fall There will be a meeting Tuesday There will be a thing they say Nobody is going to mention That the light is better today
- 06Old Growth9:15
The stand described has been identified by three separate listeners as three different places. The band has confirmed none of them and has said the confusion is appropriate.
The words
There is a stand up past the ridgeline Nobody logged it, nobody could Too far to haul and much too steep to get to And so it is still standing, and it's good Old growth Not protected — just not worth it Old growth Saved by arithmetic Every tree that we call sacred Was too expensive to remove The mountain did the saving And it did it out of grade, and not from love I have walked in there in summer And it is quiet like a room And I know exactly why it's quiet And the knowing has not spoiled it Call it holy if you want to I have called it that myself It is holy. And it also Did not pay to take away. Old growth Not protected — just not worth it Old growth Saved by arithmetic
- 07The Wild Wood11:40
The words
Before the vote, before the law Before the hatchet, axe, and saw There stood a wood no hand had planned Uneven, ancient, green, and grand Ten thousand trees, and none the same No two that answered to one name The tall, the bent, the split, the whole Each one a country, each a soul The wild wood, the wild wood Where the light falls where it will Every reach its own to keep Every tree its own to fill The oak that shades, the pine that climbs The birch that keeps its own slow time No common roof, no canopy — Just sky enough, and standing free Older than the words we'd use Older than the sides we'd choose The rings run back beyond the reach Of anything a law could teach The wild wood, the wild wood Where the light falls where it will Uneven, and alive, and free — Reaching, reaching, reaching still