Only To Be

Only To Be is a six-part epic of sorts. The formative years were spent listening to bands like Pink Floyd who created long, long songs that were arranged in parts, so that's what I wanted to do with this track.

Track Info

Recorded

December 18, 1996

Location

Amherst, Ohio

Part Details

Part I

Part I was simply a building introduction that has a bit of The Velvet Underground influence in there.

Part II

Part II begins at about the 3:15 mark, slowing down and then building again.

Part III

As of this moment, I don't remember Part III, but I'm assuming it was especially bad if it was omitted from the album, given what was ultimately included. I will try to recover this some day.

Part IV

Part IV shows another Velvet Underground influence in the dualing lyrics in each channel. One side depicts happy/beautiful things while the other depicts sad/horrible/scary things. My goal was to try to make them flow as closely as possible and even end on the same words if possible.

Part V & VI

To be completely honest, I could not tell you why this last bit is split into two parts. Upon listening to the song again, I can't tell where the split would be... maybe at the 4:46 mark? It is a satisfying song for me even after all of these years. It borders on being cheesy, but the lyrics held a bit of truth that I may not have valued at the time.

Appears On

• Full Sun (1998)