The Perfect Song

The Perfect Song is a new segment that will be featured on The Steam Engine. The songs will be that I think are, well, perfect! It started with Sonic Youth's The Diamond Sea and it continues today with Ryan Adams I Taught Myself How To Grow Old from Easy Tiger. I have 3 versions to share today, all with their own unique signature.

Poor little rose, beaten by the rain
In the wind in the gale, thunder and the hail
Sometimes I feel like I'm going insane
Without the numbness or the pain so intense to feel
Especially now it added up through the years
And I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
Now I'm crooked on the outside, and the inside's broke

Most of the time I got nothing to say
When I do it's nothing and nobody's there to listen anyway
I know I'm probably better off this way
I just listen to the voices on the TV 'til I'm tired
My eyes grow heavy and I fade away

'Cause I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
'Til I was crooked on the outside
I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
'Til I was crooked on the outside, inside's caved
Crooked on the outside, inside's caved
Crooked on the outside, inside's caved
I taught myself how to grow old

The Studio Version

This version practically begs for a small, dark stage in a shit bar in the middle of nowhere. The harmonica picks up and trudges through the start until Adams lips open with "Poor little rose, beaten by the rain." I get a vivid image burned in my skull from that line. This song is a portrait of a man truly alone.

Easy Tiger Live at Avatar Studios Version

I love the contrast of the harmonica with the cold desolate sounding electric guitar. When he sings this song, in all versions, he sounds like a timid little boy confused about, well, just about everything. At the end of the tune their is a fantastic riff played over and over again and it brings the power of a thousand waves to an already moving song.

The Live Version - (2007/09/14)

This copy has no harmonica, just a beautiful slide and a great guitar solo. This entire show is one of my favorites but this song, brought on early (3rd song) has an immensely effective guitar solo by Ryan Adams. He starts his solo right after the slide takes a well deserved dive to a bottomless pit of despair. His guitar is the perfect accent to this song, you can hear him push his tremelo down a couple of times adding a certain off-the-cuff depth that is not found on any other version.