[INTRO: old Appalachian folk ballad, sparse fingerpicked acoustic guitar, distant fiddle drone, tape hiss, intimate antique recording] [SOLO MALE VOCAL: SUNG, weathered, warm, restrained, almost nostalgic] There’s a hole behind the barn, past the pucker brush and briars. Found it when I was just a boy, dark as hell and twice as quiet. [VERSE 1: SUNG, gentle rural folk, simple nursery-rhyme melody, dry vocal, sparse acoustic guitar] A ruined toy, some rocks and branches, A broken bat—I’d given it chances. Anything busted, anything old, I dragged through the brush and tossed in the hole. [PRE-CHORUS: SUNG, melody turns subtly uneasy, low fiddle drone enters, instruments leave more empty space] Never knew how deep it went. Never heard a thing hit ground. Anything I dropped inside Just disappeared without a sound. [CHORUS: SUNG, eerie sing-song folk refrain, deceptively cheerful melody, soft distant harmony, subtle pump organ] Down in the hole, where nobody goes. Toss it in, let it fall, and nobody knows. Anything broken, anything old— I just kept feeding that goddamn hole. [POST-CHORUS: instruments stop] [LONG EMPTY REVERB] [NO VOCAL] [NO IMPACT SOUND] [VERSE 2: SUNG, same melody, darker undertone, restrained vocal, sparse banjo and acoustic guitar] I was sixteen, sneaking out late, Backed over old Chester by the garden gate. Wrapped him up. Never told Dad. Dragged him through briars, feeling sick, feeling bad. Stood at the edge. Let him go down. [PAUSE: complete silence] [SUNG MALE VOCAL: quiet, isolated] Never heard him hit ground. [INSTRUMENTAL RESPONSE: single detuned piano note, distant fiddle harmonic] [VERSE 3: SUNG, older, wearier vocal, dusty upright piano joins, subtle tape degradation] Years went by. Then my father died. Farm became mine. I stayed behind. Old motor oil, the hooch when I quit, A roached-out motorcycle, about a barrel of spit. Years rolled by. I stayed on that land. The hole kept taking whatever I had. [CHORUS: SUNG, darker repetition, ghostly backing voices, low pump organ, slightly detuned harmony] Down in the hole, where nobody goes. Toss it in, let it fall, and nobody knows. Anything broken, anything cold— I just kept feeding that goddamn hole. [POST-CHORUS: distant wordless humming continues after instruments stop] [SUBTLE LOW DRONE] [VERSE 4: SUNG, increasingly unsettling, nursery-rhyme cadence, calm restrained vocal] Took my neighbor’s cow, led her through the pucker brush, Cut across his back field, and gave the old girl a push. After that it got easier, anything could go. If it crossed me or failed me, I knew just where to throw. Every bad thought, every grudge I could hold— I fed to the dark at the mouth of the hole. [INSTRUMENTAL: acoustic guitar pattern continues mechanically] [DISTANT WORDLESS HUMMING] [SUBTLE DETUNING] [VERSE 5: SUNG, stripped almost completely bare, intimate close-mic vocal, no harmony] There was one cold night, no moon in the sky, Something in the truck bed wrapped up tight. Took both hands to drag it down that road, Came home alone from the mouth of the hole. [LONG PAUSE] [SFX: faint wind through trees] [SFX: distant low resonance from below] [BRIDGE: SUNG, slow-building dread, funeral hymn atmosphere, pump organ and bowed fiddle drone] [VOCAL: increasingly frightened but restrained] The hole keeps getting wider. Swear it wasn't always so. Once I could jump across it. Now there's nowhere left to go. Every year it takes more earth. Every year it takes its toll. [INSTRUMENTS GRADUALLY FALL OUT OF TUNE] [SUNG MALE VOCAL: quiet, frightened] And sometimes in the night [BEAT STOPS] I hear something down below. [COMPLETE SILENCE] [SFX: faint impossible sound from far below] [PAUSE] [FINAL CHORUS: SUNG, full haunted folk ensemble, desperate lead vocal, ghostly group vocals, funeral-hymn intensity] [OLD CHOIR: SUNG, distant, imperfect, increasingly dissonant] DOWN IN THE HOLE! Where nobody goes! Everything I've ever hated, everything I broke! Everything I've thrown away, everything I've known— [ARRANGEMENT BEGINS COLLAPSING] [TAPE WARBLE] [DETUNED PIANO] [CHOIR BECOMES DISSONANT] [SUNG MALE VOCAL: increasingly desperate] That hole keeps getting wider, and I know I'll end up inside her, Just like everything else I've ever thrown. [HARD CUT] [OUTRO: SUNG SOLO MALE VOCAL, no instruments, close microphone, old room ambience] All my life I've been feeding that hole. [PAUSE] Now I know what I should've known. [LONG PAUSE] That hole is me. [ROOM TONE] [WHISPER: intentionally spoken, extremely close, dry] An' I am that hole. [PAUSE] [WHISPER: intentionally spoken, lower] I am that hole. [VERY DISTANT GROUP VOICES: WHISPERED, barely audible] I am that hole. [TAPE SLOWS] [END]
