πππππ πππππππ
White Buffalo [Intro β sparse dark-country atmosphere; slow, weathered clawhammer banjo beneath droning bowed bass and distant feedback; low floor-tom pulses like footsteps through deep snow; distorted sludge guitar gradually crawls into the mix] [Verse 1 β intimate, weary vocal; stripped-back banjo and acoustic guitar] What can I do? Where can I go? You'd figure by my age... I would know... But I'm still lost, out in the snow... In a world that's so cold... I wanna be, the man I was before... I wanna seeeeeeeeeeee... So I'll know... And I can finally stop... Chasing that white buffalo... [Instrumental interlude β dark-country banjo melody descends into a crushing sludge-folk passage; filthy downtuned guitar chords ring for several measures at a time while bowed upright bass groans underneath; sparse tribal floor toms, distant harmonica and feedback; gradually collapses back to banjo] [Chorus β drums enter heavily; distorted guitar and banjo move together beneath a forceful vocal] Manifest destiny! Is what they said! Before they painted... The plains red... So many dreams... Lying dead! History ain't always what you read... It's often between the lines... And in the inflection... Of how the thing was said... [Instrumental interlude β slow, punishing sludge riff answered by clawhammer banjo; huge spaces between drum hits; mournful slide guitar howls across the stereo field before everything falls suddenly quiet] [Verse 2 β return to sparse acoustic guitar and banjo; vocal more resigned than before] Where can we go? What can we do? The past is past... That time is through... Can't rewind, can't put it back on the track... It's hard to move forward... When you're always looking back... History repeats... That being said... I guess I know... We'll never... Stop chasing, that white buffalo... [Instrumental interlude β banjo begins alone before enormous fuzz guitar slowly joins it; Appalachian melody twisted into a bleak sludge-metal progression; bowed bass, chains, stomping percussion and screaming slide guitar build toward the second chorus] [Chorus β deeply personal delivery; same underlying progression as the first chorus, but slower and more wounded] You were my destiny! Thought we'd be wed! Before you put... That dream to bed... The future don't usually... Turn out like we said... It often slips right by... Then comes the dread... Dread of being alone... At the end... [Instrumental interlude β extended sludge-folk breakdown; dirty clawhammer banjo fights against monolithic downtuned guitar; drums drag behind the beat; mournful fiddle and harmonica emerge through amplifier feedback, eventually leaving only a solitary banjo] [Outro β nearly spoken, exhausted vocal; lonely banjo with distant wind and low guitar drone] You see... We're all out there... Wandering alone... In the wilderness... Dying slow... Hot on the trail, of a ghost... Ever chasing... That white buffalo... [Instrumental solo β long dark-country/sludge-folk finale; mournful banjo carries the central melody while distorted slide guitar answers it; fiddle enters like a distant lament, enormous doom-laden guitar chords swelling underneath; drums gradually disappear until only banjo, amplifier hum and a final distant slide-guitar cry remain] [Slow fade out]
