[Verse 1] [Centred on G minor. Dusk. Wide, open, reflective. Solo piano or pad floating in space. A sense of journey beginning. Orange fading Sunset] Driving East, on a fading road, Last of the orange daylight, old. [Smoke Appears. Sideways textures, uncertain harmonies] Grey on the hills where the shadows lie, Something moving across the sky. [Ambient Drones. Synth pads, felt piano, E-bow guitar] Wispy tops, drifting across the ground. There is, something wrong, clouds, upside-down. Not a cloud, and not the rain, Something different across the plain. Whispers rising where the daylight ends, Car lights glowing red, through a frosted lens. [Pre-Chorus] And the radio faded out, While the world, turned strange, around me. [Chorus] [Valley Fills. Layers build, visibility drops] There was smoke, in the valley, Filling the bowl, yet wanting more, [In the Bowl. Dense drones, Acoustics muffled, no lights] Covering, every light below, Like a sea, without a shore. Smoke in the valley, Drifting, where the night winds roam, And for a mile or a hundred more, The road was the only way home. [Verse 2] [The Threat. Pressure builds. Low rumbles, dissonance, tension, choking] Brake lights burning, a crimson line, Everyone slowing, at the same time, Windows closed but the smell got through, Carrying stories nobody knew. [Gm(add9) → B♭maj7 → Csus2 → Gm... Gm(add9) → B♭maj7 → D♭maj7(#11) → Csus2 ] Was it fire on the distant heath? Was it something burning underneath? All I knew, as the darkness fell, Was the world no longer felt well. [Chorus] There was smoke, in the valley, Filling the bowl, yet wanting more, Covering, every light below, Like a sea, without a shore. Smoke in the valley, Drifting, where the night winds roam, And for a mile or a hundred more, The road was the only way home. [Bridge] I almost stopped to take a picture, To prove that I'd been there at all, But some things live more truthfully, As shadows, that you still recall. [Final Chorus] There was smoke, in the valley, [Gm → B♭ → D♭ → C → E♭maj9 → Fsus2 → G(add9) ] Holding the night, in its hands, Turning the world, to silver-grey, Erasing the shape, of the land. Smoke, in the valley, [Emerging. Gradual thinning, light begins to return. Acoustics open up. Higher textures return] Long after the road was gone, I still see that silent sea, Whenever I drive alone. [Gm(add9) ... B♭maj7 ... (long pause) ... D♭maj7(#11) → Csus2 ] [Outro] [Relief. Open, bright, fresh air, release. Journey continues] Now nearly home, Greeted by a welcoming sign, the orange face, low on the horizon, of a full Moon, rising. Smoke no longer feels, so alarming.
