[Intro - wind, vinyl hiss, distant bunker classroom, tape wobble] [Spoken sample - gentle teacher, old educational recording] Repeat after me... [children, distant] Blue. [Verse 1 - weathered male vocal, intimate, half-sung over sparse piano] There was a time we owned the weather Sunburned shoulders, county fairs We put our summers in the pictures Like we'd always have some spare [cut - ticking clock sample] And the clock the men in gray kept Ticked from minutes down to one [voice fragments begin looping] down to one... one... one... But we were watching other channels We were having too much fun [Instrumental lift - chopped piano, tambourine hits, old harmony samples] [Refrain - restrained, warm group harmony] Goodnight, blue sky... We hardly knew you [echoed sample] knew you... knew you... Forty floors of dirt Between me and you [beat cuts] [Spoken sample - elderly voice] I remember it being... bigger. [Groove returns - pumping piano chopped into rhythm] [Verse 2] The talking heads all talked in circles The buttons got a little red Everybody's phone was screaming Nobody heard a word it said [radio fragments and warning tones woven into beat] They drew their lines on borrowed borders Raised their toasts in marble halls While the missiles slept like house cats Twitching, dreaming in their walls [Sample break - piano stab / civil-defense tone / children laughing / hard cut] [Chorus - fuller now, handclaps and loose communal vocals] So goodnight, blue sky — we hardly knew you Forty floors of dirt between me and you The old folks hum what sunlight sounded like And we all sing along... [drop to children only] though we never saw the light [children repeat, warped] never saw the light... saw the light... the light... [Instrumental collage - dusty breakbeat, piano rolls, acoustic fragments, classroom tape, fluttering strings] [Verse 3 - nearly naked vocal, damaged piano] I was seven when the sirens Sang their one and only song Mama grabbed the family photos Papa didn't come along [long tape pause] Down the stairs and down the ladders Down where summer never goes And the last thing I remember Was a morning white as snow [Silence] [Spoken sample - teacher] What color is the sky? [child] Blue. [slow piano loop begins] [Verse 4 - groove gradually rebuilding, bittersweet] Now my daughter paints the ceiling Sky blue — she's got the shade all wrong Too bright, I say; she says, you're lying Maybe memory's the con [handclaps enter] We've got gardens under grow lights We've got dances Friday nights We've got everything we need here [beat drops] We've got everything but sky [Huge final chorus - whole bunker, piano pounding, stomps, handclaps, old vocal samples layered throughout] So goodnight, blue sky — we hardly knew you Forty floors of dirt between me and you The old folks hum what sunlight sounded like And we all sing along, though we never saw the light [voices begin overlapping] Goodnight, blue sky— Goodnight— Blue sky— Never saw the light— [Final chorus fragments become a looping sample rather than another clean repeat] Forty floors— between me and you— sunlight sounded like— we all sing along— never saw— never saw— never saw the light— [Outro - instruments disappear one by one; only piano loop, classroom tape and wind remain] [Spoken sample - teacher, very soft] Repeat after me... [child] Blue. [needle skip] Blue. Blue. Blue. [tape slows to silence]
