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Chocolates

#Music #Ninth Street Mission

Lyrics

Forgot about the chocolates
Waiting in the kitchen
Wrapped up in paper
Waiting for you
Forgot about the chocolates
Waiting in the kitchen
But I didn’t forget you
No I didn’t forget you

Forgot to buy the flowers
They’re waiting on the sidewalk
Wrapped up in paper
Waiting for you
Forgot to buy the flowers
They’re waiting on the sidewalk
But I didn’t forget you
No I didn’t forget you

Roy Orbison sings about pretty papers,
About pretty ribbons, those ribbons of blue
Roy Orbison sings a song I don’t remember
But I didn’t forget you
No I didn’t forget you

Forgot about Walt Whitman,
Bonnie “Prince” Billy,
Walt Disney, David Berman too
Forgot about the chocolates
They’re somewhere in the kitchen
So I’m looking around the kitchen
And I’m waiting for you

Willie Nelson sings about pretty papers,
About pretty ribbons, those ribbons of blue
Willie Nelson sings a song I don’t remember
Some things I’ve forgotten,
But I didn’t forget you
No I didn’t forget you

Copyright © 2008 Karl Ward

Release Info

  • Release: Chocolates
  • Artist: Ninth Street Mission
  • Format: Digital
  • Date: November 30, 2008
  • Personnel:
    • Karl Ward: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, lead vocals
    • Adam Chimera: piano
    • Quinn Raymond: electric guitar
    • Namrata Tripathi: harmony vocals

Writing notes

I wrote this song on February 25, 2006, while incredibly jetlagged from a 16 hour flight from Delhi to Newark, coming back from Quinn and Nami’s wedding. It was afternoon and I had been passed out on my face for several hours, when I woke up and decided to write some poetry. That’s what we did in those days. Anyway, I thought it might be fun to (Kerouac style) write some lines that were supposed to be a song, without actually turning them into a song. I liked where it was going, so I started playing what I thought was a very Pavement-style country accompaniment. This was the result. It doesn’t sound like Pavement at all. Oh well. I was living on Stanton and Clinton in the Lower East Side, where there were always little shops that sold chocolates and hats and flowers nearby, and there was music all through the evening.

Roy Orbison was one of my father’s favorite musicians. His music permeated my childhood. I’d been listening to Willie Nelson pretty intensely for a few years at this point. I had recently discovered that Willie wrote “Pretty Paper”, and the crossover between the two was very exciting to me. “Pretty Paper” is an exceptional song, up there with the best that Hank Williams wrote. I consider this song my love letter to David Berman (Silver Jews). I’d buy him chocolates any time. But what’s the deal with the other people mentioned in this song?

Recording notes

The acoustic guitar and vocals were recorded in just a couple takes at the Killer Faucet of Death, AKA Chimera Sound in Brooklyn. I had just bought a banjo so I brought it along. I took a stab at a banjo line. Right after the first take, Adam said “you wanna take that again? I mean, I wasn’t feeling that one.” But then we listened to it and Adam said “you know what? that crazy shit actually works.” I’m glad he agreed, because that crazy shit was mostly intentional.

Adam came up with most of the piano, but I added the octave part (or half of it, I can’t remember now). Nami came by later that day, or maybe the next week, to record the harmony. Quinn and I tracked the noise guitars at Quinn and Nami’s apartment on Ninth Street.