Hoarfrost

The only Lee Renaldo song to appear on A Thousand Leaves is called "Hoarfrost."

Lee always gets his ONE song. I always find it pretty cool that his vocal song is usually a stand out. I've read that Lee only prefers to sing 1-2 songs per LP. His tunes are usually more poetic, sounding as if he is speaking the words in a melodic tone. This song however lends itself to more of a "singing" style rather than a "spoken" style.

Lee has a tendamcy to supply more description and imagery into his lyrics. "trees passing high above like a spider the color is turning brown." The refrain "I'll know when we get there" is repeated towards the end of every section. It acts like a chorus to tell the listener the circle has come back around. I have always thought this song is about getting lost in the woods, or getting lost and trusting that someone knows the way, even if everything looks the same passing by one by one. A song about trust. This song is very delicate.

"Hoarfrost" was played sometime in 1997 instrumentally and then played nightly from 1998 to 1999. It was also pulled out every now and then on the 2000 tour but has not made an appearance since a small run of festival shows in 2001. I was lucky to hear this one on 8-16-2000. It's the only song from A Thousand Leaves i have heard live. You would think after the last 10 years another one of those tunes would pop up? It's the Sonic Youth way.

A rather different performance of the song from a TV appearance in 1998. Not sure when or where.