Fire Escape (Elsewhere Version)

by Dan Mangan

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Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Mangan returns with the second reimagined iteration from his Juno Award nominated, Polaris Music Prize Short Listed album 'Being Somewhere'. The buoyant and bouncy track "Fire Escape" has been stripped bare and reawakened as a tender ballad; with punchy synths being replaced with woodwinds. "Imagine yourself at a party where you feel too anxious to engage with all the perfectly well-meaning folks around you," details Dan. "You spot the familiar face of someone who understands you. You catch their eye and gesture toward the fire escape. As you make your move to get away, you anticipate the fresh air and mutually understood stillness that awaits you through the window on the landing. They might rescue you from your head, if only for a moment of respite. Now imagine that the party is actually just the increasingly manic fever dream of modern society. I love how this elsewhere version falls apart in the middle, but rises tenderly for a final plea."

lyrics

Lyrics

Meet me out by the fire escape
It’s been forty nights and forty days
And I’ve become uncertain in a cosmic way
I chewed my fingers to the bone today

Oh, won’t you come around and meet me by the fire escape?
Untie this tied tongue tie
What is it that I want to say? What is it that I really want to say?
What are the words I’ve been choking on, hoping someone will articulate?

Oh no, that’s so murky water
Alright, we’re in the trenches now
And I don’t know when the party’s over
All I know is I’m getting out somehow
Oh what a fever dream

Meet me out by the fire escape
We’ll join the procession down the alleyway
Oh, our freedom’s a joke and we’ve got debts to pay
How many waves until the levee breaks?

Oh, won’t you come around and meet me by the fire escape?
Untie these tied tongue ties
What is it that we want to say? What is it that we really want to say?
What are the truths we’ve been choking on, hoping someone will articulate?

Oh no, that’s so murky water
Alright, we’re in the trenches now
And I don’t know how the story ends
‘Cause the pages just turn over and then turn over again

And redemption’s always out of sight and just around the bend
And the outcome doesn’t match with what it is that I intend
Like a stack of books that grows and gathers dust beside the bed
Or the disconnect between what people do and what they’ve said
And I want to read the news maybe without losing my head

Oh, what a fever dream
Meet me out by the fire escape
It’s been forty nights and forty days
And I’ve become uncertain in a cosmic way
I chewed my fingers to the bone today

credits

released October 12, 2023
Written and Recorded by: Dan Mangan

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Dan Mangan Vancouver, British Columbia

danmanganmusic.com

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