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The Time Traveller Suite 1: What We Say Three Times Is True

from Three Rows Of Teeth (2016 expanded edition) by Tom Slatter

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about

What we Say Three Times Is True is the first half of the Time Traveller Suite.

What's going on here? Well in this song our protagonist is woken to a vision of a woman standing over him, asking if 'is this how my death began?'

He falls in love with her, the girl with the missing eye, and vows to find her. To do so he builds himself a time machine.

Musically, it's a multi-part prog thing, but with a indie-rock song with a sing along chorus at it's heart. There's some instrumental stuff in the middle I really like, including an instrumental version of the chorus to part 3, foreshadowing the final melody on the album.

lyrics

Time drifts away Time isn't there
What we say three times
Cause and effect
Here then it's gone
What we say three times
What we say three times is true

The traveller awoke to the voice of a girl
Who stood at the end of his bed
'Is this the way that my death began?'
The girl with the missing eye said
Through crackling light her hands weaved and shook
And she faded and vanished from sight

Is this the way one loses a heart?
The traveller said to himself
This saga started before it began.

Out with the dirt, digging through the piles
Junkyard twisted scrap, electric motor parts
Valves, ducts and dials, beaten into place
Whirring to make my heart feel better
Fizzing to make my spirit soar

They say it'll never work, this contraption that I've built
Sold my inheritance, compulsion knows no guilt
Time to throw the switch to watch the sparks uncoil

Whirring to make my heart feel better
Fizzing to make my spirit soar
How do I trace her? How do I find the
Girl with the missing eye, cos I swear she's
Stolen my heart What we say three times is true

Swear that I'll find her, swear that she will be mine,
A stolen heart can travel through time
What we say three times is true

And as the years speed up
As the fashions tick and change
Building rise and crumble 'til nothing good remains
A time of black skies
And endless rolling night

This place, this hell is where I'll find her.
That stranger who made my spirit soar

What we say three times is true I can't help chasing you
Through the thick and thin of endless days
What we say three times is true I can't help chasing you
Through the thick and thin of eons passed

Centuries, sunrise never comes
My little empire Untouched and out of reach
Valves ducts and dials turning once again

Whirring to make my journey longer
Somewhere the face I can't escape

How do I trace her?
How do I find the Girl with the missing eye, cos I swear she's
Stolen my heart
What we say three times is true
Swear that I'll find her, swear that she will be mine,
A stolen heart can travel through time
What we say three times is true
What we say three times is true
What we say three times is true

credits

from Three Rows Of Teeth (2016 expanded edition), released October 7, 2016

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about

Tom Slatter London

A latter-day Victorian street-theatre barker with a guitar promising tales of mystery, imagination, ‘orrible murders and bloody great waving tentacles’ is how Tom Slatter has been described. Since 2010 he has been scaring audiences with six albums and numerous EPs of storytelling songs. ... more

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