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Written by Max in 1981 and newly arranged for the album Take Me Up.
"Jon Spayde paid me the ultimate compliment when he refused to believe I had written this song, thinking it was a traditional southern fieldworker's chant.
"I first recorded it in the basement of Dolores Street studio with myself and Mark Norris on vocals, Jon Spayde on conga, and Gary Tanner on bass. It was first performed by Terra Incognita a few days later at our debut show at Club Foot in February 1981. A year or two later it was recorded by the Didactyl Brothers in a rustic cabin outside Los Angeles; the rap in the new version is inspired by Mark Norris’s rap on that recording. I wrote several different versions of this song which were recorded and performed by different versions of Terra Incognita from 1985-1990. This new version is the closest in spirit to the original."
Lyrics
Hand over hand
hand over hand
hand over hand
up that ladder in the sky.
Hand over hand
hand over hand
hand over hand
up that ladder in the sky.
The bodies of the dead
fall into the sea,
The bodies of the dead
fall into the sea,
The bodies of the dead
fall into the sea,
From that ladder in the sky.
Copyright © Max Carmichael 1981, 1985, 2009, 2010.
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