Wealth In The Cellar

“Feels like someone walking in on a garage session. Very personal.”
Joe Dermody

Available now on all digital streaming platforms – Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Prime Music, Deezer and more.

* Limited edition CD, card ecopak including 16-page booklet, available for sale via Bandcamp.

Wealth In The Cellar
Demos and out-takes from the archives

℗© 2021 Serengeti Long Walk. All Rights Reserved.
Released 31 January 2021.

01    Layer Upon Prayer (Demo 2007)
02    Dead On The Bed Of Love (Demo 2008)
03    Rainy Day (Demo 2008)
04    See What A Fool I’ve Been (Demo 2008)
05    I Like Your Legs (Demo 2009)
06    Not The One (Demo 2009)
07    The Rain Of The Night Before (Demo 2010)
08    Spare Me (Demo 2010)

Credits

All music and arrangements by Serengeti Long Walk.

(1) lyrics by Joe Dermody; (2)(5)(7) lyrics by Mick Duggan; (3) lyrics by Des O’Mahony; (4) lyrics by Mick Duggan, Ger Duggan & Joe Dermody; (6)(8) lyrics by Jon Heffernan.

Engineered by Des O’Mahony and Jon Heffernan.
Mixed and produced by Des O’Mahony.
Mastered by Pete Maher (petemaher.com).

Production Notes

Wealth In The Cellar is the fourth album by Serengeti Long Walk, released in January 2021. It contains a selection of remixed demos and out-takes of older songs, some of which were originally written in the ‘80s (Layer Upon Prayer, Dead On The Bed Of Love, Rainy Day and See What A Fool I’ve Been) as well as newer songs composed by the band’s current line-up in the late ‘00s (I Like Your Legs, Not The One, The Rain Of The Night Before and Spare Me). The recordings were made between 2007 and 2010 at The Stables, Castlecove, Co. Kerry, during sessions that led to the band’s first album release Glimmerless.

Having entertained the idea of reforming in 2007, almost twenty years after their farewell gig at The Triskel Arts Centre in Cork, the band infrequently gathered at The Stables between 2007 and 2011 to revisit the old ‘80s material and eventually to begin to write new songs as well. A significant amount of old and new material was recorded by the band. However, Glimmerless ultimately featured just a subset of this work that was eventually chosen to be mixed, produced and finished to a more polished standard for an album.

But many solid recordings remained, particularly of songs that hold personal value for one or more of the band. Some of these recordings were dusted off during the lockdowns of 2020, relistened to, tweaked and discussed during zoom calls, resulting in a selection being remixed and mastered for release as Wealth In The Cellar. The aim was to preserve the demo-style, “in the room” feel of the original recordings, eschewing newer overdubs, excessive fixes or over-production.

Layer Upon Prayer is the earliest of the songs, one of the very first to be a standard of the band in their 1980s incarnation. The version here is essentially unchanged from that ’80s original.

Dead On The Bed Of Love was likewise a popular standard in the ‘80s and remains a favourite of the band’s closest fans, despite it never appearing on an official release to date. It has been played in many formats, the version here with saxophone being closest to the original ’80s style.

Rainy Day was composed in 1986 when the band was already established and gigging around Cork City. This version replaces the original clarinet theme with piano but is otherwise unchanged.

See What A Fool I’ve Been is of the same mid ’80s vintage, though it went through a number of changes and additions compared to the original version before settling on the format contained here.

The more surprising aspect of those early Stables sessions in the late ‘00s was the emergence of new material and the realisation among the band that a genuine reunion was underway, with a return to writing and gigging on the horizon. As newer compositions, I Like Your Legs, Not The One, The Rain Of The Night Before and Spare Me show the band moving towards a more guitar-oriented sound and dropping the saxophone and (almost) funk-influenced sound of the ‘80s set.

Gallery

Lyrics

01 | Layer Upon Prayer

Moaning and groaning she labours through the pain
Why she chose to suffer I could never explain
Leaves fall all around us, I see by candlelight
You are your mother’s mother so be that way tonight

We fuse another wick as the grease drowns the flame
But you know deep down inside it’ll never be the same
We fuse another wick as the grease drowns the flame
But you know deep down inside it’ll never be the same

Hey you call this living? I ask you what is life?
You father little girls to become somebody’s wife
Look all around you, tell me what you see
If it’s someone living, I tell you it ain’t me

You don’t think to look around you when the pretty girl has found you
You don’t think that she is possibly unreal
You don’t think to look around you when the pretty girl has drowned you
‘Cos love is something you could never feel
I was on the outside looking at the inside, my mind wasn’t all that kind to me, you see?
Now I’m on the inside looking at the outside, there’s no difference as far as I can see

Layer upon prayer, well were you right?
Look all around you it’s not a pretty sight
Torture and madness, see how people scream
They have stopped and told me this is just a dream

Well were you right?
It’s not a pretty sight
See how people scream
This is just a dream

02 | Dead On The Bed Of Love

Here are fallen angels, here are imitations
Dragged from cloudy cradles, class and creed and working stations
To draw broken wings over shattered sins
To leave and to die down where the pieces lie

So don’t talk to me about heaven, don’t talk to me about hell
Don’t talk to me about heaven, I hear the tolling of the bell
(Don’t) talk to me about heaven, don’t talk to me about hell
Don’t talk to me about heaven, I hear the voices in my head

But I’ll be dead on the bed of love, that’s how you leave me
Dead on the bed of love, with your talk of sanctity
I’ve read on the bed of love and it means nothing to me
Dead on the bed of love keeps meaning nothing to me

You know modern fables, catch-calls of your generation
Laid your cards on every table, every town and every nation
You know no disgrace, no sorry, no embrace
I walk from place to place starting at an empty space

So don’t talk to me about money, don’t talk to me about guns
Don’t talk to me about money, I hear the jangling of your funds
(Don’t) talk to me about money, don’t talk to me about guns
Don’t talk to me about money, I see the comfort of your sons

03 | Rainy Day

Suppose I arrive with a flower in my hand
Look down to you with a smile
Drive you anywhere in the land you want to go
Suppose I then say nothing new

This time would you hear it?
What would your answer be now?
This time would you hear it?
Would your answer be nothing new?

Suppose I say I want to do all this but can’t
And then I say nothing new
Suppose I say I want to do all this but can’t
There’s not much more than I can ever do

This time would you hear it?
What would your answer be now?
This time would you hear it?
Would your answer be nothing new?

Just an idea put aside for a rainy day
One of those thoughts to wake up to as if to say
You can’t resist, your thought’s a wish
And it’s just an idea for a rainy day

04 | See What A Fool I’ve Been

I hear we’re born to
Born to be borne through
On a slow tide, high noon
On a long walk for a short view

Here comes the heavy brigade
Come carrying weight across an open space
I run for cover, they storm into view
But I wait out here til I see you

See what a fool I’ve been, believing in red and green
See what a fool I’ve been, amber was never me
It’s the way of lives to play it cruel
To take a knife to such a fool
Fool, fool, fool, fool, fool
Stop go

I know you’ve run through
Soft sand in a monsoon
I tried to warm you
But was left cold in a high noon

05 | I Like Your Legs

I like your legs
They take me where
I want to go
And then back home

Back home, back home, back home
Back home, back home, back home

I like your eyes
And what they see
Out on the road
Beyond the sea

The sea, the sea, the sea
The sea, the sea, the sea

I like your hair
When you let it grow
How it used to be
When I got to know

The world, the world, the world
The world, the world, the world

This time I understand, this time I understand
This time I understand, this time I understand
Understand

I like your soul
When it jumps for joy
The running girls
The laughing boy

The boy, the girls, the boy
The boy, the girls, the boy

This time I understand, this time I understand
This time I understand, this time I understand
Understand

06 | Not The One

They hung out together, didn’t talk forever
Is it what you think, well
Someone should have told them
It’s no mystery, things they come between us
Steady goes you say but
Just ends up in meaningless

They don’t have to be in love
They don’t have to be in love
They don’t have to be in love
They don’t have to

When you’re finished with me, don’t believe that you’re free
There is something left undone
But that’s the reason
They hung out together, didn’t talk forever
Is it what you think, well
Someone should have told them

We don’t have to be in love
We don’t have to be in love
We don’t have to be in love
We don’t have to

You were not the one in love
You were not the one in love
You were not the one in love
You were not the one in love

07 | The Rain Of The Night Before

The shame of the night before
Lingers in my mind
Like the trail of rain on glass
The rain of the night before

Black stars in the sky
Road signs telling me lies

The moon of the night before
Lingers in my mind
Like a glass that has overturned
With the rain of the night before

Black stars in the sky
Road signs telling me lies
Road signs telling me lies

Black stars in the sky
Road signs telling me lies
Road signs telling me lies
Road signs telling me lies
Road signs telling me lies
The rain of the night before
The rain of the night before
The rain of the night before
The rain of the night before

08 | Spare Me

You walked in the room and you turned on the light
You know you lost me when you blinded my sight
I don’t really care for your mother’s games
I don’t really care for your sister’s pain
All I really care for is you

Had a little drink about an hour ago
As the song said it made me a little slow
But that’s alright
Gonna get some more tonight
And all I really care for is you

Talk to me baby that’s what you said
I tried to speak but the words just bled from my mouth
And here we go again
Talking about your family
And all the words
Where’s the love?
How you’ve lost your way
What will they say
Ooh it’s so sad
Please be kind
I know it’s me
But …
But …
But …
BUT …

Spare me

Wealth In The CellarDemos and out-takes from the archives