Time to Remember

I've was analysing Iron and Wine's song Walking Far From Home in a post on my Mystical Meanderings blog. I like the song a lot but its lengthy lyrics are difficult to remember even though the guitar chord accompaniment is quite simple. This is a problem that I have with a lot of songs that I like to play on guitar: I know the chords but only parts of the lyrics. How to remember all the lyrics?

I've written about memorisation before in blog posts titled Remembering PIN Numbers on April 19th 2016. However, I've written more in a notebook on OneNote and I'll reproduce some of it here. For remembering numbers, the pinfruit system is popular. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

An extension of this idea involves grouping numbers into pairs from 00 to 99. See Figure 2 that I've copied from a Google Sheet.

Figure 2

An an example, my current telephone number is 081384755018 which can be broken up into the following pairs 08-13-84-75-50-18 which converts to sofa-thumb-fairy-shell-lace-tofu. This sequence of nouns needs to combined together into a meaningful image in which the elements are sequential. This only works once the table in Figure 1 has been thoroughly memorised.

When trying to remember the lyrics of a song however, another approach is needed. The images that arise from the lyrics need to be arranged sequentially in a sort of memory lane approach. I imagine myself strolling down a lane and the images that I encounter are one by one converted into the lyrics of the song. Below are the song lyrics that I've divided into quatrains because every four lines are more or less self-contained. There are twelve quatrains. The first and the last start with the lines:

I was walking far from home

Where the names were not burned along the wall

There are thus 12 x 4 + 1 = 49 lines with the last quatrain containing an additional line, namely "From the Lord". Quatrains 3 and 5 also begin with the line "I was walking far from home". There are also rhymes in lines 2 and 4 that also make memorisation easier. I've marked these in blue.

Walking Far From Home

Iron & Wine 

 

1 ************************** 

I was walking far from home

Where the names were not burned along the wall

Saw a building high as heaven

But the door was so small, door was so small 

 

2 **************************

I saw rainclouds, little babies

And a bridge that had tumbled to the ground

I saw sinners making music

And I dreamt of that sound, dreamt of that sound 

 

3 ************************** 

I was walking far from home

But I carried your letters all the while

I saw lovers in a window

Whisper, "Warn me like time, warn me like time"

4 ************************** 

I saw sickness blooming fruit trees

I saw blood and a bit of it was mine

I saw children in a river

But their lips were still dry, lips were still dry

 

5 ************************** 

I was walking far from home

And I found your face mingled in the crowd

Saw a boat full of believers

Sail off talking too loud, talking too loud

 

6 ************************** 

I saw sunlight on the water

Saw a bird fall like a hammer from the sky

And a woman on a speed train

She was closing her eyes, closing her eyes

7 ************************** 

I saw flowers on a hillside

And a millionaire pissing on the lawn

Saw a prisoner take a pistol

And say, "Join me in song, join me in song"

8 ************************** 

Saw a car crash in the country

Where the prayers are like weeds along the road

I saw strangers stealing kisses

Giving only their clothes, only their clothes

9 ************************** 

Saw a white dog chase its tail

And a pair of hearts carved into a stone

I saw kindness and an angel

Crying, "Take me back home, take me back home"

10 ************************** 

Saw a highway, saw an ocean

I saw widows in the temple to the Lord

Naked dancers in the city

How they spoke for us all, spoke for us all

 

11 ************************** 

I saw loaded linen tables

And a motherless colt and it was gone

I saw hungry brothers waiting

With a radio on, radio on

12 ************************** 

I was walking far from home

Where the names are not burned along the wall

Saw a wet road form a circle

And it came like a call, came like a call

From the Lord

 

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Samuel Ervin Beam

Walking Far From Home lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.