Bliss to Breakdown is a previously unreleased track included on Long Way Around: An Anthology. That album, compiled by Danny Kadar, includes the only known version of this song: a demo recorded by David Kahne in 1992 at The Hit Factory in NYC and edited and mixed by Kadar in 2002.
Lyrics:
I got burns on my shoulder
Burns on my skin
Walking down by the water
With them waves rollin’ in.
Don’t look like no river
Don’t look like no lake
The biggest body of water
That you ever did awake (await?)
Chorus:
I’m up on the edge, I love to ride
I’m up on the edge where worlds collide
I can’t tell, child, I can’t say when
I’ll go from bliss to breakdown again.
Rain could fall in the morning
Spread that seed around
You don’t even know that it’s out there
Until it hits the ground.
Well if you look at her closely
Maybe find some mistake
Well I know every woman is perfect
while I’m lying in her wake.
(chorus)
Rain could fall in the morning
Spread that seed around
You don’t even know that it’s out there
Until it hits the ground.
Well I try to look at her closely
Try to look at her well
From way down here on the bottom
Well there’s no one around to tell.
(chorus)
In the LWA liner notes, Bradley Bambarger describes all the acoustic demos (Bliss, Pint, and Home) as “infectious wonders of acoustic groove, steeped in the most melodious, high energy strain of country blues,” and Bliss specifically as “a slide-stoked, low-levee confessional.” George Knoll, an ATCW FB group member, describes Bliss as “a very high fidelity expression of Chris’ perspective on his spiritual and emotional life” in a blog post about the song.
You can listen to a four-part audio set of Chris talking about his journey from LWTL to LWA here: Behind the Beat – Voice of the Artist.
Chris’s demo:
Having not initially purchased LWA, I first heard Bliss as an instrumental that my favorite master of all-tunes-CW, Hiroshi Suda, shared with me. As a result, whenever I listen to Chris’s Bliss, I expect it to open with a few bars of Scrapyard Lullabye! You can listen to Hiroshi’s luscious cover below.
Hiroshi Suda’s cover:
All Things Chris Whitley 