Making Memories

Background and Commentary

“‘Making Memories’ was written on a drive where we got lost. It was in the Midwest somewhere, Indiana, maybe. I forget where we were going, but we made a right, and we should have made a left! We went out of our way by a few hours, and we were sitting in the car with an acoustic guitar, and that’s the way we wrote the songs then. Pretty much everything was written in dressing rooms and sound checks. Neil’s lyrics were written on the road. That one was all written before we went into the studio.”—Alex in Contents Under Pressure

The piece, which was never played in the live set, “ties in the ‘fly by night’ theme with its mood and wanderlust.”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

Musically, Geddy almost seems to be channeling Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers in its bluegrass-like hit, Black Water, which came out the same year as Fly by Night, 1975. There’s no fiddle or a cappella section in “Making Memories,” but Geddy and Simmons share the same vocal intonation.

Lyrics

There’s a time for feelin’ as good as we can
The time is now and there’s no stoppin’ us
There’s a time for livin’ as high as we can
Behind us you will only see our dust

You know we’re havin’ good days
And we hope they’re gonna last
Our future still looks brighter than our past
We feel no need to worry
No reason to be sad
Our mem’ries remind us
Maybe road life’s not so bad

Just keep smilin’, move onward every day
And try to keep our thoughts away from home
We’re trav’lin’ around, no time to settle down
And satisfy our wanderlust to roam

Well from sea to shining sea and a hundred points between
Still we go on diggin’ ev’ry show
The cities in the land all extend a welcome hand
Till morning when it’s time for us to go

Tablature

By Tony Zimmermann (97445@ef.gc.maricopa.edu)

Excerpted from Ultimate Guitar.

Acoustic 6-string (12-string recommended)

Verses:
—2——–5——–0————-2——–5——–0—————-|
—3——–6——–3————-3——–6——–3—————-|
—2—//—5—//—0—//—//—2—//—5—//—0—//—//——|
—0——–0——–2————-0——–0——–2—————-|
———————3——————————-3—————-|
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D F/D Cadd9 D F/D Cadd9

Bridge:
—7————-2————-7————-2————————|
—8————-3————-8————-3————————|
—7—//—//—2—//—//—7—//—//—2—//—//————–|
—0————-0————-0————-0————————|
———————————————————————-|
———————————————————————-|
G/D D G/D D

—7————-2————-5————12————————|
—8————-3————-6————13————————|
—7—//—//—2—//—//—5—//—//–12—//—//————–|
—0————-0————-0————-0————————|
———————————————————————-|
———————————————————————-|
G/D D F/D C/D

Ultimate Guitar.