Freeze

Background and Commentary

“Freeze” looks at that moment when one chooses to fight or flee and is the fourth part of the Fear series (originally a trilogy), coming almost 20 years after the series’ introduction on Moving Pictures, with “Witch Hunt.”

The mood of ‘Freeze’ is evocative of a panic attack: “Blood running cold / Mind going down into a dark night / Of a desperate panic / Or a tempest of blind fury / Like a cornered beast.” Neil has said in Traveling Music and elsewhere that he has worked to control panic attacks ever since a boyhood incident in which some teenagers almost caused him to drown by preventing him from climbing onto a raft after he had exhausted himself swimming out to it.

On the Fear series, Neil says the idea “was suggested by an older man telling that he didn’t think life was ruled by love, or reason, or money, or the pursuit of happiness—but by fear. This smart but cynical guy’s position was that most people’s actions are motivated by fear of being hungry, fear of being hurt, fear of being alone, fear of being robbed, etc., and that people don’t make choices based on hope that something good will happen, but in fear that something bad will happen.

“I reacted to this the way all of us tend to react to generalities: ‘Well, I’m not like that!’ But then I started thinking about it more, watching the way people around me behaved, and I soon realized that there was something to this viewpoint, So I sketched out the three ‘theaters of fear,’ as I saw them: how fear works inside us (‘The Enemy Within’), how fear is used against us (‘The Weapon’), and how fear feeds the mob mentality (‘Witch Hunt’).

“As it happened, the last theme was easiest to deal with, so it was written first, and consequently appeared first on record, and the other two followed in reverse order for the same reason.”—Wikipedia

Lyrics

The city crouches, steaming
In the early morning half light
The sun is still a rumor
And the night is still a threat
Slipping through the dark streets
And the echoes and the shadows
Something stirs behind me
And my palms begin to sweat

Sometimes I freeze . . . until the light comes
Sometimes I fly . . . into the night
Sometimes I fight . . . against the darkness
Sometimes I’m wrong . . . sometimes I’m right

Coiled for the spring
Or caught like a creature in the headlights
Into a desperate panic
Or a tempest of blind fury
Like a cornered beast
Or a conquering hero

The menace threatens, closing
And I’m frozen in the shadows
I’m not prepared to run away
And I’m not prepared to fight

I can’t stand to reason
Or surrender to a reflex
I will trust my instincts
Or surrender to my fright

Sometimes we freeze . . . until the light comes
Sometimes we’re wrong . . . and sometimes we’re right
Sometimes we fight . . . against the darkness
Sometimes we fly . . . into the night

Blood running cold
Mind going down into a dark night
Of a desperate panic
Or a tempest of blind fury
Like a cornered beast
Or a conquering hero

Sometimes I freeze
Sometimes I fight
Sometimes I fly
Into the night

Tablature

By Travis Lausch

Excerpted from Ultimate Guitar.

Notes: This tab was created from the ground up. This tab is (I’d say) at least 90 percent correct, and took me a long time to transcribe. The time signatures were a bitch to get. (I still don’t know if they’re 100 percent correct), but for the most part, everything is here.

It sounds like Alex went for some kind of textural feel here (as on
the rest of Vapor Trails), and as such, there is a lot of ad-libbing.

[A] Intro
N.H.———————————————-|
riff A——————————————–|
2 e s s e s s e s s s s e s s s s s s e
|—————|————————————————–|
|—————|————————————————–|
6—————|————————————————–|
4–|=========|–|————————————————–|
|—————|–3———————————————–|
|—————|—-x-x-2.75-x-x-2.75-x-x-x-x-2-x-x-x-x-x-x-2.75–|

[B] 1st Verse

The city crouches steaming in the early morning half-light

|———|———|—————|————-|————-|
|———|———|—————|————-|————-|
|———5———6—————|————-|————-|
|—-%—-4—-%—-4——-%——-|——%——|——%——|
|———|———|—————|————-|————-|
|———|———|—————|————-|————-|

the sun is still a rumor and the night is still a threat

|————-|————-|————-|————-|————-|
|————-|————-|————-|————-|————-|
|————-|————-|————-|————-|————-|
|——%——|——%——|——%——|——%——|——%——|
|————-|————-|————-|————-|————-|
|————-|————-|————-|————-|————-|

Gtr. 3 plays fill 1 twice on 2nd repeat
Rhy. Fig. 1—————————–|
q q e q q e q q e q q e
||———-2—2—|———-2—2—||
||———-2—2—|———-2—2—||
5|o-4—4—4—4—|–4—4—4—4–o||
4|o-2—2—2—2—|–2—2—2—2–o||
||–4—4———–|–4—4———–||
||–2—2———–|–2—2———–||

[C] 2nd Verse

Slipping through the dark streets and the echoes and the shadows
Something stirs behind me and my palms begin to

||——————|——————–|——————-|————||
||——————|——————–|——————-|————||
||o——–%——–|———-%———|———-%——–|——%—-o||
||o—————–|——————–|——————-|———–o||
||——————|——————–|——————-|————||
||——————|——————–|——————-|————||

(oh…)
q q e q q e
|——–|———-7—7—|————-|————-|————-|
|——–|———-7—7—|————-|————-|————-|
9—-%—5–9—9—9—9—|————-|————-|————-|
8——–4–7—7—7—7—|——%——|——%——|——%——|
|——–|–9—9———–|————-|————-|————-|
|——–|–7—7———–|————-|————-|————-|

%II (2nd time on D.S.II) To Coda II
[D] 1st Prechorus

Sometimes I freeze until the light comes
Sometimes I fly Into the night
Sometimes I fight against the darkness
Sometimes I’m wrong sometimes I’m right

||———–|———-|————–|————-||
||———–|———-|————–|————-||
||o—–%—-|—–%—-|——-%——|——-%—-o||
||o———-|———-|————–|————o||
||———–|———-|————–|————-||
||———–|———-|————–|————-||

For complete tab, go to Ultimate Guitar.

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