Demon Days (Don't Get Lost In Heaven/Demon Days)

Don't Get Lost In Heaven (Demo)
Don't Get Lost In Heaven/Demon Days
Don't Get Lost In Heaven/Demon Days (Demon Days Live)
Don't Get Lost In Heaven/Demon Days (Escape To Plastic Beach Tour, with Bobby Womack)
Don't Get Lost In Heaven/Demon Days (Humanz Live)

"Don't Get Lost In Heaven" and "Demon Days" mark the end of Gorillaz magnum opus. It's their grand finale, it's their swan song and it just might be the greatest track they ever made.

Don't Get Lost In Heaven

The following is an excerpt from a 2005 New York Times piece called "The Man In The Gorillaz Mask":
"As on "Gorillaz" (the band's first album), there are plenty of guests: the rappers De La Soul, Bootie Brown from The Pharcyde,  and MF DOOM along with Ike Turner on keyboards, the singer Shaun Ryder from Happy Mondays and the actor and director Dennis Hopper, who narrates a parable about innocence, greed and retribution set to a droll reggae bounce. That song leads into a stretch of vocal harmonies in a clear homage to The Beach Boys. Mr. Albarn said he couldn't make the vocal parts sound right until he had a minor revelation, "If you've ever seen The Beach Boys in footage, desperately trying to keep the upbeat Beach Boy thing alive, while (lead singer) Brian Wilson is absolutely glum as hell. So I did three harmonies smiling with my face. And then one just being miserable, which was Brian. Now it's got that vibe.""

"Don't Get Lost In Heaven", the first part of "Demon Days" ending statement, started out as a weird experimental country and bluegrass piece involving James Dring's simple drumming, Jason Cox's bouncing distorted bass guitar and Damon Albarn playing a diverse range of banjos, synthesizers and acoustic guitars. The original lead vocal was done by Damon Albarn in what I can assume is him doing a cross of both Brian Wilson and Bob Dylan accompanied by happier sounding harmonies meant to invoke the other members of The Beach Boys (as stated in the quote above). The demo is a fun quirky thing that makes enough room for what will most likely be the only banjo solo to ever grace a Gorillaz record. It was probably recorded during the early stages of the album back when it was called "Reject False Icons" (see "RockIt" entry for more details). While the demo is a very joyful and pleasant thing to hear, it would only be a shadow of what was to come.

The song in it's final form begins with a psychedelic soul sound similar to songs off of The Beach Boys' album "Pet Sounds".  Every instrument on this song is done by Damon from the bouncing piano, to the atmospheric synthesizers and main electric guitar hook. Damon as 2D sings about being in a bad neighborhood with "crack on the corner and someone dead". He ends his first verse with a reference to the previous track on the album, "Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head".  As the song progresses, 2D becomes addicted to the drug of the street, cocaine. However he only seems to be doing it because he's lost someone whom he once loved, the line goes: "Put me in a cab to suburbia. I just took a line, but I wasn't with you. There was more of it there when I got back home, but you left me, you don't know my soul. You're a ho girl, yea you're a hobo." Now I don't think 2D is referring to a girl per say, I think he's taking the piss out of god.

Throughout this album as I've stated, 2D was trying to talk to god to find answers, but god gave him nothing in return. So in this verse, 2D seems to be sinning once again by taking lines of cocaine as a sort of "fuck you" to a savior who did nothing to help him in his time of need. He tried to correct his wrongs but in the end it didn't seem to matter, so now 2D is back to his old ways of "sex, drugs and rock n roll". Out of anger he calls god a "ho" and a "hobo", two words that don't mean the same thing but sound like each other. Damon does this to show how people can say stupid things they don't mean when they are angry. Now this may seem a bit confusing but the hook of this song is what makes Damon's loose final statement here, whole.

The hook is sung by The London Community Gospel Choir, who were present throughout the album as backing singers but on these last two tracks they take a lead part alongside Damon and Jamie's characters. They sing, "Don't get lost in heaven, they got locks on the gate. Don't go over the edge, you'll make a big mistake". The choir tell 2D not to get all tied up about the idea of "heaven" and "hell". The problem with religion is that it consumes people and makes people do atrocious things in the name of their gospel, even if the gospel itself doesn't preach or condone those actions. Damon explores this idea a lot throughout the album (particularly on tracks like "All Alone") and it is here that idea gets concluded. The choir also tells 2D not to "go over the edge". They mean that he should control himself not only with his drug habits, but with his fear of a higher power like god. As long as 2D lives his life he will be fine, if he lives in fear he will never be happy and end up doing things to hurt himself. In the end, the choir ends up not only preaching to 2D but to everyone who is consumed by religion thus making a 2D a mirror for every god fearing individual. As the song dissolves, the choral hums transition smoothly into the title track which will finish off the album's statement overall.

Demon Days

"Ascension"

An organ lays the down the song's basis as strings swell and choirs of vocal hums come in and out of the picture. In the background you can hear James Dring setting the tempo on a hi-hat while Jason Cox bashes away on his distorted bass guitar along with Damon's army of glitchy synthesizers and sound effects which come and go. It's a gospel soul song done with dub reggae production, something only Damon would do.

On this song Damon as 2D becomes a member of the choir, humming along with them and occasionally offering a harmony part of his own to counter their melodies. A chant is started by 2D over the song's quiet organ lead beginning: "In these demon days, it's so cold outside, it's hard for a good soul to survive. You can't even trust the air you breathe cause Mother Earth wants us all to leave. When lies become reality, you numb yourself with drugs and TV. Pick yourself up, it's a brand new day. Turn yourself round, don't burn yourself, turn yourself, turn yourself around to the sun". What Damon says here in his charming 2D falsetto is that in these dark times we live in people have become "cold" and no longer pure, no "good soul" has survived. We may not even survive on this planet due to all the pollution and fossil fuels we have abused, the air is now untrustworthy thanks to us and metaphorically, "Mother Earth" might kick us out, or "leave". In order for us to feel any remanence of joy where god might have even left us, we "numb" ourselves with "drugs and TV", things that Damon has been warning us about since the days of Gorillaz first album. But nevertheless, we have to remain vigilant and strong. If we work and fight for it and  "turn" ourselves "around", it might all be ok. We just have to keep looking forward, looking up, "to the sun".

After 2D has preaches this epiphany to the choir, the song becomes centered around an electric guitar line (played by Damon) which sounds more hopeful. Jason Cox chases it on his bass guitar and soon James Dring joins in on the drums, Cox and Dring are at it again! Alongside this new groove are all the instruments we had before (as well as a new reggae type piano Damon added in the background) giving the song a huge Phil Spector type wall of sound (or maybe a statement against as per an anecdote fellow Gorillaz writer, Reddit user Ralphwiggum8 gave me: "I always felt that Damon's use of strings on Demon Days was meant to be a "correction" of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" technique. Spector's stuff is very "thick" in the mix, enclosed, and was criticized for this during it's time and since (vis a vis the Let it Be vs Let it Be Naked argument), which is something I agree with, actually. The reason it works so well in MSG in Concert for Bangladesh is because the large room dynamics served to even this out "sound-wise". But I think if you compare Demon Days and "Wall of Sound" you'll see that Damon and Danger are intentionally "opening up" the sound, making it as "vacuous" as the can to get a "hollow electronica" sound to the choir.") The choir chants 2D's line over and over again as 2D hums in the background, accentuating his ending line of "to the sun". Soon enough they disregard the verse altogether and just center themselves only on repeating the "to the sun" line. As they chant it repeatedly, all the instruments fade except for Damon's soulful organ. The vocalists slowly drift away as they chant this song as if they are angels ascending back into heaven from whence they came. The album is over, the teachings have been bestowed and now it's up to us to make the world a better place.

The song has always been Gorillaz grand finale at their live shows, their last song in the encore. It is always brilliant live with the spotlight often going on the choir of vocalists rather than Damon himself. On the "Escape To Plastic Beach Tour", Bobby Womack would often join the band to lead the choir in their chant, riffing over them like he probably did with his church choir when he was a younger man. Sometimes on the "Humanz Tour", Damon would bring out all the guest stars to sing this song together. As the song ends, all the band members slowly file out until only the choir is left on stage. The lights dim and all we are left with is Jamie's visuals, cause I mean it was always all about the cartoons right?

From here they went no further...