One Flight Down

Posted by admin - 2002-07-16

(Jesse Harris)
Beanly Songs / Sony / ATV Music Publishing (BMI)

Norah Jones - vocals, piano
Lee Alexander - bass
Jesse Harris - acoustic guitar
Adam Levy - electric guitar
Sam Yahel - Hammond B-3 organ
Jenny Scheinmann - violin
Dan Riser - drums
Arif Mardin - string arrangement

One flight down
There's a song on low
And your mind just picked up on the sound
Now you know you're wrong
Because it drifts like smoke
And it's been there playing all along
Now you know
Now you know

The reeds and brass have been weaving
Leading into a single note

In this place
Where your arms unfold
Here at last you see your ancient face
Now you know
Now you know

The cadence rolls in broken
Plays it over and then goes

One flight down
There's a song on low
And it's been there playing all along
Now you know
Now you know

commenti

2008-08-15 17:36:05 - guge

Every time a listen this song I feel than I´m going to cry... 8 years ago I lost a very close friend, and I can´t belive that just today I found this site, and found this lyric... I´m going to remember you all my life... you was one of the best... I miss you so much !!

thenk you norah for your amazing music and voice

2008-06-02 05:50:27 - Blether

"Now you know you're wrong"

So... you've been arguing with someone, or you're absorbed in thought about some conflict you're involved in somewhere else, when suddenly you realise there's music drifting up from downstairs. It's beautiful. You would normally love this music, but it takes a moment to get through to you - that's not a nuisance, that's not noise, that's not 'just some music' - it's a *great* song. And now that it registers, you realise it's been playing for a while and you've been missing it, lost in negativity.

The tension breaks. Your arms unfold. Your head drops. And there's your ancient face revealed to you right there - you're no better than anyone else, you're not special or different. You're just another amongst millions and millons now and throughout history, chiselling away, competing to make the best of life. The face of nature, 'red in tooth and claw'. It's yours too.

(I picture this in an almost unfurnished room in a New York brownstone in high summer, with dust motes drifting in shafts of bright sunlight. But that's just me).

2007-06-06 10:26:55 - gohawkeyes9

Similar to most of Norah's music, this song makes my mind drift like a small vessel on a completely open sea. It seems that each time I hear this song, a different memory or emotion shows itself. Images of playing with friends who have passed on, lives that have touched my own, dreams that have subsided to make their way into my mind, gained and lost loves, and most frequently, the recent passing of my father--good times and difficult we spent together...coping with the loss of my best friend, yet realizing each and every day that his song has been playing inside of me all along. This song--and many others that have come from the sweet lips of Norah help to reinforce the thought: "Next to music, that which best expresses the inexpressible is silence." --Alduoud Huxley. Best wishes for you all and sweet listening!
Go Hawks!

2006-10-13 00:12:17 - semiramis

yesssssssss this is unbelievable song!!when i listen i fly away with this melody.thank you nora thank you for giving us this emotions and remembering being human...

2005-11-10 09:04:35 - pastakelaguen

To me, this song identifies the Scary moment in life when you realize that someday you will die. Finally tuning in to the ominous music from below, along with the realization of your aging face, undoes your folded-arms of confident denial. You've been wrong all this time in your youth, thinking you were invincible. And no matter what course we weave in life, it all culminates in a single note: our inevitable death. So you might as well relax, there's nothing you can do. But now at least, you know.

(Another scary thing about this song is that it hints at NOT going to heaven when you die, if you get my drift. The music that drifts like smoke? Smoke comes from fire, and the fire is "one flight down". Is it a reference to hell?Also, things that roll in are usually scary and ominous, like fog or enemy tanks. The fact that she refers to the beat of the song as Cadence is another dark militant allusion. Coming in broken,, it then goes back down from where it came. Song is also played in a minor scale, commonly used in horror movie soundtracks)

What a beautiul song!

2005-03-03 18:56:53 - tiongsonmichelle

this is my fave song.i dont why i love this song bec until now i can't understand the message it is portraying. everytime i listens to this song it makes me wonder and ponder why it was written that way and why i feel a bit sad as i hum it yet a bit released..maybe because of the word "flight" which i always connotes with a journey and then "down" like the end of a long journey. Its a bit sad yet releasing..i don't know but still its my fave song!

2004-10-25 03:19:39 - jule

Appreciating(- deeply bowing -) the zen-quality here.
Bought that one while in Kathmandu, - the record store opposite the guesthouse was playing it all day long.
Made me pick up my guitar when back home,training in greater handsomeness to be in your band - above ground,some day...

2004-05-04 17:09:30 - jimdavis

When I heard this song I thought it was about someone who dies, and realizes they've missed the point (whether you feel that's religion, love, fun ore whatever- I thought of my faith). Only after dying did this person 'pick up on the sound' (catch the drift) of what was going on 'one flight down' (back on earth). I like the line 'here at last you see your ancient face...' It's like, now this person realizes they've been around for a long... long (eternal) time. Maybe I'm wrong. Someone should ask Jesse Harris or Norah. - Jim

2004-04-25 23:36:33 - hjmauer

The world is full of romantics and I am no exception. Love truly does make the world go round and upside down...........what a ride..................
Iowa fan.

2004-01-15 19:58:49 - alyssa_01

this song is so beautiful. i love the line " In this place where your arms unfold here at last you see your ancient face " its so deep, and meaningful. its one of the lines that you could put for a screen name on msn, aol or yahoo.

2003-08-31 10:55:26 - jbanksy8

wow this song is sooo good. the lyrics make me think about realizing your in love with someone youv known but never noticed it. like when everything clicks, and you cant believe you hadnt realized it before. when i listen to it i picture that moment when someone looks across the room and even theres a million of people they only notice one, someone whos always been there, but all of a sudden seems more right then anything youv ever known. what a great song.

2003-07-07 16:04:26 - bojo*D+A*

This song is Amazing! I love singing to it and listening to it. It takes me to another world. The piano is so significant. To me this song is about a love that was never realized, and "now you know".
One flight down
There's a song on low
And your mind just picked up on the sound
Now you know you're wrong
Because it drifts like smoke
And it's been there playing all along
I hope it's not too late for my love to realize he loves me too.

2003-03-27 17:23:56 - linerds

This reminds me of the night clubs in the 50's and 60's you see on t.v. I makes me want to go back in time just to get that feeling. Nobody plays like that anymore but Nora

2003-01-09 10:05:02 - roops

This reminds me of the great times me and my dad used to have. Now he's old and cant play anymore.....love you daddy xxxxxx

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