Road to Joy (Bright Eyes song)

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“Road to Joy”

Song by Bright Eyes
Album	I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Released	January 25, 2005
Recorded	2002/2003
Genre	Folk music
Length	3:54
Label	Saddle Creek LBJ-68
Producer	Mike Mogis

1 Overview
2 Structure/Style
3 Live Performances
4 Personnel

[edit] Overview

"Road to Joy" is the last song off Bright Eyes' 2005 release I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. It is about 4 minutes in length.

[edit] Structure/Style

The song begins with a fingerpicking section combined with and Interpolation of the melody of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. The song slowly builds up as the song progresses. The final verse has Conor addressing issues regarding himself "Well I could have been a famous singer/if I had someone else's voice/but failures always sounded better/let's fuck it up boys, make some noise"

The song explodes into a frenzy where drums, trumpets and horns all come in, eventually fading.

[edit] Live Performances

This song is a staple of Bright Eyes' live shows, and is often played as a show finale. This song was performed on the Late Night Show with Craig Ferguson, followed by an interview with Conor.

This song was performed at concerts dating back to 2002 or 2003, which means the song was most likely written in that time period, along with many of the songs from this album.