Welcome to Ron's Cave Diving Page

Not much here but a song...

Click to hear the song "Lines" (2.9MB)

Lines

by Ron Goodman
to the tune of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell
dedicated to our great cave instructors Kate Lewis & Steve Gerrard
who taught our class of Cecilia Shin, Josh & Jennifer Leute, and me (Ron)

Knives and lights and safety reels
The orienting way it feels
Just staring at your buddy's heels
I've looked at lines that way.

And when you feel that urge to run
You pray the line leads towards the sun
So many places I have gone
And lines have lead the way

CHORUS:

But I've looked at this line from both sides now
Swam left and right and still somehow
These passageways, I don't recall
I just don't know this cave, at all.

Visibility was at its peak
Until the silt, it met my finning technique
This clay should clear sometime next week
From the line I will not stray.

Many arrows pointing many ways
Who (the hell) designed this stupid maze?
My instructor said there'd be these days (Kate Lewis & Steve Gerrard!)
But the line leads none astray.

CHORUS

If in this cave...I croak
Would it be some kind of cosmic joke?
Repayment for stalagmites I broke?
Formations blown away?

And I feel like I'm losing my mind
Oh no, it's just the halocline
This kind of hallucination's fine
While frogging through the cave.

CHORUS

The tunnel now is getting thin
My air supply is dwindlin'
My backups...just ain't kickin in
Yet on the line I stay.

But now my training starts to show
Cuz up ahead I see a glow
An opening, it's one I know
The line, it knew the way

CHORUS

Just in case you want to play it yourself... It's actually really easy (even though the chords shown below look weird) due to the alternate tuning which makes these really easy to play chords!

Tuning
D A D F# A D

Chords
0 0 0 0 0 0 D
0 2 0 1 0 0 Dsus4(Add B)
0 4 0 3 0 0 D5(Add C#)
0 0 2 1 0 0 Em11(D Bass)
0 0 0 3 0 4 D' (alternate form)
0 0 0 3 0 4 Em11(D Bass)' (alternate form)
0 2 0 1 2 0 Dsus4 to D transition
0 2 0 1 0 0 "
0 0 0 1 0 0 "
0 0 0 0 0 0 "
0 5 0 0 5 0 D(no 5)

Opening
D Dsus4 D D5 Dsus
D Dsus4 D D5 Dsus

Verse A
D Dsus4 Em11 D
D5 Dsus4 Em11 D
D5 Dsus4
D Dsus4 Em11

Verse B
D5 Dsus4 Em11 D
D5 Dsus4 Em11 D
D5 Dsus4
D Dsus4 Em11

Chorus
D' Em11' Dsus4 D
Dsus4 to D transition
Dsus4 to D transition
D5 Dsus4 Em11 D
D(no 5) Dsus4 Em11 (pluck notes from low to high)

repeats 4 times total