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If I remember correctly, "Julio, pt. III" began as one of those songs from a dream where I intentionally wake up slowly and bring the song into waking life. I just had the first few lines, but the mood was all there and all I needed was an hour or so to feel it out and write it down.
This story takes place well after the events of the previous song and the protagonist is now living at a motel. You know how sometimes you have to do dumb stuff just to get by, and maybe you do something stupid when you're tired and that leads to more dumb stuff you have to do? Then something that is out of your control fails you and you're just exasperated and want everyone to just leave you alone so you can do what you have to do to pull yourself together? That's where he's at.
I like poignant songs about good people in tough situations. Cody Weathers' "Sonja's Son" from his excellent new album This Broken Heap is a great one. And of course Springsteen does this sort of thing all the time. I hope that Julio's story continues someday but I can't force it. I would love for this motel stay to be a superhero origin story and the tone of the next song to change completely a la Hal Hartley's Henry Fool and Fay Grim films.
That syncopated bridge bassline (doubled on piano) is inspired by McCartney ultimately, but also The Hang Ups' brilliant, perfect Second Story (only $1.62!) album, which has great basslines all over it. I once spent a very pleasant hour or so with "Parkway" on repeat learning and playing along with the bass.
As Billy Joel has said about his own wonderful "Summer, Highland Falls", as the outro bass is the solidity, the high piano outro bit is the madness.
Lyrics:
He broke his wrist punchin' a hole in the drywall
Long term renter at a shitty motel
Walkin' slow down the burnt carpet hallway
His destiny to be ringin' a bell
First he had to go back for the bucket
Then the ice machine just ground
Drops of blood mark a path to reception
He skip'd the bell there wasn't no one around
Oh my Lord what he had to get over
just to get to where he was twenty minutes ago
Always with the work and there's always some jerk
who thinks he knows better - fuck em Whadda they know?
Way back home - what he thought of as home
Was it seared in his mind? Disappeared? Dis a blind?
Even as it fell by the wayside there's someone that you
can't walk away from - you can't ever leave behind
And so he sleeps at the end of the hallway
Is he dreaming? Well it's hard to tell
There's so much noise and of course his collection
It ain't a gift and it sure wouldn't sell
What's that hum that you hear in the silence?
Is the radio on in the pipe?
Electrical is a way out of balance
Well, look at that, - he is dreamin' tonight
Previous song: Julio
Next song: Winter Ghost