From a Window Seat

Album: Stories Don't End (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This driving tune was the first song that Dawes leader Taylor Goldsmith completed for Stories Don't End. He admitted: "It's a very singular song. A lot of the songs on the record can be a little more broad, about a period in someone's life or trying to explore a certain feeling. This song is about a specific experience of being on an airplane and that's not a very poetic or lyrical idea."
  • The album marked a turning point in Goldsmith's songwriting thanks to a deep dive into Joni Mitchell's catalog. The Laurel Canyon songstress' influence is most evident on "From A Window Seat."

    "It came from having my whole world blown open by Joni Mitchell," he told Magnet Magazine in 2020. "I was always a fan, but before writing Stories Don't End, I became a nerd about every album. Court And Spark, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter - those records where she just seems possessed. She just goes and goes and goes, and you never want her to stop. It's almost like Dylan, but way more musical. She's directly responsible for 'From A Window Seat' - just me trying to come up with the first line and letting the song be what it is, whatever happens."

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