The hauntingly beautiful song Bayocean is based on the true story of Francis Drake Mitchell, a wide-eyed young man who purchased the first lots of what was to be “The Atlantic City of the West” from land dealers, T.B. Potter & Son. Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk, who make up the duo Wonderly, were so moved by the story, that they wrote the song about how Mitchell, an entrepreneur and a druggist, built the first hotel and general store on the dunes between the Pacific Ocean and Tillamook Bay, thus the name, Bayocean, Oregon. By 1914, more than 600 lots had been sold in the resort town to other investors. But the Pacific Ocean began to reclaim the coast line through erosion, and the resort became a ghost town as the homes became threatened or fell apart.
Finally, in the 1950’s, the town started to fall into the ocean, and Mitchell, who couldn’t deal with the loss, started going insane. Not believing what was happening, he would take daily excursions with a wheelbarrow and shovel to try and rebuild the beach back. After he lost his wife to a stroke, he was carted off to an insane asylum and late died at the age of 95.
The song pays homage to a man who battled it out against Climate Change and, sadly, lost.
Read the full story here (credit: OregonEncyclopedia).
“Bayocean” is a cross-genre mini-symphony where the banjo and “heave-ho” rhythm evokes the pioneering vision of something being build, while the mournful, sea-sparkling soong title refrains sound like dreams dashed by the consuming waves. It reminds the listener of perhaps an outtake from Midlake’s The Trials of Van Occupanther or a just left of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois in its historical telling. Andrea Janda, Vortex Music Magazine
Wonderly
Album: Story We Tell
Song: Bayocean
Bayocean
by Wonderly
(with Lyrics)
Gonna take it back, what you took from me
I came out in 1908 to buy a piece of paradise
And opened up a general store
They had a fancy yacht to bring the people down from Portland
Until the roads came to the shore.
Bayocean, city by the sea
Gonna take it back, what you took from me
They built one jetty to the North to make the journey safe
They said we needed two, but the price was too steep
The Army Corps of Engineers won a suit that changed the tides
Could have saved our town but we were just too cheap.
The last house fell in that great storm swell
It took the post office, the Dance Hall, and what was left of the hotel
And then in ‘53 it took your health as well
I watched my paradise turn to hell
If I could stay, Oh, if I could stay
I’d move heaven and earth before it all get swept away
This is my home, here’s where I belong
And I’ll be damned if I can make it right before it all goes wrong
Now I’m out here everyday with my wheelbarrow and spade
Building back my dream that washed away
Sand, earth, and till, will bend to my will
The ocean is a beast that I can tame
Bayocean, goddamned the waves
Gonna take it back, make it great again
Bayocean, city by the sea
Gonna take it back, what you took from me
If I could stay, Oh, if I could stay
I’d move heaven and earth before it all gets swept away
This is my home, here’s where I belong
And I’ll be damned if I can make it right before it all goes wrong
If I could stay, Oh, if I could stay
I’d move heaven and earth before it all gets swept away
This is my home, here’s where I belong
And I’ll be damned if I can make it right before it all goes wrong
If I could stay, Oh, if I could stay
I’d move heaven and earth before it all gets swept away
This is my home, here’s where I belong
And I’ll be damned if I can make it right before it all goes wrong
If I could stay, Oh, if I could stay
I’d move heaven and earth before it all gets swept away
This is my home, here’s where I belong
And I’ll be damned if I can make it right before it all goes wrong
Musical narration by Wonderly
Art and animation by Karen Wippich