Follow Brigham West
Explosive glam hard rock with a fast, theatrical opening, bright overdriven electric guitars, flashy lead fills, pounding rock drums, muscular bass, swaggering male vocals, dramatic 1970s arena-rock energy, high tension, flashy and mischievous, punchy stop-start dynamics, vivid stereo guitar movement, big chorus lift, raw analog feel, confident, decadent, urgent, riff-driven, showy but dangerous
Follow Brigham West
Explosive glam hard rock with a fast, theatrical opening, bright overdriven electric guitars, flashy lead fills, pounding rock drums, muscular bass, swaggering male vocals, dramatic 1970s arena-rock energy, high tension, flashy and mischievous, punchy stop-start dynamics, vivid stereo guitar movement, big chorus lift, raw analog feel, confident, decadent, urgent, riff-driven, showy but dangerous
Lyrics
Title: Follow Brigham West
Intro
Nauvoo shivers, kingdom cracked
Prophet’s blood and the sky turned black
Crowds all whisper, “Who gets the throne?”
Every wolf in Zion wants the chair his own
Verse 1
Temple stones and a river wind
Widows cry and the knives grin
August heat and a funeral taste
Every holy man wants to take the place
Sidney Rigdon came struttin’ in
Talkin’ guardian, pale and thin
James Strang waved his letter high
Said heaven chose him by and by
William Smith had the family name
Half the city looked half insane
But Brigham stood with a flintstone jaw
And dared them all to challenge law
Pre-Chorus
He didn’t come with a grieving song
He came like a hammer, hard and long
Said pack your wagons, bite the rein
There’s blood behind and dust ahead
Chorus
Follow Brigham west!
Out beyond the Lord’s unrest!
Cross the mud, the ice, the plain
Trade your dead for a promise and pain
Follow Brigham west!
He would not give the people rest
Many wives and an iron hand
Dragging a kingdom to a salt-white land
Verse 2
He told the Saints, “This town is done
The fire’s lit and the jackals come
You want peace? Then leave it all
Brick by brick let Nauvoo fall”
So the mothers wept and the old men stared
At the fields and the homes they’d repaired
He spoke of basins, peaks, and sky
Like God lived where the gulls would fly
Rigdon thundered, Strang made claims
Each one reaching for Joseph’s flame
But Brigham knew what the others lacked
A spine like rawhide, a mind like an axe
He had power, he had nerve
He knew exactly how to serve
His own ambition dressed in grace
With heaven’s thunder on his face
Pre-Chorus
No gentle shepherd, no tender dove
This was rule wrapped up in love
A lion’s growl in a preacher’s vest
Pointing the flock to the barren west
Chorus
Follow Brigham west!
Out beyond the Lord’s unrest!
Cross the mud, the ice, the plain
Trade your dead for a promise and pain
Follow Brigham west!
He would not give the people rest
Many wives and an iron hand
Dragging a kingdom to a salt-white land
Bridge
Nauvoo behind them, smoke in the lung
Children hungry, wagon tongues
Frozen camps and the river black
No easy road and no turnin’ back
Say what you want, the man could drive
Keep a movement half-dead alive
But every crown has a serpent seam
And every prophet can hide a scheme
Breakdown
How many women?
How many vows?
How many halos broken down?
How many men bowed low in line
While he built his throne in the desert shine?
Final Chorus
Follow Brigham west!
Through the grief and the wilderness!
Sidney shouted, Strang proclaimed
But Brigham played the harder game
Follow Brigham west!
He carved command into every chest
Many wives and an iron hand
Marching the Saints to the Great Basin land
Outro
So raise no glass and spare no myth
He was steel and he was pith
The day he spoke, Nauvoo went numb
And the long hard exodus had begun