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34 (song)

"
  1. 34"
Song by Dave Matthews Band
from the album Under the Table and Dreaming
Released September 27, 1994
Recorded Bearsville Studios,
Genre Rock
Length 5:00
Label RCA
Songwriter(s) David J. Matthews
Haines Fullerton
Carter Beauford
Leroi Moore
Producer(s) Steve Lillywhite
Under the Table and Dreaming track listing
"Pay for What You Get"
(11)
"
  1. 34"
    (12)
Audio sample
#34

"#34" is a song by Dave Matthews Band, featured as an instrumental piece on their debut album, Under the Table and Dreaming. The song was inspired by and written for Miguel Valdez, a percussionist who collaborated with the band in 1992 and died due to hepatitis in 1993.Dave Matthews co-wrote the song with LeRoi Moore, Carter Beauford and Haines Fullerton, another collaborator, who later took his own life in September 1996. On the album, the song is "hidden" as track number 34, with 22 blank tracks between it and the previous track, "Pay for What You Get."

"#34" was named as it was the thirty-fourth song recorded by the band, similar to the band's later songs "#36," "#40," and "#41." It is in 27/8 time signature or 3 cycles of 9/8, and changes to 6/8 and 11/8 during the chorus. The song debuted live in February 1993 and was played a total of nine times at various shows up until March of that year. Each performance lasted around eight-and-a-half minutes and featured lyrics sung by Dave Matthews. The lyrics of the song were unstructured and varied slightly throughout its nine live performances. The theme of the song's lyrics were initially about love, however they were later based around themes of death. When the band recorded the song for Under the Table and Dreaming in September 1994, lyrics were recorded, but were removed for the album.

After the live performances in 1993 and the studio recording in 1994, "#34" had not been played live by the band, except for a small tease at the beginning of a show in 2002. At the beginning of the band's summer tour in June 2005, the song was once teased again at two different shows, and then in July the song was almost completely played, but it was still much shorter than length of entire the song. Finally, on July 9, 2005, "#34" was fully played again live for the first time in over 12 years; however, it was played instrumentally, similar to its version on the album. The previous live performance of the song took place exactly 1442 shows prior, totaling a 4491-day period since the last performance, making it the band's all-time longest return of a live song performance. "#34" returned for a total 11 performances that year in its instrumental form and can be found on the live album on Weekend on the Rocks, which is from the band's four-night stand at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.


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