On the open road, it happened occasionally when we were gearing down, mashing on the accelerator, stepping on the brakes, going downhill, or going uphill.
But intermittently, gearing down, the band presented a song like "Dos Ninos" that sounded as if it had thought about making rock from scratch: experimental, tender and slightly chilly, clearly composed on the piano.
"Tea for Two" began on the lower half of the piano, slowly working its way up to the brighter keys and kept up chorus after chorus of continuous logic, almost obliterating the melody with ornament, then finally gearing down for a cool, spacious interlude.
Maybe it's a sign that the joy ride is gearing down when children who live out of a bag make the front page again, as they did in this paper recently, under the headline "Homeless Shelters in New York Fill to Highest Level Since 80's".
Quickly gearing down to humble the mountain, we rolled on up past blossoming apple orchards.
It seems everywhere you look these days economies are gearing down to much slower speeds.
