Ah, here is a song whose writing has brought me deep and (velvety starry-night) dark joy. Made extra special with Nathan’s impromptu joining in on harmonica and vocals (and production support on audio and film recording).
For Week 9 #songaweek2022, whose prompt was “wheels in motion.” I started the song apart from the prompt but drew on it to generate the second verse.
Here comes the sunshine Here comes the springtime Here I go again trying to find the words to say it all
I hear the birds sing I see the snow flow I taste the afternoon, swallowing it slowly as I go
Nothing ever held me like you do Nothing feels the way I feel because of you You’re the one who keeps me coming back to life You’re the darkest deepest lovely light
Wheels in motion Waves on the ocean Blood and breath and bones making up the music as we go
Moon watching over Winter retreating A wondrous gift is given, how silently, how silently it comes
Nothing ever held me like you do Nothing feels the way I feel because of you You’re the one who keeps me coming back to life You’re the darkest deepest lovely light
Still getting in the groove of writing and recording a song each week while now working a day job every weekday. This week I started several song ideas and just couldn’t land anything I was happy with, so I turned to my list of poems I’d like to songify, and this one by Emily Dickinson fit the bill. I think it’s the third of hers I’ve set to music now.
Also, I didn’t post yet about last week’s song, so here it is below. The suggested prompt was “kaleidoscope dreams” and I had fun writing a short rompy song with it, but probably nothing I’ll ever do much more with.
The chords and melody are central to this song. I considered making it instrumental only. The only lyrics I could imagine working would be something antiquated, as if the song itself is old, because that’s how it felt to me as I was writing it. But then I came up with these lyrics, and their simplicity grew on me. It felt like maybe this is what something I know as antiquated might have felt like when it was first sung.
“No windows” was the prompt for this week 6 of #songaweek2022. I didn’t use it but I did record it in my windowless basement studio. With my little studio buddy at my feet (watch till the end to get a glimpse!).
It’s going to be alright, it’s going to be okay It’s been a restless night but now it’s almost day Go back to sleep a while, you’re going to make it through You are my own dear child and I will sing to you
It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be alright It’s been a long hard day but gently comes the night Soon you will sleep a while, you’re going to make it through You are my own dear child and I will sing to you
I’ve just started working a day job again after several years of not. It’s part-time but it’s every weekday, and this past week was my first full week on the job, so I planned certain pockets of the day for songwriting and hoped for the best. My first songwriting session felt like treading molasses. Several little starts into something that bogged down and went nowhere.
It would have been fine to not come up with a song this week, giving myself extra bandwidth to absorb new responsibilities, but thankfully another session turned up something more promising and then I was able to finish the song in one more session and record it the next day. So that Wednesday night the whole weekly songwriting/recording/posting process (except writing this blog post) was complete!
The tune came first on this one, and my first lyrics turned out to be throwaway but good stepping stones. I was picturing rollicking sailors hoisting beers and saying “never” a lot. Here are some of my actual first draft lyrics:
Oh you never gave in and you never gave out / And you never considered the cost / It was better back then but you never did doubt . . . You were older than the stars / You were dancing with the light . . . You were running with the bulls / You were dancing with the fools . . . Paint a girl on your back and another up front / On your chest for the whole world to see
Yup, lyric writing can be a wild and goofy ride.
Eventually I turned to an older lyric idea I’d never finished, and worked it to fit this tune. That was verse one, and then the #songaweek2022 Week 5 prompt “used to think it was” got me into the second verse. Then some fun with words for the last verse.
You look like a song and you sound like sunshine You touch me like gentle perfume You smell like the rain and you fall like fire You taste like the silvery moon
You are how I know there’s more than the way I know the world
I used to think it was impossible To feel this light and free Then I left second-guessing and never went back And the rest is history
This is what I know for now So it’s what I sing about
Run away with me love on the tip of your tongue Through a trail of residual starlight It’s an elegant joke, it’s irrelevant smoke It’s a nursery rhyme crossed with a bar fight
It’s as clear as broken bells All this nothing much to tell
This was one of those weeks (Week 4 #songaweek2022) when I used the prompt (“we win”) and it actually helped me get started on the song (thus the whole first verse with soldiers and a battle).
Playing with the wording of classic fairy tale beginning and ending phrases (“once in a while upon a time” and “happily ever after it all”) led me to write the whole song with a fairy tale kind of feel to it.
The first line of the parting couplet came to me in the middle of the night and felt right for this song (“that moment between letting go and hitting the ground”).
One thought, after I had already posted the song – I would change the wording in the last chorus to “this isn’t a story for you to tell on your own.” I noticed that there’s interior rhyme in the other two choruses (“this isn’t a BATtle you HAVE to worry about” and “this isn’t a SEcret you NEED to keep to yourself”) – so I wanted it in the last one too (“this isn’t a STORy FOR you . . . “). Which interestingly enough was my first draft of that line anyway. Hats off to the subconscious!
Oh, also I went with this “comic mono” filter in iMovie to add to the fairy tale feel. Not always a fan of the comic filters but it felt right here.
Once in a while upon a time Brave little soldiers stand in a line Armed to the teeth, hearts in their throats Earth’s firm enigma under their boots
This isn’t a battle you have to worry about We’re all on the same side and we win
Small ones are sleeping deep in the woods Tall trees are dreaming over their heads Fungus is feeding on all we forgot Water is reaching slowly through rock
This isn’t a secret you need to keep to yourself We’re all on the outside looking in
Now is the moment, here is the place True is the smile creasing my face I’ve struggled and suffered and still I recall Happily ever after it all
This isn’t a story that you must [for you to] tell on your own We’re all here deciding how it ends
That moment between letting go and hitting the ground That’s what we call life, that’s us for now
Julia Bloom 