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
The crooners sang “you’re nobody till somebody loves you,” and that can sound really quite heartless when you think about it.
But I’ve been thinking about other things lately, things that have influenced the writing of this song.
“Nothing stands alone” is this year’s topic for Richard Rohr’s daily meditations, which I read most days.
“We are all in this together. We are all in this alone,” sang Pierce Pettis in “Just Like Jim Brown.”
Every morning I roll out of bed and spend about 45 minutes doing exercises for a slightly arthritic knee, while listening to James Finley’s “Turning to the Mystics” podcast. Probably most of the reason I listen is for Finley’s voice and presence, and I know that things he’s said and ways he’s said them have contributed to this song.
The music came from a melody and chord progression I had rejected on my way to writing “Remember December.” I liked it enough to save the idea for future reference, and this week that musical idea and the #songaweek2022 weekly prompt (“standing in the doorway”) gave me enough to go on to pull this song together.
Frustrating technical difficulties with sharing this video here, but if you click on it you should be able to watch normally. It is more than a gray screen!
There must be something I could say to you There must be something more that I could do After all we’re all in this alone Standing in the doorway leaving home
Somebody Somebody Somebody loves you
You’ve got the freedom and you’ve got the right So go on and be the one to shine the light After all we’re all a little scared Standing at the bottom of the stairs
Somebody . . . loves you
And you’re not going anywhere without that love
After all we’re nothing on our own Everything keeps breathing through our bones
Well here I go making another cat video! It might be my way of dealing with the fact that I love cats but my beloved partner is allergic and so it’s best for us not to have one in our house.
I’ve always loved this William Blake poem and have tried a couple previous times to set it to music. This week I succeeded (in my estimation). Would be so fun to have Nathan (the aforementioned allergy sufferer) add a wall of guitars but his (non-music) work life has gotten busier so he doesn’t often have the time.
So I used this little hack he taught me – I recorded my acoustic guitar onto two separate tracks – one from a condenser microphone for the acoustic sound, and one from a line plugged into the guitar. I then added my recording software’s default electric amp sound to the guitar line track, which gave me an electric guitar sound to mix along with the acoustic sound. I tried to mark this visually by flipping the video of the “electric” guitar as that track came up higher in the mix. (Flipping also looked cool when I overlaid it with the bass video.)
The video also incorporates some public domain artworks of tigers, which I’ll list in order of their appearance below the words of the poem (below the video). I found all of the art on wikiart.org.
Tyger, tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And, when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears, And water’d heaven with their tears, Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee?
Tyger, tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
“Tiger’s Head” (Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1874) “Tiger and Snake” (Eugene Delacroix, 1862) “Tiger and Lion Hunting” (Peter Paul Rubens, 1615 or 1616) “A Young Tiger Playing With Its Mother” (Eugene Delacroix, 1831) “Tiger” (Ito Jakuchu, 1755) “Tiger” (Utagawa Kunisada, 1830) “Tiger” (Eugene Delacroix, 1830)
Julia Bloom 