Our Year

Our Year.mp3

This is the current view of my backyard. Only add about 4 inches, maybe. No work today! So I thought I'd post a song.

Our Year
words and music by Liza Swart

Chasing down these miles of endless highway
The darkness of the road is on my mind
You never were the kind to see it my way
Just bind it up and keep it all inside

But it's almost here
This will be our year

I suffer from no lack of inhibition
Would you see the meaning of my words
There's nothing so beyond our definition
After all the sky was made for birds

And if you learn to fly
Love, you know, I'm coming right behind

Just a little bit
Just a little bit of you
Just a little bit
Oh love, you know we'll see it through
Just a little bit
Just a little bit of you
Just a little bit
Oh love, it's all that I can do

Picking up the threads of conversation
You know I'm always sleeping when you call
Understanding little of our nation
We conjecture when the empire will fall

But you know my mind
That's the end of sleep I will see tonight

Just a little bit
Just a little bit of you
Just a little bit
Oh love, you know we'll see it through
Just a little bit
Just a little bit of you
Just a little bit
It's all that I can do

Yes, this is the one lacking a bridge- I kind of fudge it a little with that last transition between the choruses. It also really needs some backing keys, but as I'm horrible/have no way to record them, it doesn't get any. Opinions?

Our Year.mp3

All We Need Is Some Love

ALL WE NEED IS SOME LOVE.mp3 [02.02.07] - completely re-recorded/updated w/harmonica break and raised in pitch.

ALL WE NEED IS SOME LOVE.mp3 [01.25.07] - w/drums!

ALL WE NEED IS SOME LOVE.mp3 [01.15.07]

VERSE
in the dark of the night
through the thickest fight
when you've got nothing to give

when the things that you hold
leave you shattered and cold
and you forget how to live

CHORUS
All you need is some love
A little help from above
When all hope is gone
All we need is some love

VERSE
when you sleep all alone
with a hand on the phone
wondering when it will ring

and you wish on that star
doesn't matter how far
'cause you'd give anything

CHORUS
What you need is some love
A little help from above
When you can't carry on
All we need is some love

BRIDGE [not sure about these lyrics at this point]
Never let the darkness in this world
Take away your spirit and your hope
Never stop believing in the day'
That violence and hatred won't be found

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK [as verse]

CHORUS
All you need is some love
A little help from above
When all hope is gone
All we need is some love

What you need is some love
What you need is some love
When all hope is gone
All we need is some love

All we need is some...
All we need is some...
All we need is some...
All we need is some Love

The Story of "All We Need Is Some Love"

This one has come about by simply playing a chord progression over and over the past few days. Oddly, for me, the chorus came first. I'd just sit here and hum some melodies over it and one seemed to be begging to be sung. Once I had the chord progression and melody somewhat nailed down, it seemed to me that the song was wanting to speak to this theme of love and hope. I've said many times that I don't really feel like I "write" songs, I just discover them. Peeling away the covering until it shines through. It pays to learn how to listen for the song, I suppose.

Once I had a basic chorus idea, I set to work on the verses. These came much slower (probably because I don't usually write them after the chorus). I made a conscious effort to keep the melody for the verses a bit lower and quieter (dynamically). Once I had hummed enough melodies and chosen one, I put the "meat on the bones" and wrote a couple of simple verse lyrics. All the while, trying to speak to this universal theme of love and hope.

This is very "naked" and bare. All my vocal and creative weaknesses are there for your perusal. In this take (one of the first), I was more concerned with the phrasing of the lyrics in relation to the music than how I was singing (obviously). I have a long way to go before I know how to perform this song. Being able to play it once and perform it are two different things, I think.

In the end, I can hear lots of soaring background vocals and organ as the song swells to it's climax, which I hear happening right in the middle of the last (longer) chorus.

But for now, here is a *very* rough/bare/naked draft of...

ALL WE NEED IS SOME LOVE.mp3 [02.02.07] - completely re-recorded/updated w/harmonica break and raised in pitch.

ALL WE NEED IS SOME LOVE.mp3 [01.25.07] - w/drums!

ALL WE NEED IS SOME LOVE.mp3 [01.15.07]

Thanks for listening,
John

Rivers

Had some nice quiet/candle/guitar time in the Man-Cave™ tonight. This is what came out.

Thanks for checking it out,
John



RIVERS.mp3 - [12.26.06]

Sitting in a seaside bar right next to Mexico
Pretty girl pulls up and smiles and says to me
"I can tell your future for a fifty dollar bill
or I can make you smile right now for free"

All the people that we meet
Rivers flowing endlessly

Sixteen degrees and no one else is on the road
Drifter up ahead, I slow and let him in (he said)
"I could tell you stories that would make you laugh for hours
But hell if I remember where I've been"

All these mem'ries that we keep
Rivers flowing endlessly

[instrumental break]

Little girl says "daddy can you play me your guitar?"
I just smile and nod my head (she said)
"You should write a simple song that makes me want to sing
And play it for me when I go to sleep"

All these reasons we believe
Rivers flowing...

Endlessly

[instrumental ending]

Struggling with a new one

Ok, I wasn't going to post anything about this one until it was done. But...

I've got two pretty good stanzas of lyrics (I think). Also have some nice music to go with. It's a bit harder to write when the music comes first, but I usually just sit and hum until I find a melody. Then the words come. I know this is kind of a bass-ackwards way of writing, but I've done a few really nice songs over the years this way.

Anyway... here's what I have. Maybe the evolution of this song will be inspiring to others here. Maybe not.

Verse 1
Sitting in a seaside bar right next to Mexico
Pretty girl pulls up and smiles and says to me
"I can tell your future for a fifty dollar bill
or I can make you smile right now for free"

All the people that we meet
River flowing endlessly

Verse 2
Sixteen degrees and no one else is on the road
drifter up ahead, I slow and let him in (he said)
"I could tell you stories that would make you laugh for hours
but hell if I remember where I've been"

All these mem'ries that we keep
River flowing endlessly

People Are Pictures: The Song That Started The Rolling Ball

Here are the lyrics for my first offering.

PEOPLE ARE PICTURES.mp3 - [12.22.06]

People are pictures, some of them fixtures in our minds
Some of them fading, sometimes the films exposed to the light
I can’t get bitter, while there’s a flicker I will hold on
And when there is crying, I will stare straight up into the sun

Make yourself at home, it’s not cold here
Make yourself at home stay all night
There’s no expectation, there’s no expectation…
…that you’re ever coming back, ever coming back, ever coming
…that you’re ever coming back, ever coming back, ever coming

[short instrumental break]

People are pictures, some of them fixtures in our minds
The ones that keep stayin’, those are the ones we think of at night
Don’t let it break you, you will see colors that you’ve never seen
‘cause what awaits you, is the picture, the light, and shakin’ tambourines.