It's the Rest of Your Life

photo courtesy of the city of Pittsburgh,
the sun and my daughters - 2007

This one started to form on October 14th. A couple verses, which did not make the cut, came out very quickly. The chorus idea came shortly after... It's the Rest of Your Life. There have been a lot of things happening in and around my life of late that probably helped bring this song out. I've tried to keep it as "open" as possible. Hoping that many people can relate to the simple idea of "beginning anew". The music is deliberately simple in this one. I struggle a bit with lyric writing and melody (not a good thing for a songwriter), so I decided to use only two chords and try to vary the melodies and focus intensely on the lyrics. I can't remember ever putting more work into lyrics than I have these. Hopefully it'll pay off.

This recording was done after making numerous work tapes as the song progressed. Just felt like this one needed a little better treatment than just a work tape. And, yes, that's my cell phone going off silently at the end. *doh*

Thanks for listening,
John
10/23/07

UPDATE 10/26/07 - Had the chance to rehearse this one with a couple of my ex-band-mates from Seven Bridges the other night. Not often these days that I get to play music with other folks. Dave did a great job of lending some "bottom" to this one with his bass. Lisa added some nice dynamics with backing vocals as well. Even in places where I had not originally heard them. Looks like the three of us will be debuting this one on November 10th at the Baseline Folk Society open mic. I can't wait.
John

It's the Rest of Your Life.mp3

It's the Rest of Your Life
words and music by John Natiw

Well it's time to go
I see it in your eyes
It's a winding road
It's a big surprise

It's the rest of your life
It's the rest of your life

And it starts now
You're born again
No goin' back
To where you've been

Maybe find some hope
Or even something more
It's the time to dream
It's an open door

It's the rest of your life
It's the rest of your life

Maybe see the world
Through different eyes
It's the chance to change
It's a new sunrise

It's the rest of your life
It's the rest of your life
It's the rest of your life
It's the rest of your life

Oooh, yeah
Oooh, yeah

Well it's time to go
I see it in your eyes
It's a winding road
It's a big surprise

An Idea... That's Getting Closer

About a week ago, I posted An Idea Whose Time... Has Not Yet Come. Since then, I've been plunking around with it trying to find out what it wants to be when it grows up. A few days ago an additional part reared its head. I'm just posting the thing here to track the evolution of this song. Whatever it becomes. NOTE: this is a work tape recording, not a "studio take".

07_0925_idea.WMA (2:07)

Carry on.
J

An Idea Whose Time... Has Not Yet Come.

Don't normally do this, but here is an idea I've been working on for a few days. I doubt it'll turn itself into a song by the end of the month, so I'm basically just trying to save face by posting this. This is an instrumental idea (not really a song) at the moment. Some of my tunes start just like this. A single idea. If I play it and listen to it enough I'll come up with some other stuff to go with it. Maybe I'll keep coming back to this post and update any progress that is made with this. Talk about "transparency in the writing process"!

Anyway, give it a listen. It's just the same thing done three times. When I can't come up with a change, melody or lyrics I'll usually make it into a CD and listen to it over and over in my truck until something comes to me. Then it's back into the studio. By the way, I thought enough of this idea to actually record it in the studio. It's just a single mic recording, but a vast improvement over the work tape recordings I usually do. The Martin sounds so good when it's recorded like this. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like in a real studio!

07_0919_idea.mp3

But WAIT... there's MORE! I was sitting around after posting this tonight listening to the work tapes for this song and pondering the "creative process". I really enjoy listening to/reading about people's creative process. Steve's video where he documented the making of a song is a great example of this. In that spirit, I present the work tapes for this idea. Probably not many people will have the patience (it's pretty brutal listening if you're not totally into this sort of thing) to check them all out. But consider them posted here for posterity's sake. These recordings ARE made on my little portable Olympus Digital Recorder. And, as near as I can recall, were made last week over a two or three day period.

Work Tape 1 (3:42) - You can hear the basic idea here as well as a whole lot of hacking away on the Martin which, in the interest of my creative reputation, we'll call "running down the idea". It's funny listening to this now because I can hear bits and pieces that actually made it into the mp3 recording. And, yes, that's my furnace kicking on at about 1:09. Hey, it was cold here in Michigan that day!

Work Tape 2 (1:20) - Mercifully shorter. The C/B/Am transition is becoming more apparent. Also working on the Am ending (which wouldn't feel right until the studio take). Also the hammer on the last Am chord would be kept in the studio take as well.

Work Tape 3 (2:01) - Starts out almost identical to the studio take. Still didn't have the last Am chord worked out (as is painfully obvious from about :57 - 1:30.. ouch!). And, like the last take (and eventually the studio take), I hammer the Am at the end. Only on the studio take would I hammer three strings instead of one.

So there it is. My soul laid bare. Do with it what you will.

And, for the record, if I don't come up with anything by the end of the month, this "idea" will suddenly become a "song".
Out.
J