New song lyrics.

[Jakedog]

Did a writers night last night. Didn’t know I was doing it til 4pm and it kicked off at 7:30. I guess every time they do it there’s a theme, and at least one song of everyone’s allotment of three has to be related to the theme. Last night’s theme was “water”. I have a couple of older songs I could have shoe-horned in there and gotten away with it, but did I make it easy on myself? Nope. Lol.

I saw “water”, which made me think “ocean”, which made me think of my friend David Childers song “Prettiest Thing”. You might know it by The Avett Bros. This song is really nothing like that, but the last line of the chorus is a nod to him for the inspiration.

The whole thing took me less than two hours for music and lyrics, starting from dead nothing. I was half way through writing it before I even figured out the poor woman was dead.



Annabelle Island
G.S. Harper 2023

Waves come in
Tide goes out
Sun comes up
And the seagulls shout
Where the sky is blue,
And the water's green
Second prettiest things
I have ever seen

You owned my heart
The day you took my hand
And walked beside me
There along the sand
That dollar you found,
I hope you keep it close
Of all the things I've misplaced
I miss you the most

When the waves come in
And the tide goes out
The sun goes down
And the seagulls shout
Where the sky is blue
And the water's green
Second prettiest things
I have ever seen

I hope you still keep seashells
On your windowsill
I hope you still love
And I hope you love me still
I hope your bed stays warm
When the gales blow cold
I swear I hear your voice
Every time the breakers roll

-chorus-

Those years with you
In the lighthouse on the shore
Through the summer storms
And through the ocean's roar
Through the siren songs
From the cold, dark, deep
These are the memories
That send me off to sleep

When I lay me down
And hope to die before I wake
And I pray to Calypso
My weary soul to take
So I can walk with you
By the water calm and green
By the Annabelle lighthouse
Forever in my dreams

But the waves come in,
And the tide goes out
The sun comes up
And the seagulls shout
Where the sky is blue
And the water's green
Second prettiest things
I have ever seen

 

[adjason]

pretty song

 

[Jakedog]

pretty song

Thank you.

 

[drumtime]

Nice! At 2 hours per song, you could put out 3 albums a week, and still have weekends off.

 

[Jakedog]

Nice! At 2 hours per song, you could put out 3 albums a week, and still have weekends off.

Right? If only they all happened like that!

 

[RodeoTex]

I could sing it to a melody in my head as I read the lyrics. Probably my melody was wrong, but it worked.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Good stuff. Thanks!

I've thought of getting my son-writing friends together, but folks are too busy and far-flung. (Except for me. I'm retired, and I'm right here.)

 

[blowtorch]

that is really good.
so many folks neglect this aspect of the craft of the musician- to me it's the most important one.
the rest of it is basically trained monkey mechanics

the best songs take relatively very little time to write, ime, and the ones you struggle with for months and years are never too great despite all the work and time invested
I wonder if you find the same

 

[Harry Styron]

that is really good.
so many folks neglect this aspect of the craft of the musician- to me it's the most important one.
the rest of it is basically trained monkey mechanics

the best songs take relatively very little time to write, ime, and the ones you struggle with for months and years are never too great despite all the work and time invested
I wonder if you find the same

Jake dog’s lyric has these two essential qualities:
1. the words used are simple, images that are universal
2. it is about only one emotion, which is longing.

For me, the word “misplaced“ seems a bit off, since it implies that the singer did something to lose the lover, which seems inconsistent with the theme of lost love. However, Jakedog may have intended that implication, which is his right as the creator. Using the word “lost” instead of “misplaced“ would seem to be more neutral To me, but possibly less interesting.

Blowtorch’s good point is that songs written quickly may be better than songs fussed over for years. I believe that this is often true with respect to lyrics when the writer‘s idea (or inspiration) is clear and gets off to a good start. The song can progress and develop quickly without tangents.

 

[telekaster1999]

Nice. I was singing it while reading it.

 

[Jakedog]

Jake dog’s lyric has these two essential qualities:
1. the words used are simple, images that are universal
2. it is about only one emotion, which is longing.

For me, the word “misplaced“ seems a bit off, since it implies that the singer did something to lose the lover, which seems inconsistent with the theme of lost love. However, Jakedog may have intended that implication, which is his right as the creator. Using the word “lost” instead of “misplaced“ would seem to be more neutral To me, but possibly less interesting.

Blowtorch’s good point is that songs written quickly may be better than songs fussed over for years. I believe that this is often true with respect to lyrics when the writer‘s idea (or inspiration) is clear and gets off to a good start. The song can progress and develop quickly without tangents.

The use of “misplaced” is more a dig at the human condition. We don’t use words that make us uncomfortable in day to day life. We sugar coat things to shelter ourselves from reality, or to soften blows.

We’ve all lost a loved one. But have we? In reality it’s extremely rare that a human is actually lost to us. They’re not a set a car keys or a cell phone. We didn’t set them down on a park bench and forget them. In reality we know exactly where they are and what happened to them. But using the actual words makes the situation harder for ourselves so we avoid it.

We say someone has “passed on”. Or “passed away”. Or that we’ve “lost” them. We have an entire vocabulary dedicated to avoiding direct confrontation with death. When looked at on the surface it would be no more ridiculous to say we’ve misplaced them.

When I observe this stuff I’ll often use a tool like this to take a little good natured shot at it.

In this case it also allowed for me to use “misplaced” up against “miss” and doubling up on that syllable without repeating the word makes for a catchy phrase. As does the reversal in the lines “I hope you still love, and I hope you love me still”, which does repeat words, but pulls a bootleg 180 in the middle of the street. I dig stuff like that.

 

[MTPoteet]

WOW, wish I could hear the music.

 

[Grandy]

I generarally dislike songs with an analogy after analogy without ever mentioning the actual thing. That kind of distancing is just being too clever and loosing the essence of what ever that is. What makes this work for me and what the key phrase of song in my opinion is, is "the prettiest things I have ever seen." It connects everything together in a great way. Well done Jakedog!

 

[kplamann]

Wonderful.

I'd sing that in the beer bars of France, like I did with another song of yours (with your permission!).

Could we hear the music?

 

[Jakedog]

Wonderful.

I'd sing that in the beer bars of France, like I did with another song of yours (with your permission!).

Could we hear the music?

I don’t have home recording ability beyond crappy iPhone video, but I’ll see what I can do.

And you (and everyone else who feels like it) are more than welcome to cover any song of mine you ever want to. There are loads of them on all the streaming platforms. Go hog wild. Lol. The more people who hear them, the better.