Surrender Love

singing birds on the street, and all is well,
storm's coming up to fill it
sky is white, the colour of hope,
the colour of surrender
surrender, love, surrender
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have a drink with the lads, and lasses fair
we'll toast you with the last
stood here like lines of a song
lined up to surrender
surrender, love, surrender
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hold on to all you need
and all that you know
i'll hold on to you, and then
we let go
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now the rain's on the ground, the road's aglow
footlights on a stage
curtain falls, then curtain calls
calling for surrender
surrender, love, surrender
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hold on to all you know
and all that you need
i'll hold on to you, and then
we -
surrender, love, surrender
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yesterday was a good day. i got some stuff done. worked on the new songs, tweaking words and trying to memorize. then i got an email offerring a wee gig from the folks at Mariposa, chuffed that they thought of me. life is good.

i was standing on the porch, where i often get inspiration, listening to the birds' beautiful "there's a storm coming" racket.

sure enough, the first line came to me, and i had the verse in a few minutes.

the rolling waltz rhythm felt really good, like a drinking song. so the second verse had to start with "have a drink.." this verse has proved the most difficult to finish, which is often the way - the first verse comes easily, but with it i impose the form on the remaining verses. it's harder to fit words to a structure than to have the words create it.

i thought about making it a verse-only song, as the fifth-line "tag" acts as something of a mini-chorus, but decide it needed a bridge, to add interest.

the bridge felt good, but after i wrote the last verse, i wanted to repeat it, so it became a chorus. typical for me, though, i changed it - sorry, folks, i know you like the repetition, but it's not really a sing-alongable refrain.

i switched the need/know lines to give me a rhyme for the one-word last line, "we - " which hangs there for a moment before i wrap with the tag line. feels good.

You and I

you and i, we started out all right

clearer heads prevailed in the light

it's taken years to figure all this out

for you to come and layer it with doubt

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when you crawled out of the sea

not much more than possibility

to blinding light and burning sand

a world for you to understand

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(refrain) please hear me out / it can't wait

the way i see it, we might be too late

please help me out / don't do me in

everyone will lose out in the end

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you left a mark everywhere you walked

a pile of bones, horses carved in chalk

you used me at every step

with a willingness to forget

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then brother moon hit you on the head

you became aware of what you did

pulling tides, pushing seas

do you remember what you used to be?

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please hear me out / it can't wait

the way i see it, we might be too late

please help me out / don't do me in

everyone will lose out in the end

-

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this is the latest co-write with my Dotted Lines bandmate Aaron Howes. as usual, it's his music, and this time he had the first verse and the refrain. which was very good, because this lyric would never have been written by me on my own.

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if i had to put him in a box, i might say that Aaron is, among many other cool things, a left-leaning, right-thinking vegetarian environmentalist, with a whole lot of integrity, and, thank god, a sense of humour. he spends quite a bit of time thinking about these things, and doing what he can to improve our world. so it's quite natural that he start a song about it, with a Neil Young sort of sound.

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and i didn't have much trouble getting the gist and finishing three verses. Aaron has already been performing it solo, and we've talked about how to make it work with the band. i think i will probably do it on my own as well.

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which is a bonus, as i would never have written it on my own. there are so many well-intentioned topical/political/protest songs out there that make me squirm at their earnestness and indignation - i don't even think about attempting it. but, with a little help, i think this one is both pithy and palatable.

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thanks Aaron!

Sirens

i met her on the docks
all that bread on the water
she looked like a mermaid's daughter
and the sirens went off
and a storm came up
but we stayed on the rail
and now that ship has sailed. sailed.
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we lived at the beach
all that metal in the sand
got so hot, we couldn't stand it
prices went up
i got laid off
we'd share a pint of ale
and now that ship has sailed. sailed.
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we moved down the coast
all those lights behind us
where the shadows find us
and the fog came down
and it killed the sound
of lovers on the rails
and now that ship has sailed
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i watched her drift away
all that blue horizon
her setting sun, for me is rising
and the water's sound
ebbing down:
"you failed, you failed"
now that ship has sailed. sailed.
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and that, folks, is all he wrote. nine songs in 27 days. the challenge was 14 in 29. but that ship sailed days ago.
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i jinxed myself when i only had one left to write for the album, thinking and writing that it would be over soon. what i hadn't considered was why this particular song was being written last - ie. i hadn't come up with an idea for it.
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the missing number was a response to Fred's song "Ship": "Lord, if you could find me a place to land, / My ship needs to come in". how brilliant is that?
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the harder i tried to come up with something, the more i realized that i was exhausted from the first eight. so i quit trying and gave myself a rest.
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and it worked, by gum - my ship came in. i wrote this tonight in about seventy minutes, with Eaglesmith's voice in my head. my Fredhead.
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thank you Fred Eaglesmith. thank you Susan F., who kicked me off.
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and thanks to you few beauties for joining me on the ride. i can't wait to play them for you.

Moon and Sun

the moon used to fool us

and we still say it "shines"

when we know it's reflecting

the sun beyond the pines

-

and it's the same for me

people think i'm fine

sometimes i'm the only one who knows

it's because you're mine

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(refrain) i'm the moon to your sun

mirror to your light

you are the dawn at the end of my night

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the world throws a shadow

at the ever-changing moon

hard to know at night

the sun is coming soon

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and it's the same for me

dark before the dawn

sometimes i'm the only one who knows

the dark side you are on

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(refrain)

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(coda) and the stars we can share

there's thousands of you out there

sister stars

everywhere

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(refrain)

-

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i wrote this song in a couple of hours tonight, after taking a break for two days. all i did was let the image roll around in my head, without writing anything down.

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it's a response to Fred's "Tunnel": "she lights the light at the end of the tunnel". Eaglesmith is a master at putting a spin on well-known phrases and images to make them fresh and interesting. it's something i strive for myself.

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i needed to find another metaphor to say a similar thing, so i stole an idea from another great Canadian writer, Lynn Miles. her song is "I'm the Moon": "You're the sun, I'm the moon".

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Deb and i have always loved this song, and it's one of very few we play together. it has a rolling drum beat that Deb kills on the cajon. and it suits our personalities - if you can't guess, i'm the moon - the one with a dark side, and a shiny one, thanks to the sun. Deb is the positive one, who shines her light on my darkness.

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when i got two verses and the refrain, and was wondering how or whether i should continue - another verse? bridge and verse? - i found it a bit black-and-white. so i added some grey by changing the last line of verse two to suggest that she, like everyone, also has a dark side, while helping me to dispel mine.

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then an idea for a coda to add something universal to the personal, ie. women, "sister stars", who shine on their respective planets and moons.

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there are ten songs on "Dusty". i've now written eight for the current project, and i had previously written another, "Ridin' the Fences", as a direct response to the album. so i only need one more. it will be interesting to see whether i continue with FAWM towards 14 total for February, once i write a response to the tenth, "Ship", which is another common metaphor, turned beautifully by Mr. Eaglesmith. perhaps i shouldn't be counting chickens - "my ship needs to come in".

400 NORTH

four hundred dances, it felt like tonight

we just couldn't stop

they were playin' our favourites, start to end

we yelled "turn it up!"

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(refrain) but silence is good, and what's under the hood

will get us over this hilltop dome

and a river of light falls into sight

here we are, half-way home

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i swear there's four hundred pickups, haulin' Skidoos

lookin' for the snow

who knows why they love that noise

but i could tell you what i know

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(refrain)

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of the four hundred things i could say in this darkness

to move you, north with me

"i love you" would be the first and the last,

and a few times in between

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(refrain)

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(coda) it's less than an hour now

you just close your eyes

i will wake you for

the next river of light

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there are random times when Deb and i have the same thought, and there is a particular place where we always do. it's on the 400 freeway north, where, over the crest of a hill, you can see a ribbon of headlights snaking down the curving hill in the southbound lanes, and the thought we share is "and the river of cars / they fall like stars / down the I-75". killer line from the song named after the interstate.

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one small thing that bothers me about Fred Eaglesmith is that his geographical images, and inspiration, i suppose, are almost all American - on this album, it's Texas, the I-75, Wichita, Oklahoma. his music is quite correctly called "Americana".

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this song is an hommage to our favourite cut on "Dusty" - my lyric could be sung to Fred's melody, fairly easily. but i make it personal, and hopeful, and drag it into central Ontario.

i wanted to change "river of cars" to "ribbon of light", but Deb lobbied successfully to stick with "river".

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that killer line is a great example of rule-breaking behaviour, the outcome of which is stronger and better than what he might have come up with by following the picky standards some of us like to set for ourselves: 1. the grammar is questionable, ie. singular "river", plural "cars", plural verb form even 'though it's "river of cars"; and 2. he piles a simile on top of a metaphor in the same line.

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it's brilliant. but i doubt there's any planning involved - i think Fred just doesn't care much for conventions. he writes a lot of songs - a friend of his quotes him as saying "i write fifteen songs before breakfast" - and performs and records the ones that work.

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so that's song number seven, less than half-way through the month. "Here we are, half-way home."

LOOKIN' FOR RAINBOWS

what are you supposed to do, when there's nothing to be done

even the shadows are a gift from the sun

it ain't rained in a while, but the crops are fine

plenty of fish in the creek

and the best one on the line

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(refrain) don't go lookin' for rainbows

you've already got the gold

don't go tellin' stories you already know

don't dream of another, it'll leave you cold

don't go lookin' for rainbows

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what are you supposed to say, when you think you've said it all

say it again, and again you'll fall

tell her you're glad she got hold of you

this time on the phone, and the first time too

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refrain

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(coda)here's what you're supposed to do:

find the one who's good for you

say it right and make it true

and don't go lookin' for rainbows
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i know, it's not great. i took a day off to help some friends, and i lost the groove.

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that's my excuse, anyway. i'm writing with enough confidence to expect that what i'll end up with is good, so when it's not, well...

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i knew that Fred's "Rainbows" would be a difficult song to start from, but i was keen to do it, once again, against the grain. i've stolen the first lines of each verse, but my larceny goes way deeper. i'm using some of his phrasing style, and definitely bits of melody - all these things add up to the "feel". i want to steal that feel.

"feel" wasn't enough on this one. it might get changed for the better after i've played it a bunch of times.

Hey Darlin'

hey, hey darlin'

the wind from Santa Ana

is blowing through my ears

and messin' with my mind

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hey, hey darlin'

it moves that dress you're wearin'

and wild shining hair

it looks like you're still tryin'

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(refrain) hey, hey darlin' / do you wonder i'm confused?

today you're all seduction / Last night i was feelin' used

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hey, hey darlin'

those boots might be walkin'

but they looks so good

underneath my bed

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hey, hey darlin'

to stay don't mean a long time

i feel like i've done mine

here inside my head

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(refrain)

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hey, hey darlin'

the wind from Santa Ana

is blowing you away

right out of my mind

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hey, hey darlin'

that dress you're wearin'

looks better from the back

and you're not even tryin'

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(refrain)

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ooh that was fun. to write something that is transparently a rip-off is very freeing.

"Hey Baby" is Fred's forlorn, sexy account of the end of love. i built the whole feel of my song by stealing his line "that dress you're wearin".

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once again, i chose to change it mostly with the male character, while still lost because of love, at least realizing he is better off out of it.

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it feels like something i will love to sing. once i learn it.