The Music I Want You to Hear

I don’t know if this is the same song I started out writing. The words are all there, but somewhere between writing them, testing a web page, walking the dogs, and so on, I lost the melody that I’d originally had. Maybe. This could be it. It works in any case. I do have this weird feeling like I’ve rewritten a song I’ve heard before, but it could just be the inherent familiarities of this style.

I also found the beginning of a bridge between the 2nd and 3rd verses, but whatever melody I had for that was long gone and the lyrics weren’t singing to me anymore. I don’t know that it needs it. I can hear more going on in my mental arrangement, but this is one that I don’t know that I’ll go back to. I do like listening to it. Time will tell.

This is as raw as it gets. One take on the piano (after working it out for about an hour), more than one take on the vocals, but not a lot. No processing, no fixing, and I only re-recorded when I couldn’t make it through a phrase. This was a tough one to sing and play, but here it is, warts and all.

Update: Since posting this track, I’ve gotten several people that say it reminds them of Billy Joel. Not surprising since he’s always been one of my bigger influences. The 6/8 meter and the rolling, story driven delivery are definitely reminiscent of classics like Piano Man. People have also commented that it would be a great sing-a-long song in a bar. Given the subject, that’s both hard to get my head around and comforting at the same time.

Lyrics

I’m writing and writing
 I’ve written a song
 Some music I want you to hear
 It should be exciting
 Instead it’s all wrong
 The circumstances interfere
 I don’t know what to say
 Seems just like yesterday
 Now it’s been over a year, so
 I sit and I play all the music I want you to hear.

 I’m playing and playing
 I’m playing a game
 A game you and I used to share
 It was entertaining
 But now it’s a shame
 Because you’re not in the next chair
 Things used to be so fun
 Two players meant we’d won
 Now it’s a sullen affair, but
 I sit and I play all the games you and I used to share

 I’m thinking and thinking
 I’ve thought of a thought 
 The kind of thought you’d want to know
 I swear I’m not drinking
 Ok, guess I’m caught, but
 You know that ship sailed long ago
 When my vision gets blurred
 I think of how absurd
 It was that you had to go, so
 I sit and I drink and I think thoughts that you’d want to know


 Copyright © 2019 Ray E. Toler, Jr. All rights reserved.

Colophon

• Piano: Keyscape Yamaha C7

Next up: Butter and Blackberry Jam