This song is about a progression I've noticed in my life. When I was young, I had a view that I didn't care about the world. All that mattered was people close to me, my feelings, their feelings, art, beauty, love. But as I became an adult, started building a career, I started thinking the "bigger picture" was more important. I wanted to do things that help as many people as possible. I wanted my life work to have wide reaching impact. In recent years, especially with the pandemic, I'm thinking this movement was a bad direction. So I'm making an effort to go back the other way, toward the few people close to me. I see my life as an hourglass shape. It was big and open before, and as I thought I was outgrowing naivety, it got narrower. It's time to open things back up.
This started as an attempt at the W2 challenge. I started with a chord progression with a single note repeated over the whole segment, but it evolved quite a bit from that. I love French horns, and I love being able to use the decently high quality synthesized French horns from modern software.
Edit: some notes for post-FAWM revision plans. I’ll re-record some vocal lines that were a little pitchy. I want to add some ands and buts between lines to tell the story more clearly, so some of those lines will need re-recording. The bridge feels slightly too plunky so I’ll want to make the instrumentation more flowy there.
With a stranger in New Orleans
Said the river helps him see how small he is
I felt the water with my hand, I said I see how big I am
My world was so small, I the center of it all
Growing older I changed to see a wider view
there’s so much more than me and all of you
I measured myself by how I helped everyone
Darkness covered all and I was the sun
I am not everywhere
I am just here
My pride is measured on
People I’m near
There is no legacy
There’s just a few years
We only live so long
I am just here
I still fight the message that lifted me from childhood
that I am here to save everyone I could
It’s not good enough to be the one you love
I had to rise above, learn to stop looking up
When the Earth fell ill and I ran out of will
I stood
Up for myself. I deserve my own health
I am worth so much more
Than I knew. I ignored
All the clues I was lost
Running out the clock
The closest to me are the ones I believe
My friends when I was young
Showed me how to have fun
I thought it was a waste
But it’s all that is sacred
All that I need now
Is to prove that I can keep vows
It’s people who love me
The whole world is the people who love me
I am not everywhere
I am just here
My pride is measured on
People I’m near
There is no legacy
There’s just a few years
We only live so long
I am just here
We only live so long
The world is people who love me
@coolparadiso Mar 2022
opens well again! the organ is powerful and the horns are a star for sure. Another open and detailed lyric delving into some tricky topics! i like the freeform structure with small internal rhymes as well! #tit4tat (3 of 5)
@tomslatter Feb 2022
Nice synth opening. Great vocal line in the verse, and the change into the more upbeat section creates a nice contrast. Good song.