Feb 2022 country rock anti-war
This song is a collaboration with BeeBee Smith, an amazingly talented UK based musician (not part of FAWM this year) who did all the instrumentation and mix, although it's not in its final form yet. I persuaded him to let me post this preliminary version on FAWM just to get some commentary, so critique is welcome on this one. Although it's certainly about the futility of war, it's not intended to be explicitly about any one in particular, including the one in Ukraine. Just a coincidence that our project went in this direction about the time things were going bad over there.
Nothing More Than Pride
VI
All he ever wanted
Was to serve
Signed the papers
August twenty third
PC
Uniform and rifle
Boarded the plane
Knowing things would never
Be the same
CH
A million miles
Away from home
Into the breach
The great unknown
To wage a war
For hollow men
And sacrifice
For nothing more than pride
V2
In the trenches

Hoping to survive
Child soldiers
Fighting for their lives
PC2
All their faded glory
Getting blown away
No bugles blowing taps
Today
CH
A million miles
Away from home
Into the breach
The great unknown
To wage a war
For hollow men
Again
BRIDGE
It seems by now they all would know
That what you reap is what you sow
OUT
How many now have
Gone to war and died
Born to lose
On every bloody side
They sacrifice
For nothing more than pride
@crisp1 Mar 2022
This is beautiful and rightfully sad, Jeff. Love the music, and the lyrics are stellar.
@leka Mar 2022
Wonderful! Good performance & meaningful lyrics. Those vocals are excellent. Lovely guitar licks at the end.
@cindyrella Feb 2022
This is powerfully and so well written and performed. Too much truth for sure!
@james10 Feb 2022
Nice tune jeff9!
I really like the chorus...the way it builds
Definitely think it will resonate with a lot of people who hear it.
@oswlek Feb 2022
Very nice. First thing I noticed is how clean the mix is. Even with the phone cranked, it's clear as a bell. Pro mixes don't always sound that good on crap devices.
Given the genre, it was a no doubter that you guys would nail it, and you did. The lyric hits and the vocal is heartfelt. In a perfect world, you would have had a stable of backup singers to make that chorus really pop. I'm hearing the whole shebang: doubles, harmonies, ahhhhhs. In my head it sounds great, but there's an echo in here, so you can't always trust it. :)
The "child soldiers" line hit particularly hard. Good stuff.