The First Whirl

For the first ever post here at Faux Real?, I'd like to offer y'all a piece of what I am most passionate about.  I love writing essays, blog responses, and theological and political exhortations, but if I am to put forth a piece of writing that I can be proud of, it is in a song.  So I offer you the latest of tunes I have written.  

This one is a long time comin' for me.  I knew, leaving White Bear Lake, MN to set up a new life in Pasadena, CA would bread a multitude of songs, and there would be one that would simply be an attempt to capture the visceral moment when I pulled that S-10 out of my parents driveway.  On the road I kept a notepad and pen by my side knowing that introspective thoughts and phrases would come to my head and soon thereafter allude me.  So I compiled many of these thoughts and phrases and sat on them for a few months.  I wanted to wait on the writing process of this tune until the precise melody came to my bean.  About three months later during one late night of retrospect, the melody was birthed and thus, came what I am calling, "The Departure Song."  

My thought in writing this song was to record a history.  Now--as we all know--history usually involves names, dates, themes, and motifs about the simple happenings of the human situation, but I was perplexed as to how to record the emotion of an historical moment.  How does one simply capture the feeling of a time and place in words alone?  Is that even possible?  To an extent I'd say yes, if you are one of the great Russian novelists or a Beat writer/poet.  But I, sorry to say, am not.  And far from one.  Nevertheless, I can write melody to a mediocre body of text.  That's a start, eh?  This is my advantage as a songwriter.  When writing song, your lyrics lean upon the melody to give it a visceral and emotive flavor that even the best of text alone cannot fully accomplish.  (eg. Dylan, "Blowing in the Wind," Lennon/McCartney "All You Need is Love," shall I go on?) 

All in all, this song is my attempt to capture not only the historical moment, but capture the historical emotion in its entirety.  If any of you bloggerites have left home you know that its filled with an unease in which you remind yourself of how good it is at home, and how many friends and loved ones you have.  You begin to question if you should really be leaving at all!  Then you get used to being away and its all good.  Without further ado, here's the tune.    

You look left

I look right

We don't see an end in sight

Four more years

and three more fights 

Gotta make it through these city nights

Figure out just where to show

the 21o sign is a ways to go

In the rear view mirror

I saw my home

but it all gets smaller as I push on

(Chorus)

Is all I say a waste of your time?

This is not a lie

And with a song I'll say, you're on my mind

That's not a lie

You get yours

and I'll get mine

But we don't see eye to eye

It's moving time

and my choice is clear

I've got to kill my pretense and persevere 

But these fabricated notions that my plan will fail

is leading me to scour this Minnesota trail

Blessings, 

Late Night