Categories
FAWM 2014 Rock and/or Roll

All Hallow’s Eve

Still moving along on my One Long Year project. Coming into Fall, with just a few more “months” to go. If you want to get the larger picture, check out the overview: https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/one-long-year/. The short version of the OLY project is that the protagonist’s life is unraveling and we hear the musical echoes of this, without knowing exactly what the details are. This somewhat new territory for me, so I’d love feedback on the song or the larger project. Or just listen: All Hallow’s Eve, MP3

Don’t want to go to bed
Don’t want to go to bed tonight
I’m tired to the bone
But I can’t bear to be alone with them
The voices in my head

The voices in my head
The voices in my head begin
to sing a song of woe
as if I hadn’t heard them all before
The past begins again

Saints and sinners branch from the family tree
Connect my roots to the dirt of our history
Bitter fruit from which I’ll never be free
The past possesses me
The past possesses me

The past begins again
The past begins again in me
It’s like I’m destined to repeat
Each voice inside of me. I sing
The chorus once again. (CHORUS)

Categories
Quirky

The FAWM Freakout March

I needed to take a break from all the dark, serious stuff I’ve been writing, so I decided to write a FAWM theme song in the form of a march: MP3.

Fa fa fa fa FAWM
You make me ca ca crazy
A a all along
You make me ma ma mad

14 sa sa songs
sa sa sounded so so easy
but ta ta ta two weeks to go
it’s going to kick my

Fa fa fa fa February
Album Writing Month (2x)

Fa fa fa fa FAWM
You make me ca ca crazy
I’m really freaking out!

Categories
FAWM 2014 Quirky Rock and/or Roll

Toothpaste

I’m a “push neatly from the bottom of the tube” type of person. My wife is a “grab and squeeze until something gives” type of person. I sometimes look at the mangled tube and wonder “What did that poor thing do to deserve to be grabbed by the neck and choked like that?” And “Is this just a different brushing ritual, or is there some latent rage behind it all?” As is often the case, my random ruminations on mundane objects like toothpaste tubes morph into song ideas. So while the song is not about Amy per se, it was inspired by her. I offer it as perhaps the strangest Valentine’s Day song ever: Toothpaste.

Have you lost faith?
Have you lost heart?
Has what is left grown tired and hard?

Has it been hard?
Has it been long?
Has it been going on and on?

Would it kill you
To not treat the toothpaste
Like something you were trying to strangle?

Has it gone too far?
Has it gone too wrong?
Has it just worn you down?

Are you left with rage
When all your love is gone?
Are you left with nothing left at all?

Would it kill you
To not treat the toothpaste
Like something you were trying to strangle?

Are you left with nothing left at all?

Categories
Demos FAWM 2014 Rock and/or Roll

Summer

Listen up: Summer, MP3

A new addition to my “One Long Year” song cycle. (You can see the overview of the project here: https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/one-long-year/.) I’ll be up front with you and say that I’m not completely convinced by this one. I felt like I needed something a bit up tempo to break up all the introspective, slow songs. But it’s a bear to craft good upbeat songs, isn’t it? They’re very easy to write, but catchy quickly becomes cloying and high energy becomes hokey. I tried to keep this simple and summery to reflect the time of year and the light style most summer songs take, but underneath that the song is really about regrets. Like I said, I’m not entirely convinced that the song works. I figure the beauty of FAWM is that I can write quickly and intuitively and then edit or cut later. I’ll take any advice you have for me.

 1. The days are hot and the nights are long
When was the last time any of us got any sleep at all?
Bonfire glow and a keg of beer
Is it any wonder things got a little weird?Wake at noon and it all comes back
The smell of suntan lotion and the sweet taste of regret
We’ve all got our secrets, we’ve all made mistakes
Still, I’ve got a feeling there’s going to be hell to pay

CHORUS
Everyone’s hoping for an endless summer
I’m just hoping for a place to land
‘cause I’m as high as a kite
And I think I might have just cut my string

There’s a fine line between freedom
And free floating in the wind
And I’m wondering if I can ever make it back again
Am I the only one who wishes summer would end?

2. It’s been one hot summer, and one long year
After a lonely spring with more rain than a heart could bear
It’s been too much work and too little play
And so much pressure that it had to come out some way

The sun bakes into on my salty skin
like it’s writing a page in the book of my life’s sin
Invisible ink but it won’t wash off
How do I manage to betray everyone I love?

CHORUS

CHORUS 2
If I survive this sweltering summer
Make it through another fall
I’ll wait out the winter
And joke that I’ve been through hell.

But it’s no joke. The way I’m headed
I’ll be a broken, empty man.
Drift away like the summer sand.
Am I the only one who wishes summer would end?

Categories
FAWM 2014 Rock and/or Roll

Never Perfect

“Never Perfect” is the second song in my One Long Year song cycle. This one, pretty obviously, corresponds with Valentine’s Day. I originally wrote a version of this last year as a quirky meditation on love. However, it’s been completely reworked here so that it will fit into the context of this year’s One Long Year project. (I.e. more depressing and mostly hopeless.) 

St. Valentine
Can you share a little wisdom?
You were chaste, but love’s your business
It’s your day, but it’s my daily burden.

My love and I, we have our holiday traditions
Like the way we ruin Christmas
And anniversaries over stupid things like the dishes.
It’s never perfect.

St Valentine
Do you take prayers from weary lovers?
Who aren’t looking for another
But wonder how they ended up like business partners or brothers.

Why does love seem so perfect at a distance?
Does the consummation kill it?
Wondering if it’s worth it
When it’s never perfect. 

St. Valentine
You were a saint, but I’m sinner.
I pray the pain of love won’t kill me,
But I’m afraid that pray’s not working
It’s never perfect.

 
Categories
FAWM 2014 Quirky

Raisins

Taking a break from all the seriousness, here’s a goofy little kid’s song: Raisins.

Yesterday I was rehearsing with a piano-playing mom. She had to take a call, so I entertained her son Blake with a song about the raisins he was eating. This morning I decided it was good enough to round out with verses about graham crackers and oranges.

Raisins. I’m just wild about raisins.
And I’m craving nature’s perfect dessert
These shriveled grapes
Make me go ape
Make me go crazy and it’s only getting worse
So give me raisins and you won’t get hurt

Graham crackers. I love to snack on graham crackers.
The biggest factor is their crispy sweet crunch.
In twos or in fours
In soup or s’mores
I’d fight a weed whacker to have them for lunch
So give me graham crackers and I’ll start to munch

Orange. Sweet, juicy orange.
Sing la la loobidy lorange dabba doobity doo
Peel off their skin
And I’ll jump right in
Ba boobadee borange ee doo, la loobidy loridy loo
I’d like an orange. How ‘bout you?

Categories
FAWM 2014 Rock and/or Roll

I’m Almost Already Gone

The third song in my One Long Year song cycle , this song accompanies Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday’s themes of mortality are amplified and seen through unbelieving eyes. Look out. It’s pretty depressing stuff. Take a listen: MP3.

1. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes
And whatever way the cold wind blows.
Iron to rust, and flames in the grass.
You just don’t know.

You just don’t know
When your day will come,
But your ending is clear.
No one’s sure
where we go,
but I’m sure it won’t be here.

CHORUS
I don’t need a cross of ashes,
‘cause I’m already marked
with a curse of death and dispassion
that I wear like a scar.

I don’t need a cross of ashes
To remind me that I’m the dirt’s favorite son.
I came from dust and to dust I’ll pass, and
I’m almost already gone

2. I’m paying for sins I have yet to commit—
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.
I suffer the sting of poison that Adam bit.
Haven’t I had enough?

Enough remorse 
For my father’s sins;
We’re all sacks of dirt in the end.
You can sing your songs,
But in your dry heart you know
It’s your own grave you’re filling in. CHORUS

3. I was born alone and I’ll die alone. And in between
I’ll share some loneliness with you.
We’ll share our dirt and we’ll call it love;
It’s all we can do.

All we can do
In the meantime,
Until the wind sweeps us on,
Is huddle close
Against the cold,
But it still chills me to the bone. CHORUS

Categories
FAWM 2014 Rock and/or Roll

This Night Will Never End

Take a listen to the first song in the “One Long Year” song cycle: MP3. This is setting up the story–as the new year begins, the protagonist is fairly giddy with the positive prospects that a new year with his old love will bring. Little does he know that the upcoming year will see his love and his life unraveling.

If you’re interested in keeping track of where the song cycle is headed, you can visit the new “One Long Year” page. If you want a feel for the February Album Writing Month community, head over to my FAWM page.

Turn up the music and turn down the lights
We’re gonna love like it’s the last night of our lives.
Just you and me—our heads full of wine—
We’re holding on for dear life.

(I hope) This night will never end.

At the stroke of midnight a new year starts
(and I’m) right where I want to be, wherever you are.
If I die before I wake
I want to die in your embrace.

This night will never end.

At 10 pm I said, “how many ways do I love you?” 
I was up to 9 when I lost count. 
We 8 a little dinner by candlelight,
Drank a ’76 cabernet sauvignon.
It must have been 5 times that you asked me
What is that smile 4? And I said,
“3 for each year we’ve been together
and 2 to wish us many more.”
Tell me; tell me, am I the only 1? 

(Who’s thinks) This night will never end.

Turn up the music and turn down the lights
We’re gonna love like it’s the last night of our lives.
Just you and me—our heads full of wine—
We’re holding on for dear life.

This night will never end.

Categories
Demos FAWM 2014 Rock and/or Roll

St. Patrick

Listen to the MP3 while you read all about it below.

You know about FAWM, right? During February Album Writing Month, thousands of songwriters across the globe commit to writing 14 songs in 28 days, congregating at FAWM.org to share inspiration, encouragement, and demos of completed songs. Last year I was a newbie who used the opportunity to write my Hallel Psalm cantata Everlasting to Everlasting. This year I’m working on a project called “One Long Year,” a song cycle detailing the year-long unraveling of the protagonist. Each song will be tied in some way to a date on the calendar, starting and ending on New Year’s Eve. In the case of the song below, it’s St. Patrick’s Day.

1. Do you remember
The night we fell in love?
We were closer than a kiss
Pressing hip to hip
And I said, “I can’t…
I just can’t get enough.”

We were drinking
to St. Patrick and to our love.
I said “God bless the holy saint
Of water and of drink!”
And you laughed, “Maybe–
maybe you’ve had enough.”

2. This year
Your kiss was quick, my drink was long
Do I think another round
will finally drown
This feeling
That we’ve been two islands all along?

CHORUS
There’s an ocean, there’s an ocean
there’s an ocean , there’s an ocean
There’s an ocean between me
And my love.

3. St Patrick
You sailed the sea to set sinners free.
If ever there was a soul
Adrift and alone
St Patrick
St Patrick, it is me.

CHORUS
There’s an ocean, there’s an ocean
there’s an ocean , there’s an ocean
There’s an ocean between me
And everything I love.

BRIDGE
Jesus Christ, I need a miracle
Like water into wine, or life to Lazarus
All I have left in terms of miracles
Is turning beer into piss.

I can’t. I just can’t get enough.
I can’t. I just can’t get enough.
I can’t. I just can’t get enough.

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Contests Hymn tunes

The World Lay Languishing in Pain

I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any more contests. I will not enter any m…DRAT!

I entered another contest.

PDF, MP3 (with the W82 Singers)