Adventures in Songwriting – “Something Special”
So, yesterday I was contemplating the act / art of songwriting, and why I’ve have such a hard time in my 35 years of jotting lyrics down of finishing and crafting those things into songs. I love learning and performing cover songs. It’s, to my mind, the only wat to learn to play an instrument, in my case the acoustic guitar, which I’ve been banging away on for about 4 years now.
As I wrote yesterday, I am establishing a new rule — For every two cover songs I learn to play, I MUST sit down and write or finish one of my originals. Next year, I’m going to sit down and record my solo album, and I kind of need to get those song finished and arranged.
Again, I’ve been writing lyrics and songs since I was 13, off and on for the last 35 years. Why haven’t I worked on my originals more???
I used to use my complete lack of skills on the guitar as a reason why I haven’t worked on the originals. OK. Can’t use that excuse any more. I’m not the best guitar player in the world, but, after about four years of guitaring, I’m at least competent enough where I can show others what I’m trying to do musically.
This is hard for me to admit, but I think I still don’t have much confidence in the material itself. The few originals I have presented to the world have gotten a warm welcome, but that hasn’t seemed to have motivated me to really start working toward getting my own material done and presentation ready.
With that in mind, I did sit down and finish the song “Something Special”….
My former bandmate Rick Calhoun may have a copy of the lyrics to that one laying around somewhere from my days with Acoustic Highway. I tried to bring it in, but I just never pressed the band to actually play it. It has an “ocean / stranded on a deserted island” theme, and starts out:
“””There I was alone, stranded on a seashore
Carried on a lifeboat of confusion
Bought a ticket on a sinking ship called fantasy
what i though was love turned out to be illusionAnd the world opened up and saw her standing there…”
The song has one of my favorite cheesy lyrics I’ve written.
“””Now they say a love like our can move a mountain
Falling stars will land upon our curtains
And even if the world would end tomorrow
A love like ours will last and that’s for certain”””
The song was written when I was 28 or so, when I was working at the UA cinema in Horton Plaza in San Diego. I was not in love, and tht emotion was still a mystery to me, but Iimagined this is what love could be like if I were at that moment. The birth of the song was one of the rare instances where both the lyrics and the tune came together in one sitting. But it was never finished though because there was one single line in the bridge that was missing…
Yes… It was waiting on ONE SINGLE LINE!
One day a few years ago, I was looking through my lyrics, and I came across this one. I sat there and stared at it for the longest time. I slowly become more and more annoyed over the years that this song was THAT CLOSE to being done.
I had had enough. I grabbed a pen and just scribbled some fluffy nonsense in just to say I was done. Then I put it away. I didn’t think anything of it because it was a filler line. I didn’t think much of it.
Several months later, When me and Jim Rust formed Taylor Martin together, I was looking though my lyrics yet again to see if I could find something suitable to bring in. I stumbled upon the lyric.
Only then did I realize that the “filler” lyric was actually PERFECT for the song! The last line is the “filler” in the bridge:
“””And the world opened up
And I saw you standing there
Th seas that kept me lonely now send wave of love crashing on my shore”””
So, yes. I did get this one spiffed up. It will be performed this week. The guitaring seem a little weak on it, but that may be because it’s more of a bass-centric song.
Here’s the whole thing:
There I was alone, stranded on a seashore
carried on a lifeboat of confusion
Bought a ticket on a sinking ship called fantasy
What i thought was love turned out to be illusionThen the world opened up and I saw her standing there
and in her sweet sweet voice
She said that falling in love
Was like waiting at the gates of heavenGoing through with you would really mean something special
The gates of heaven open for a love that is essential1st solo
And the world opened up
And I saw you standing there
Th seas that kept me lonely now send wave of love crashing on my shoreNow they say a love like our can move a mountain
Falling stars will land upon our curtains
And even if the world would end tomorrow
A love like ours will last and that’s for certainGoing through with you would really mean something special
The gates of heaven open for a love that is essential
Going through with you would really mean something special
The gates of heaven open for a love that is essential
So lean back in my arms and we can make it happen
Lean back in my arm… I can make you happy…