Another idea - probably on the slow-cook burner

[Marshall]

I just cut and pasted my morning post from the daily thread into this. Here's what it said:

Nice start to an otherwise blah day.

Late yesterday I picked up Ernie, the office guitar, (who happens to be in DADGAD at the moment), and decided to put a capo on 2 and mess around. Found a nice little contemplative pattern. Would make a great intro section (and possible return ending) to a more complex tune. This morning I read the article about Patti Griffin in the latest AG on the train coming in to work. Got me in a philosophical songwriting mood. Came in this morning and messed with the pattern again. I think it attached itself to a songwriting idea/thought I've been carrying around in my ideas folder for about 6 months. Any rate, it's got my imagination all churning around.

This is the fun/exciting/exhilarating part about songwriting. It's such a thrill to be consumed by a creative idea like this.
sometimes it comes and goes;
sometimes I run into roadblocks and detours;
sometimes I hit a dead ends;
sometimes it takes some time to see it through.

But it's always a thrill.

I won't say anymore for now . . . , but if I see it through, it'll be about one of you.

[Marshall]

Well, I can't seem to let this one down. It's following a similar musical writing pattern for me lately. It's turning into sort of a rock opera in a way. It has different movements to portray different emotions in a given story. And (like many good stories) I expect it to come full circle.

It's a dramatic piece musically. Very contrasting movements. A tour-de-force, so to speak.

Nothing thought out lyrically except a phrase or two. But the musical structure is piecing itself together. It's got me in it's grip. I hope to get pretty deeply into the structure before I let set it down for any length of time.

Of course, it's hard to do much more at the moment. Afterall I'm at work.

[Marshall]

Damn ! It's eating me alive.

The opening and closing lines will be:

"There's one thing that you know you can always count on
The deep cool of the Georgian bay."

The title will be: Deep Cool of the Georgian Bay.


Beyond that I don't know. It's taking me where it wants to go. I'm just hanging on for dear life.

[Marshall]

Nope.

The first lines will be more like:

Paint me a picture of a primal landscape
By the deep cool of the Georgian bay

The last lines wil be

There's one that you know you can always count on
The deep cool of the Georgian Bay.

[Marshall]

OK. The feverish pace of the initial inspiration has passed. But it's well on it's way to being a full fledged song. There's a A and a B part. The A part is the legato begining. That runs about 1:10 to play through it all. Then the B part (which is in double time of the first) chunks right in on the last legato down beat. Each trip through the basic progression of the B takes about 15 sec. One progression intro, 2 progressions singing is a verse. I've got an instrumental version using higher chords that works nicely. Originally I thought of singing over that. But now probably not.

There'll probably be 2 verses in the B part. The tricky part is going to be coming up with a musical progression that takes the speeding freight train B part and brings it back down so the legato begining can reprise for a 30 second lush pastoral ending. But I have some ideas on that.

Lyrics haven't moved any further yet. But the melodies are pretty well figured out. The opening lines will change to:

Take me a picture of an untouched meadow
By the deep cool of the Georgian Bay.

It's really an exciting experience doing this.

[Deleted]

Wow, a whole song triggered by Kate's comment on the daily thread yesterday. Too cool.

Paul

[Marshall]

I've been enjoying her artistic photgraphic sensibility for a long time. (as have we all !). In the past she's told some compelling life stories. And her personality has this firey side from time to time. The range of emotions from strong and firey to the serene images she posts have always intrigued me. I cut and pasted a bunch of her comments into my Ideas folder, as I have with many Soundholers. (This is a fertile ground for ideas/stories).

Sek's comment yesterday hit me at a time when I had a musical idea birthing. The quote was such a guintessentially perfect statement that it rang through like a bell.

Either that, or the jelly donut I had for breakfast was working me over.

[Marshall]

Sleepless nights are good for something. Here's the fisrt verse and closing lines

Take for me a picture of an untouched meadow,
By the deep cool of Georgian Bay
A photograph of a Cape Breton shoreline.
An old house from by-gone days.
Capture a swan on shimmering water.
A woodland where fresh snow lay
Take me to a sacred place

closing line:

There's one thing that you know you can always count on
The deep cool of Georgian Bay

Now on to the meaty middle part.

[sekhmet]

*gasp*

well, I am ... non-plussed. and flattered.

(I'll pace through this window on the diagonal, so as not to raise too much dust.)

[billhammond]

Great start, Marshall, and a worthy subject, indeed!


Grammar note: The word "lay" should be "lies," assuming that Sekh is taking a photo of snow in the present tense.

[Marshall]

As long as your not minus-ed

(. . . ,Bay
. . . ,days
. . . ,lay)

It's a rhyming scheme. I claim Poetic License.

(And that gives me a license-to-kill editors.)

[Cornflake]

It's good to see enthusiasm. Don't let it flag and let us all hear it at Idiotjam.

[Marshall]

Just a minor update. The "B" part has been giving me trouble. It's a cool quick paced groove, but the vocal melody line I had originally conjured for it was not fitting with the emotion i wanted for the song. Plus it's a repetitive groove, and I needed something to break it up. So, I put it on the back burner and just messed around with some stuff to see if I could catch on with something else. In the process I came up with a modified melody line that carries the tension without going "over the top" like the first melody line, and another less intense musical part to go with it. (Sort of a Ba & Bb section for the B part). I know this is not going to make sense without the music. This is probably not a good song to describe the process on. So, I'll shut up and just let you know when it's further along. But I have been beating and bashing it on the forge. The "A" part is just so cool to play and sing, that I've got to see it through.

It's starting to shape itself as a more complete musical piece. Next I have to choose the specific story lines for the B part. The only lyrics I've worked on for that part are the first few:

She was 16
When she
Ran away from her family

She found a home
With a boy
Jewels in her memory

[Marshall]

OK. Here's the latest. I spent some time messing around with it while I traveled to and from Toronto. I'm still not happy with the "ugly Toronto" line. I thought of using "merde filled Toronto," but that might be too obtuse. There's other tweaking I may do. But it's basically finished. I should be able to fumble through it at IJ. Though I haven't burned the middle verses into presentation form yet.

Deep Cool of Georgian Bay - Marshall Hjertstedt - Kate Mann

Take for me a picture of an untouched meadow
By the deep cool of Georgian Bay
Make a photograph of Cape Breton shoreline
An old house from by-gone days
Capture a swan on shimmering water
A woodland where fresh snow lay
Take me to a sacred place.

Kate was 16
When she
Ran away from her family
Into a home
With a boy
Lost jewel in her memory

Lost and confused
On her own
In ugly Toronto
Tried to find hope
Round the globe
In far off Kyoto

Then by chance Kate ventured north
Into the wilderness
Earth it spoke to her of truth
Water gave her rest

There’s one thing you know you can always count on
The deep cool of Georgian Bay.

[Marshall]

OK. Hammered a few of words on the hot forge again. I think the bridge part will change to:

Then by chance Kate heard the call
Of the wilderness
Earth it spoke to her with truth
Water promised rest


Ugly Toronto may turn into hardnosed Toronto, unless I can come up with another appropriately descriptive adjective.

[Dub]

Not necessarily germane to the song and it been a few years since I was last in Toronto but I always found Toronto beautiful. It's one of my top two or three North American cities. They save the old architecture instead of just blowing it up and fit new architecture right in with the old in a way that I've always found attractive.

Nice song, Marshall.

- Dub