#Frail Autumn,, #GarageBand,, #Lyrics, #music, #Retirement Projects, #songwriting

Eighteen Years was Fifty Years Ago. A song written and recorded this morning.

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Not Eighteen…….but you get the sentiments hopefully.

THERE IS NO WAY THAT THIS IS A FINISHED SONG. IT IS THE VERY FIRST DRAFT OF POSSIBILITIES. THE VOCAL NEEDS A TUNE TO BE IMPROVED DEFINITELY. THE WHOLE DRIVING VIBE HAS TO BE BROKEN DOWN AND BITS TO BE CONSIDERED AND WHAT TO TAKE FROM THE CHAOS. THERE SHOULD BE A GUITAR/KEYBOARDS INTRO AND IN THE MIDDLE SECTION……GUITAR RIFFS. NEEDS A CHORUS TOO. I DO KEEP SAYING THAT I AM NO 6 STRING ELECTRIC GUITAR PLAYER. I KNOW YOU WILL BE KIND.

JUST UPDATING THIS HERE BEFORE THE FULL BLOWN CHAOS BELOW. YOU TEND TO CAPTURE LITERALLY ANYTHING ONTO YOUR IPAD OR IPHONE TO AVOID ANYTHING LOST. A THREE NOTE BIT OF SYNERGY OUT OF THREE OR FOUR MINUTES OF GARBLED WARBLE IS MAYBE CAUGHT. HERE IS AN ACOUSTIC MUCK ABOUT THAT MAY DEVELOP IN TO SOME FORM AGAIN. HENCE THE UPBEAT TRY OUT.

YES I KNOW SHEP……..I CANNOT WHISTLE. 😉

SO AFTER THE ACOUSTIC RAMBLINGS ABOVE I WANTED TO TEST OUT ELECTRIC GUITAR SOUND LAYERING. ALSO. I JUST WANTED TO SHOW YOU HOW I’M GOING BACK TO ROOTS AND PLAYING OUT MY OLD YOUNGER YEARS ENERGY. ALSO HOW IDEAS DEVELOP. LETS SEE WHERE THIS ONE GOES. OR NOT.

FRAIL AUTUMN: ELECTRIC GUITARS AUDIO ABOVE……

It’s the season where the reason is to chase your dream

Blow your blues away

There’s no profit in the pocket of an empty room

Sitting and wasting the days

Don’t hide in the corner in your tip-top hat

Dreaming that you’re back on the stage

Throw down some colour on the black on white

Brighten up every page

You look like an angel all dressed in rags

Miles from your relevant age

Life has a choice of a million kinds

To Escape the cage.

When you’re shattered and you’re tattered and your life’s a mess

It all feels wrong, not right

Pick up your grief from the Autumn gloom

Kick it out into the night.

Guitar and keyboard interactive solos needed here..

Stop hiding in the corner in your tip-top hat

And think it doesn’t suit your age.

Become the prophet in the corners of a worn down mind

Pen a tune and seize the day

Sing na, na, na, na, na na

Na na na na na

And chase the blues away. Hey!

Gone are the promises that held your hand

Leading you into the fight.

What once was…. is now has been

Drag yourself into the light

Living was forgiving was for those who did

Played the game and won the prize

No taste of the fruits of a richer kind

Turn everything said to lies.

Eighteen years was fifty years ago

30 thoughts on “Eighteen Years was Fifty Years Ago. A song written and recorded this morning.”

  1. I’m starting to feel that you, much like your bright and upbeat songs, are ageless. your music is beautifully vibrant and sounds just as fresh and youthful as if you had written it at 18.

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    1. Thank you cookie. You and I are songwriters. Others, who are my friends on here, are musicians and songwriters too and will understand that the songs we write are our treasures. They actually offer themselves up and give themselves as gifts that allows us to tread life in a way that lifts the spirits. So, I can only surmise, it is an inherent subliminal vibrancy that allows us to express through melody and words our whole life’s experiences in a way that is pretty awesome really. You know cookie, when you yourself get to realising my age, you will be exactly like myself. Your music has been and will continue to be timeless because you are singing your truth. That’ll never age. You’re already on your own fascinating journey and have cemented down some pretty awesome stepping stones. Cheers cookie. Oh! Pick your guitar up, share that amazing voice and talent you own and seize the day. All the best.

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    1. I laughed after that little acoustic excursion. I actually thought about my whistling non-prowess and your comment back when. I used to be great at whistling too. So annoying it flew away to find a better abode. I blame the Welsh air!

      Three of us here on a recent blog all spoke quickly in the reply comments of just capturing moments of ‘quick….this may work’ on our phones/iPads. Little ditty stuff you get floating in your mind. No words, exact tunes, etc. But ‘get it down or lose it’ is the motto. I don’t know if you played, or play, harp into your phone or iPad type format to get at those singles you have released and other ideas too Shep. As Sir Paul whistles in his songs, and the OSDH-isself has inclusions of the tonality of a beautiful whistle presence, then if I write a song that deserves the inclusion……yup. Your son has one mighty impressive technique. Harp and Whistle is a great combination. As you offered up an example recently in your podcast Shep. Cheers and all the best.

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  3. I like both excursions here, Gray, but for different reasons. And I didn’t miss your little nod to Somewhere Over the Rainbow at the end of the first clip. Ha! Loved that! I am always so intrigued how you and Richard come up with melodies. I can write lyrics all day and find the melody the hardest part.

    On the second, “When you’re shattered and you’re tattered and your life’s a mess,” great line! Love these lyrics. Cheers!

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    1. The lyrics came from after our conversation the other day Sheila. Sometimes my lyrics are just poor and are supposed to be observational. But they date quickly. Back in the punk and new age days they are now crazily dated. Even in the Team they were of a ‘Let’s get up and Dance’ vibe. So nothing other than good time dance lyrics. Nothing wrong with that really. Then, sometimes it’s just writing from one’s own self perspectives. And not to be too maudlin about it. I kind of use observational reflections on what my life is or has been and try to put them into a quirky phrasing style.

      The first excursion is what cookie, you yourself, and myself do to make sure we capture little ideas. So does come over as nonsense. But it’s nonsense that could be valid sometimes. The second is experimental noise. Layering guitar sound one on top of the other. I used just the one Hohner Les Paul electric 6 string for every single one of the 7 parts played. Even dialled in a low vibe within the Bass guitar library option for the bass note style response. The result is chaotic mess. But it was fun. And I can hear stuff within that can gravitate to becoming a decent song now. Richard probably does what I do. He hears in his mind everything that holistically surrounds the central melody. I just haven’t the skills to play what I hear. Also, my blog theme is always true to the ‘Warts and all’ ideal. I present what it’s all about I suppose. As does Sir Paul McCartney and the late great Marc Bolan. The album ‘One Hand Clapping’ by Paul and Wings is absolute genius. And the Get Back film by Peter Jackson has truly inspired my thinking along these lines.

      The lyrics on the electric guitar chaotic one were just a 3/4 of an hour written storyboard of how I feel about now and then. And yes, I did sit in the corner of The Den in my tip-top hat dreaming that I was going to be on the stage again. Well, when we had the gig booked which all fell through. So the lyrics are all about Summersville. Frail Autumn is the frailty of a now 68 year old, now less than 2 years off 70 and certainly now in the Autumn of his life. Yet still we should believe in both ourselves as precious and what life can give us. 😊 Cheers Sheila.

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    1. Teeth! Just broke my back lower one on some muesli. December 10th before they have an appointment. Not hurting though. I have no idea where my whistling went. I’m gonna research…..

      Gone are the days of cassettes in a player with a mic on board. Then onto Walkman hand held office recording thingy-mu-jigs. Now I have gone into catching stuff a little more established on the new system. Bit posh now Shep. But seriously, do find a basic need for the iPad. My memory is terrible. Especially for lyrics.

      I did an acoustic version of ‘15 years……’ this morning. Got it down on my posh system. So…I do listen to your advice Shep. Cheers. 😊🙏🏽

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  5. Very cool to know more about your process, Gray. Lyrics and melodies. You come up with great words too! Maudlin or quirky, either way. Those can be fantastic hooks in songs.
    I think age is a state of mind. My dad told me he still felt mentally young when he was 79! So, just do what you do and try not to get hung up on the ‘number.’ Okay? Haha! Just my suggestion now that I am 62. Hehe!
    Richard feels old at 74, but mostly it is because he doesn’t have buddies or a group to make him feel wanted, acknowledged, needed, or such. Even the kids will cut him off mid conversation or something, which annoys him. It’s hard to feel wanted when people do that.
    At least you guys have your guitars and can take solace you have the ability and skill to make them ‘sing.’ Cheers, Gray.

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    1. I have a phrase I use for how both Richard and myself are perceived. I have the ‘invisibility gene’. I too have no buddies or a group to call my own either. So can truly empathise. I see a few people from time to time, but months on months apart. I don’t mind in reality. But when it affects this project? Then, yes, I do want others involved. And that is a very difficult thing to sort out presently.

      Age is strange. People say I don’t look my age at all. But, inherently, after the nursing experience, I do still feel battered mentally from time to time……and certainly not fully fit due to both Covid, physical hard work with fundamental patient care and work related stress. But…thinking positively..I still have my guitar and a few more toons in me. 😊

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      1. Oh, yes, abSOULutely on all points, Gray. Richard and I joke about his invisibility cloak he wears (and when I sit beside him, that it shrouds me as well)! Ha! I can literally hold my empty glass up at a bar and the bartender won’t see me even if they ask the people a seat away if they need anything! It’s uncanny! But it’s happened many times!

        I figured COVID had something to do with why you retired but it’s often a sore subject that I won’t bring up. I am glad you retired for whatever reason that you did. I can’t imagine doing manual care of patients at my age, 62! My body just doesn’t have the strength or flexibility it once did. Each year I feel the difference, though I do what I can to keep moving, as in the walking and stair-climbing, yoga, qigong, etc. But I don’t push myself.

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      2. That’s me at the bar too. When you have the penny drop that you are indeed in possession of the gene, life’s past experiences are all brought into focus. But it is good to fly under the radar and just be left alone with yourself as company. But task driven enterprises are the spoke through the wheel hiccup.

        It’s great that you are able to be active and remain focused on fitness Sheila. It actually is really important to have balance though. Time out is a mantra to adopt too.

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      4. Good practice is to balance one’s application to well being. It matters mentally too. A strict regime can be too arduous, too difficult to commit wholly to and then it loses the fun elements.

        All the best Sheila.

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      6. Very sensible trainer. I was a cardiac rehab nurse for a year and took a similar approach. Less is more isn’t it. Eastern philosophy on movement for giving ultimate strength and balance is the best ever.

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      7. I agree, Gray. I had done Pilates before working with the trainer and so everything he had me do made sense. I still do a few of the exercises he taught me because that and the yoga keeps my back and shoulders working verses getting pinches, etc.
        I don’t think I knew you had done cardiac rehap nursing. WOW!

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      8. Great choices Sheila for keeping supple. I always think ‘Cats’. Watch them wake up after sleeping and they always stretch. So do infants actually. I believe it is borne from natural instinctive body preparation for the day ahead. Realignment in body muscle and skeletal systems whilst allowing the time in stretching to make sense mentally too as to ‘Oooh! I’m back in the land of the living again’. 😊.

        I only did one year as a cardiac rehab nurse. I did enjoy the role. But skills wise it was an extremely frustrating narrow field to be in for myself. I met most people in recovery, they were no longer patients, in exercise classes out in three sports centres in the local universities. Used to work alongside sports technicians and ensure safety in all things medical. For example, someone with diabetes going into a hypoglycaemic event due to full on excess energy application in exercising. Many are too eager in wanting to prove themselves in their initial stages. Then do too much. Or if they had open heart surgery, not to put too much pressure on the surgical sternum split which was undergoing repairing/healing. Contra-indicated when doing resistance exercises with certain gym equipment. Cheers Sheila.

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  6. Having read your recent post and heard the latest version of this…I enjoyed where it took you, Gray… lol, some perks of reading backwards 🥴🤭
    started great and went greater🤍

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      4. Inspiration is a strange visitor. Sometimes it likes to stick around for a while. Then it can stay for five minutes and it’s gone. So it goes with songwriting for tunes too. Thank you Destiny. 🙏🏽

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      7. with hope that this makes sense to you as it does to me lol…
        So , I tried something with your titles and lines, added some words of mine in-between 🤭
        It was going well until the last line….I can’t seem to find the right words to end with…
        if you think of something…please add on or take out…
        Here goes lol…😬

        mine to claim

        as fades the wind of sorrows..so heals the sea of heartache…moving to the rhythm of life…no longer aching or haunted…I remember stars above the dunes…they hold a memory of me too…for the dream I hid amongst them…year one and hope wished its true…I could be the one to seize the day….the stars tell me it’s written for me….i could live my life in impossible ways…if the clock keeps ticking and I let it…as mine to claim….

        (…and if it doesn’t make sense to you… you’ll have to delete this comment 😋🤣)

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      8. Whatever you write Destiny is great. It does make perfect sense too. It is how you yourself interpret the songs’ titles or lyrics. In that you are talking of healing and hope here. And as an ex nurse I find that so insightful from you. That is what music is all about as we listen to it. We take our own interpretations and emotions from what we are hearing. Amazing result. The last line is perfect. So thank you for this. So unexpected and so humbled to have you do this. All the best Destiny. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

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      9. thank you, Gray….for allowing me to do this and for your encouraging words too.

        I enjoyed doing this…and the titles and lyrics called out to me in its own way….as you say…own interpretations and emotions.

        Lol, may I post this on my blog please…with a link up to yours naturally.

        pleasure and thank you again ….all the best your way too 🤍🙏

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      10. Yes if you want to post it that will be fine. If you find your feedback is not as positive as you normally get because of my words……take it off quickly and pretend you’ve been hacked. 😆 Thank you Destiny. 🙏🏽

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