Plain Sailing.

Ray Brookes · April 13, 2022, 08:49:55 PM

I was going to name the song "Parenting 101" then I was going to name it "Parent's Odyssey" but decided in the end that "Plain Sailing" suited better.

I watch her enter the world wet and wailing
How naive to think it will all be plain sailing
The three of us back home in just a few days
Everything so different now. A changing of the ways
Drinks and handshakes with visiting relations
She asleep in her crib unaware of the celebrations
Picked up, cuddled, hugged and passed around
A giggle like a piano trill and her mother's frown.

And for sure the sweetest sound that ever we heard
As we both tear up on hearing her first word
Emotional highs and emotional depths
Elated and applauding to watch her first steps
A few years later the mother and child duel
Kicking and screaming – on the first day at school
By now her character and personality surfaced
Out-growing her clothes soon after they're purchased.

How many fads? God, you should've seen her
One day a tennis star, the next day a ballerina
Then a pop singer and then a famous actress
But every fad a bed of nails and never a mattress.
High school becomes a blast as routines are laid
New ideas materialize and new friends are made
We tell her opportunities only appear once
But she doesn't want what she needs and doesn't need what she wants.

A beautiful girl? Oh yeah, you bet ya
Time for that dreaded birds and bees lecture.
Then the explosion in the tenseness of our home
Tearfully confessing she's with child of her own.

And I sit on the bench in the maternity ward
Wife in the birthing room insisting on cutting the chord.
So the grandson enters the world wet and wailing
How naive to think it would all be plain sailing.

hardlock · April 14, 2022, 12:29:16 AM

Excellent song! I was right there with you! Just wait till you have a dozen grand-kids plus a great-granddaughter!

Greeny · April 14, 2022, 03:18:32 AM

Simply beautiful. Such eloquent and emotional storytelling. That chord change on 'Drinks and handshakes...' and subsequent verses is stunning. And the lead guitar work is perfect. Amazing all round.

Zoltan · April 14, 2022, 04:00:26 AM

That sound of baby crying at the beginning was an instant attention grabber

Those lyrics are plain lovely. The story of life / life stages told in a very lively and vivid manner.

Excellent song!

StephenM · April 14, 2022, 05:04:12 AM

"We tell her opportunities only appear once
But she doesn't want what she needs and doesn't need what she wants."

the lines throughout the song are fantastic... but I liked the above one the most.

amazing song really. musically and vocally perfect. wonderful stuff Ray.