"Tryin' To Write A Song"

[Johnbee]

New song.  Cryptic but personal lyrics.  Thought "collage".

Enjoy!

  JB

[Redler]

Nice song, John! Very beautiful melody. Piano is perfect on this!

Kari

[Greeny]

This is a beaut. That piano is so lush and melodic. This is songwriting quality of the highest standard, and it has a lovely late 60's / early 70's vibe. The vocal harmonies are quite 'west coast' (Crosby Stills and Nash, America etc). Really enjoyed listening to this. And that little harpsicord-sounding addition is just lovely.

[Tangled Wires]

I love the way this song rises from that drum intro.

That repetitive piano is a real hook in this song, and love how you have incorporated the other parts over this, some great little touches and additions in there.

An extremely well written and interesting song, and the vocal and harmonies are top class.

That five minutes just flew by!!! Wonderful song!!

[cuthbert]

Most of the good stuff has already been noted, so...

This is a really sophisticated arrangement - I love the intro, and the piano drives it along along. All the other little touches add up to one very strong 70s-style ballad. Well done, JB!

[launched]

Yes - I love it. Beautiful arrangement and production.

Very sad, revealing and deep - But that's what we're here for I guess.

Mark

[Johnbee]

Thanks all for listening!

  JB

BTW-This song itself is actually quite old.  I wrote it in 1987 when I was in a particularly melancholy mood.
Here's the original demo recording from '87 done on a Fostex 4 track cassette "portastudio".  Instrumentation is 12 string acoustic guitar (Guild F 5-12) and a clarinet.[soundclick]10284706[/soundclick]

[Ferryman_1957]

John, nice to hear your work again. That drum intro is so intriguing, it draws you in and the piano really kicks it off. The whole piece is intriguing, the piano riff and the intertwining vocal lines really create wonderful textures. It has a lot of those West Coast elements and a very well constructed arrangement as well. Exvcellent stuff, really enjoyed it, Any chance of the lyrics? I can never make them out.

Cheers,

Nigel

PS Portastudio! Blimey, still got one in the loft somewhere. Can't imagine we used to think that was the height of sophsitication!

[Johnbee]

Oh course, Nigel.  And thanks!

Please don't bother me too long
I'm tryin' to write a song
Cos the feelings are so strong
and words come out so wrong

Doesn't matter much to me
Never expected you to see

Spoken words are hard to find
to make a lyric rhyme
But I've said them all before
And now you tell me
"Yours was the nicest of all"

Now it's sad. I've been so blind
I let it fall behind
Let the words come out too fast
The feeling doesn't last
Was it only in a game
I thought you felt the same
Thought of a night so long ago
The night you told me
Love was in season that night

Please don't bother me too long
I'm tryin' to write a song
Please don't let your life go by
You have to learn to fly

(Spoken) And no matter how much it hurts
Don't let it show.


C 1987 John Bowen Music

[FuzzFace]

I love the piano with the drums.
This song has a great sound, and the lyrics are poignant.

It's easy to get so consumed in self-expression that one loses sight of the very thing that inspired the thought.