'Europe' - A Maxit & Greeny Collaboration

Greeny · January 21, 2021, 02:47:41 AM

Well here's a style / genre I never thought I'd be doing. Feels kind of 18th or 19th century. Anyway, this is another beautiful piece of (classical) piano composition that Max asked if I could do something vocally and lyrically with. It meant stepping outside of everything I've ever known

So this is Max on piano with a bit of orchestration, and me on vocals. I love where his music takes me.

It's a love song to Europe. The pain of lockdown and no travel, and the pain of living in a country that turned its back on my European friends. The last verse choked me up. There was something in the way the piano softened that made it so poignant.

Sorry for posting songs on consecutive days, but this is Max's really.

Europe

the starlings fall from the sky
on the boulevards of Rome
and winter is biting at my fingers
in the luna parks of Paris and Cologne

I leave my heart behind
everytime we say goodbye

the silence of the intermission
film noir and eurovision
in her eyes
embrace me now
with your mournful skies

the drink flows through your arteries
you don't know what you mean to me
I can't disguise
these souvenirs
that burn inside

Madrid is nice this time of year
To Aranjuez on the strawberry train
or through the streets of Stockholm in the rain
in the shadow of Vesuvius
I'll drink your health again

I leave my heart behind
everytime we say goodbye

the silence of the intermission
film noir and eurovision
in her eyes
embrace me now
with your mournful skies

the drink flows through your arteries
you don't know what you mean to me
I can't disguise
these souvenirs
that burn inside

and here in Brussels in the snow
it's time to go
it's time to part
and try to go back to the start
before our love got torn apart

I leave my heart behind
everytime we say goodbye

goodbye

Johnny McAleer · January 21, 2021, 04:54:20 AM

A nice touch of The Divine Comedy's baroque style here. Very nicely played and sung. The lyrics say it all. Great collab. Wiping away [yet another] post-Brexit tear this end. Lovely stuff - Johnny

chapperz66 · January 21, 2021, 05:40:42 AM

Beautiful. Heartfelt lyrics and a sentiment that I don't disagree with.

Lovely romantic style piano playing, Max, and subtle but important orchestration. Great vocals of course Tim.

I was a presiding officer during the day of the referendum. I've done it for some years and usually you just get paid to sit in a sports centre for 15 hours and issue ballot papers to the few hundred people - usually pensioners - who could be bothered to turn up to vote. It was not like that on that day. Most of the day there were people queuing into the street. Lots of people felt it necessary to announce loudly which way they had voted. I was accused of only issuing pencils so that I could rub out the votes and change them! I was threatened nose to nose by one guy - and he was a big bloke - because he was not on the electoral register so I wouldn't issue him a ballot paper. Eventually I got him to leave and a cheer went up, and I could just sense that it wasn't because I had carried out my job, more because I had stood up to a guy who was clearly eastern European. Leaving aside whatever anybody might think of the result, I found it a difficult day. I guess democracy isn't easy.

Paul

maxit · January 21, 2021, 11:06:29 AM

Yes I am to blame this time for the posting ... hi you all mates (and vote rubbers lol ;-). Paul says it well, it has been probably the most 'personal' amongst politic decisions, with a lot of emotions involved for everyone (here in italy we discussed as if it was up to us ! And this song personally touches me a lot). Tim says her eyes, embrace, love - . Hell of a songwriter, to see the right song in the backtrack like Michelangelo the figure in the marble. I can add something technical should you be curious: I tried to copy (oversimplifying) some ideas of the romantic piano players, for example that they refused to 'close' a melody, until the end. So that last phrase that broke Tim's voice is just the only time in 4 minutes that the G goes back to the C, but what a time LoL!

TPB · January 21, 2021, 12:26:03 PM

Smoking Collab gentlemen
Bravo Tim

Pine · January 21, 2021, 02:42:12 PM

Sadly, i'll admit i've never even been to Europe. Should have gone in '71 when i was single.The places of which you sing seep into your soul no doubt. There is an aura of antiquity to the song. A very successful collab. Well done on all counts.
The lyrics, vocals, and solid piano work paint pictures...