Elegy For a Dying Land

[Johnbee]

The song is back up if you're interested.

Whatever happened to spacious skies, waves of grain, lovers of freedom?
We can no longer know liberty in this land divided
When did the concept of Brotherhood die?
On whose watch did this evil get by?
We kill each other cos we can't agree
We each think we're perfect

We set love aside.
Nothing but pride to guide us
How very sad it it
Can we awaken before it's to late
Not too much time stop the enemy
We must restore our sanity.

c 2024  John Bowen 

[StephenM]

yeah...

a sentiment that I wonder alot about John..

lovely music but a lamentation it is..

hopefully we can get it together... and find "peace, goodwill toward men"...

love that long and winding intro

[Zoltan]

Insane amount of melodies and musical joy even before the vocals appear. That's quite a daring arrangement.
An approach that's belies your musical roots.

I can hear the record label executives saying to John "Get to the chorus" only to get a resounding "No..." as a reply.

[Farrell Jackson]

Cool John, you have given us two songs in one. The first is an instrumental with 4 minutes of ear candy. The second is with vocals (I agree totally with the lyrical message). Everything is mixed perfectly!

[LG2]

John,

This is a beautiful piece!
I love the bass, and of course the mellotron...

I was almost wondering if it was an instrumental, but the words came in at the end.
 
That seems very different to me.
Not to say I don't like it, I do!
Straight to my Android [ipod] to enjoy over & over....

LG

[Blooby]

I just realized much of your bass lines are as wonderfully schizophrenic as your vocal lines. Is that a stringed bass or a sim? Mad respect. Very cool choice of complimentary tones.

I hit save prematurely, and I dipped my toe in just prior to the vocals. Just wow. The instrumentation (especially those strings) are next level. I admit that I found the ending a bit abrupt, though, but it doesn't derail the rest of the song.

Blooby

[Johnbee]

I just realized much of your bass lines are as wonderfully schizophrenic as your vocal lines. Is that a stringed bass or a sim? Mad respect. Very cool choice of complimentary tones.

I hit save prematurely, and I dipped my toe in just prior to the vocals. Just wow. The instrumentation (especially those strings) are next level. I admit that I found the ending a bit abrupt, though, but it doesn't derail the rest of the song.

Blooby

Bass is Trilian Bass module (a sim) by Spectrasonics. It's triggered by my Nektar  Impact LX61 keyboard controller.
When Toontrack released EZ Bass a few years ago I considered getting it but I like programming my own bass better. If you learn the keyswitches you can do lots of fancy stuff like slide up/down and the "funk" attack.  Gives choice of acoustic or electric bass, fretless and even a Chapman Stick which sounds super cool for lead solos.  I love the thing to death.

Thanks, Blooby, Farrell, LG2, Zoltan & Stephan.

  John B

[Ray Brookes]

Nice song, Mr.B. The production and playing is first class and the vocal when it finally enters is nice and clear. Like many, I agree with the theme of the lyrics.

[Pete C]

A fantastic piece of music John. I always find it difficult to comment on your songs as my knowledge of music theory is very basic but your tracks always demonstrate a high level of musicianship and knowledge which is way beyond me.

Pete

[Redler]

So well written piece of music, and of course performed as well. Farrell summed it well up; this is ear candy. Keep up the good work, John!