Day 17: Waltzing with a Ghost (with Antonio Lopez)

Lyrics:

The crashing waves against the shore
Take me back to the day we swore
An ocean breeze 'neath an August moon
Returns me to young love in bloom

And then I grab your waist and I pull you near
And we're dancing just like you were here
The wedding party raised a toast
Togther again
Waltzing with your ghost

We said our vows on the pier above the rocks
And we walked away from the seabirds as they flocked
The reception hall had an open bar
On your second drink, I went out for a cigar

If I could do it again, there'd be no cigar
I would stay right where you are
Instead I'm here on this rocky coast
All alone
Waltzing with your ghost

When I returned, the DJ said
"Let's play a song for our newlyweds
"We have the groom, now where's the bride?"
We heard a scream and we raced outside

My heart, like a piece of driftwood, it floated away
Beneath the pier we saw you taken by the waves
Now you know why I'm waltzing with a ghost
That day I lost
The one that I love the most
 Waltzing with your ghost

Details: Last year, Antonio and I wrote a funky cool dance song called "Do the Funky Cat", which is nothing like what either of us normally write. I have since learned that Antonio has a background in heavy metal music, so I went into today's writing session thinking it might be fun to try doing something a little bit metal (or metal-inspired, anyway).

Antonio showed me "Drop D" tuning, and we talked a bit about Metallica and Thrash music. My experience with metal is a lot more pop than Antonio's; I'm mostly familiar with the hair metal scene of the 80's, plus the metal-influenced grunge acts of the early 90's. We ended up doing something that was more like an 80's power ballad.

Antonio came up with the phrase "waltzing with your ghost", and from there the story evolved into something about a man who's bride died at the wedding before they had a chance to have their first dance.

After Antonio's guitar solo before the third chorus, I wanted to sing up an octave, but my voice wasn't quite hitting all the notes, so I kept it a bit low all the way through. If we do anything in the future, I'm going practice that part-- I'd like to do a more operatic job of singing there.

In all, it took about 3 hours for us to write and record the song.