Day 9: Stories of You (written with Edee Gail)

 

Day 9: Stories of You (written with Edee Gail)

Part of my song-a-day writing project for January 2024, and Day 3 of this month’s The Fearless Songwriter challenge.

Lyrics:

I grew up on an island
I was born on a suburban block
I grew up seeing ships from around the world
I fell asleep to cars running around the clock

Seven siblings in perpetual motion
One brother, and we made some noise
Horses, swim, cheer and choir practice
Watching TV and hanging with the boys

We all follow different paths
There are tunnels we all run through
We all have separate tales
They're all stories of you

You were quiet, unassuming
Hidden talents known by few
We shared your interests, your friendship
And special moments with you

We loved your book reviews
Picking sessions laced with laughter
We loved to help you search for
The wisdom you sought after

We all follow different paths
There are tunnels we all run through
We all have separate tales
They're all stories of you

Our lives are better having known you
Without you, we never would have met
Even with you gone now
We'll always be in your debt

We all follow different paths
There are tunnels we all run through
We all have separate tales
They're all stories of you

***

Details: The first anniversary of my roommate's passing is coming up, and her friend Edee Gail has been coming by to help me clear out the house. She's also a songwriter, so I asked her if she wanted to join in on my January songwriting challenge.

Turns out that Edee hasn't really done a co-write like this before, so we had to figure out how to proceed. She normally writes lyrics before adding music. That always makes me nervous, because I worry about how the words are going to match up with the music, but I've been writing my usual way all week; I was more than willing to try lyrics first.

Today's prompt from the Fearless Songwriting challenge was "Stories of You", and we began with that. We came up with the idea of people from different backgrounds finding common ground. Edee and I were trading off lines about our upbringings in the first verse (if she had been able to stay and record the video with me, that's how we would have sung it). Then we came up with the chorus that ended with "Stories of you" and had to figure out who the "you" was referring to.

Well, the answer was our friend BJ, my late roommate who I mentioned above. So we made a list of her attributes and tried to fit them into the second verse. The bridge was the last thing we worked on.

Then we worked on the melody. The chorus melody, at first, was too similar to the verse melody, so we switched some things around to get what we got. Edee had to leave before we really worked out the bridge melody-- it was really giving us fits. After she left, I worked out a provisional something.

This song is a little more sentimental than I usually do. I would have a hard time writing this song without peppering it with cynicism, so it was good to have Edee there to sprinkle in the sweetness.