Day 20: As The Crow Flies (Song-a-day January)

 

Day 20: As The Crow Flies 

By Helen Peterson & David Coile 

Part of my daily songwriting project for January 2025 

Lyrics: 

Driving down the road 

Thought I was going home 

Just left work for the day 

Sick of feeling needed 

Leaves me feeling depleted 

You know there's got to be a different way 

Free of all the obstacles 

No one tells me where to go 

I want to follow open skies 

As the crow flies 

I remember at 18 

Searching for what life means 

Taking a turn where the asphalt ends 

The reservoir was on my right 

Above me shined the Northern Lights 

I didn't know what I didn't know then 

Free of all the obstacles 

No one told me where to go 

I went to follow open skies 

As the crow flies 

Sometimes I have second thoughts 

Of chances taken and others left behind 

But sometimes I find that getting lost 

Is just the thing I need to ease my weary mind 

Roll in the driveway, back at home 

Cat in the window, lights are on 

Long shadows lead me to the door 

After dinner, I brush my teeth 

Say my prayers, lay me down to sleep 

And in my dreams I begin to soar 

Free of all the obstacles 

No one tells me where to go 

I want to follow open skies 

As the crow flies 

*** 

Details: 

Helen and I rescheduled our co-writing session twice before settling on this snowy January day, with temperature in the single digits. I drove over to her place and my trunk was frozen stuck, so I couldn't bring in my music stand (it's still in the trunk). 

Helen didn't have much experience co-writing, but I told her my preferred process, which is to start from scratch and pull ideas from our conversation. Helen really likes to write road songs, so we started from that idea, and I basically interviewed her about why and what she gets out of driving around. Personally, I don't get much out of driving except on rare occasions-- it's just a way to get form here to there. But we ended up exchanging a variety of driving tales and the song started taking shape. 

We spent about 3 hours writing the song, but doing this after work, Helen wanted to wrap up for the day. We were just a few lines short, so I ended up finishing the last couple lines on my own, with the caveat that they're fair game for getting cut come the revision. I wish we had finished early enough to have gotten Helen on camera-- she has a wonderfully nuanced and powerful guitar technique that would have enhanced this song quite a bit. Plus, harmonizing with her would be fun. But we'll just have to make another video sometime. 

It was great fun getting to know Helen better and learn about her writing process! I'm looking forward to developing this song with her.