Day 22: The Golden Catch (Song-a-day January)

 

Day 22: The Golden Catch

By Aprylisa Snyder & David Coile

Part of my daily songwriting project for January 2025

Lyrics:

Early each morn

My soul rises from sleep

To sail out to the bay

Throw my net o'er the deep

The knots and the lines

Like fingers are crossed

Hunting the catch

I so dearly lost

I cast out my net

Cast it far, cast it wide

To see just what I might fetch

Rumors and legends

Lost treasures and dead ends

My quest for the golden catch

A pull on the net

And the deep water strong

Oh, my fortune is made

But I could be wrong

Between hope and doubt

My strength wants to be free

From this tug of war

With this bottomless sea

I cast out my net

Cast it far, cast it wide

To see just what I might fetch

Rumors and legends

Lost treasures and dead ends

My quest for the golden catch

I once had a love that was pure and golden

She silently slipped from my grasp

Her light beckons me from the ocean's horizon

My sweet bonnie mermaid lass

I open my net

To find fool's gold

And objects lost

In the sea

There are trinkets and tangles

And seaweed

No treasure to find

Or to keep

I'll go back to the land

And its shadows

And lay my heart gently to sleep 

And when the sun beckons

My soul to rise

Return to my quest in the deep

I cast out my net

Cast it far, cast it wide

To see just what I might fetch

Rumors and legends

Lost treasures and dead ends

My quest for the golden catch

***

Details:

Big lesson to be learned from this writing session: always record a quick voice memo when you've figured out a section. We had basically written the whole thing, but when we went to record it, we had forgotten the verse melody, or maybe the chord progression. What happened was that we went to work on the bridge, which had a different progression and melody, and failed to retain the exact verse music. This was frustrating and Aprylisa decided to stop at that point, and I took the song home to try to salvage it. 

Aside from that, the writing session went very well. Aprylisa hasn't co-written before, but I've helped her out with some of the songs she's written on her own. I appreciated this session because Aprylisa started off the way I usually do with co-writes-- she asked a lot of questions to zero in on the theme of the song and to develop a palette of ideas to draw from.

When we first got together, we decided we didn't want to write about politics, even though it had been on both of our minds. Instead, we talked about the ins and outs of networking in creative work and other types of business. That led us to the image of casting a net, and it eventually evolved into more of a metaphor about searching for a true love. 

We talked about the overall structure of the song and what each section would be trying to say, then I came up with the chord progression and Aprylisa wrote most of the lyrics. The only exception being that I wrote the lyrics for the chorus. I think it's interesting to compare our writing styles, because I can rhyme, but Aprylisa's verse lyrics are much more poetic and beautiful. But I think it all comes together. 

Once I got home, I reconstructed the verse melody as well as I could, and I think I got close to the original, but this song is ripe for a substantial revision the next time we get together.