 |
Naked writer snaps still life called,
'workstation under the grapevine with coffee', before pulling trunks on for a dip in the pool. |
Earlier this year I was working up another song and I had the idea of the Icarus boy flying, always flying, never falling as the myth carried on through the centuries, through various stages of popular culture. And I was thinking about who he would encounter in that magical way. The Wright brothers and Neil Armstrong were an obvious thought, and the Beatles flying to America (and back to the USSR, as the old song goes) are another example. These were just musings and jottings in a notebook - and knowing what to do with them is another dilemma. But doodling on the guitar also allows for new thoughts and an accidental lyric can become a full song. That is how this one came about. I had a line and a series of chords, and after some research into the character portrayed, she fits the bill quite well. The first line I had was, 'I wonder if Amelia Earhart ever sang the blues,' it was just a doodle of a line because it sang ok over the music, but it began to materialise and then it worked out, well, into the kind of song I hadn't written in a long long time. For now I could call it Icarus over America:
I don't know if Amelia Earhart ever sang the blues,
when she flew across the ocean
breaking aviation rules,
flying across the world in the company of clouds,
crossing America
and waving to the crowds - saying...
'Everybody has an ocean to cross,'
take to the sky and learn to fly,
and don't tell a woman she can't do what she likes,
what she wants to do, she can do all night
Anticipation and patience coincides
with a worthwhile adventure
two miles in the sky,
and Amelia Earhart would look down on the world
blowing kisses to babies
and the men on the ground - saying...
'Everybody has an ocean to cross,'
take to the sky and learn to fly,
and don't tell a woman she can't do what she likes,
what she wants to do, she can do all night
Can you see her, do you know her, do you feel inspired
to get closer, fly higher, share the stars in her sky,
to fly through the night
'Everybody has an ocean to cross,'
take to the sky and learn to fly,
and don't tell a woman she can't do what she likes,
what she wants to do, she can do all night (ad lib, finish)
There are a number of appropriate songs I could attach to this post, but I like this one, especially since the lady is a fantastic lyricist (different to me that's for sure) but also her own wings have been clipped a bit, of late, Amelia, it was only a false alarm:
