Walking in the woods I spoke aloud
my deepest hopes and dreams
The marks I'd make on history
The great things I'd achieve
When from above
I heard the leaves
Their laughter borne
Upon the breeze
The mocking trees fell quiet, the wise old oak
He spoke up for them all
“We have stood our ground
Since Bonaparte coveted our soil
And we'll be here
When wind and rain
Erase the name
Upon your grave”
I'm really trying to work on melody this year and singing in my 'own' voice (not that wretched generic american one that I and everyone outside of the Arctic Monkeys and The Proclaimers adopt). So on that score I'm quite happy with Still Standing (Trees). There's a little Marx Bros influence in the lyrics of the second verse (listen to the track before you read the lyrics and see if you can guess where the song is going) and a bit of Beatles in the chord progressions (especially the minor 4).
It's just a crazy story that came into my head one day. I live in a beautiful area surrounded by trees but lately a lot of them are losing all their bark for some reason. Despite what the song might lead you to believe this make me quite sad.
I approached the writing a little differently just to break me out of my habits. I wrote the lyrics to existing tunes Fly Me To The Moon for the verse and Autumn Leaves for the chorus, then wrote new music. The odd line lengths and different rhyme schemes made my go beyond my usual patterns. I like the way the song kind of goes 4/4 then 2/4 at the end of the chorus.
I'm up to 40 songs written now this year. It's easy to get a bit down and feel I'm doing this for nothing, but I think I am getting better as a writer. Time will tell.
Leave me a comment if you like it.
Download Still Standing (Trees) mp3
Download Still Standing (Trees) lyrics
Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick
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