Whither thou Goeth, I'll go. And Whither thou stayeth, I'll stay. I''ll be Your Partner Forever, if only You'll say I may.

Put your Hand in my Hand, Dear. Walk by my Side, My Love! We were Meant for Each Other, just as the Hand fits the Glove. Would that I wake to your Beauty at the Dawn of each Day And I would praise God each Evening if I were Permitted to Say: Whither thou goeth I'll go And whither thou stayeth I'll stay I'll be your True Love forever, if only You'll say I may.

With this Ring I would Wed thee With your Ring make me thine But two Metal Bands, about Our hands are but the Outward Sign. The Flame of Love we have Kindled May it always Shine May we always See its Lightin each Others Eyes

Whither thou goeth I'll go And Whither thou stayeth I'll stay Side by Side, forever if only You'll say I May.

Let us grow Old together United through thick and through thin Two made One, forever Surrounded by Kindred and Kin! I will pledge You my Love, Dear If You will pledge yours Mine All I have, and All I am are Yours for All of Time!

Whither thou goeth I'll go And whither thou stayeth I'll stay I will be faithful forever if only You'll say I May.

Yes I will be Faithful Forever If Only You'll Say I May

MMario

Question (irrelevant like most of mine): as a longtime singer of the "Lakes of Ponchartrain" (I know there is a thread on this), what are these lakes? Are they a bunch of finger lakes, or swamps, or pools, or what? Are there 2 or 12, big or small?

Yours, Peter

MMario

Yours, Peter

Yours, Peter T.

I thought it might be a good idea to steal this from Joe and put it here. (He must be asleep). It does make the songs easier to read and is quite simple really.

"let me once again reiterate that the most important code you can learn for use here is the line break code, which sets lyrics off in separate lines instead of all mushed together. It looks like this:

Type it in at the end (or beginning) of each line. Or, copy it once and paste it in every time you need it. Or, type your lyrics in a word processor, and search-and-replace. Search for paragreaph marks, and replace them with a paragraph mark and
As Ross Perot might say, "It's that simple......" -Joe Offer-"

http://www.mudcat.org/Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=37333

the above should get you there but I will try just once more HERE

MMario

[If anyone wants to volunteer to transcribe it by ear I would be willing to send them a tape and much gratitude.] And yes, your comments on the format fit the way I sing it; but I was not about to complain when Barbara went to the trouble to reformat it in the first place. Thanks again, Barbara!

I thought that "goest" was correct and was very frustrated because it was harder to sing then "goeth" but my dialect coach told me either was correct; thoough evidently "goest" is more common - so I switched it.

Barbara - no, I've never heard or heard of "Whither thou goest" (as a song) and I apologize for the random capitalization - that resulted from having clipped the text from a document that was in multiple fonts and mixed caps and lower case because the person I was printing it for liked the looks of it.

  
  Tell Me A story - D.Tilston (07-1998)
  G                 C       G
  Tell me a story babe, if you're able
  G                    C      D
  Tell me a story that will ease my fears
  G                  C           G
  Tell me story babe, of different ages
  G                   D           G
  A story to lift off the weight of these years
  
  G       Em      D
  Paint me picture babe, with your words
  Paint me a picture that's full of your dreams
  Paint me a picture of a different world
  A world not as cruel as this one now seems
  
  Take me to a place babe, in your mind
  Take me to a place where you long to be
  Take me to a place where I can rest for a time
  A place where I can set myself free
  
  (inst)
  
  Give me your love babe, one more time
  Give me your love, now don't you weep
  Give me your love you know I give you mine
  Your love is my anchor as I drift off to sleep
  

Early mornings would seem to be a good time to write.

  
  G                 C       G
  Tell me a story babe, if you're able
  G                    C      D
  Tell me a story that will ease my fears
  G                  C           G
  Tell me story babe, of different ages
  G                   D           G
  A story to lift off the weight of these years
  
  G       Em      D
  

Yours, Peter T.

Kris

I liked your lyrics. Kinda reminded me of the reflective, introverted stuff Tori Amos is famous for (and if you're not particularly a fan of her music no offense was implied).

And regarding your comment about the nature of the muse: my experience has been the songs that seem to write themselves are the ones that turn out the best. Makes me think that I'm just the medium, the tool of a force in nature what subjugates my will to its own, and I am awestruck and humbled by its presence (Insert some sort of mystical theme music here). The ones I hammer out word by word sound like they've been hammered out word by word, re: garbage.

May all the muse's visits to you be so pleasant.

Regards,

Neil

I agree with you regarding techniques to fall back on. An unending flow of distilled spirits or a love affair gone sour seem to work well for me, but naturally I wouldn't recommend them to everyone.

I tried to access your link to read your lyrics, but I had problems. Could you recommend an alternative route? Or could you post them? Thanks.

Regards,

Neil

Till I woke up asleep in Face Down Alley, Face Down Alley, Face Down Alley,
Pulled myself out onto Fall Apart Lane, onto Fall Apart Lane, onto Fall Apart Lane,
Screamed at the cars on Broken Boulevard, Broken Boulevard, Broken Boulevard.

Resolved and resolved on Progress Circle, Progress Circle, Progress Circle
Promised the moon on a Shining Path, on a Shining Path, on a Shining Path
Lost you again in some Trackless Waste, in some Trackless Waste, in some Trackless Waste,
Came to the end at the end of Endless End, of Endless End, of Endless End, of Endless End, of Endless End....

I'll make my way up Effort Avenue, Effort Avenue, Effort Avenue,
And spend my days down in Infant Step Park, down in Infant Step Park, down in Infant Step Park,
And build a home in Recovery Street, in Recovery Street, in Recovery Street

And you'll find me at the end of your road, at the end of your road, at the end of your road,

Again.

(copyright, 1993)

I have no idea if the line breaks will work. This song has, more or less, the same chord patterns as "Black is the Colour": Am in each first line with shifts into Dm7 and Em when it all gets too much. The last chord of all is a C.
The problem I have with it is that it is, well, relentless. When I sing it, it just drives from the start to the finish. I keep thinking it needs a break, a two-line chorus, or some kind of verse ending for each verse that repeats, but I can't find a starting point. It somehow feels as if it needs it, though someone I sang it to said that it would lose something if it moved off its structure. So I could be wrong -- it just doesn't feel finished to me. Anybody have any thoughts that might help (there, or anywhere in the song)?

Yours, Peter T.

It is difficult to say too much without hearing it but if as you say it is relentless and drives along maybe that's exactly what it should do, especially with all those streets! Interesting idea that all the street names, seems to work well.

I have been thinking some more and I think the impression may have been given in these threads that writing songs is about producing hundreds of songs in order to write one good one. While I'm sure there is some truth in that, I think that it is possible to produce a good song at the first attempt.

Its rather like the lottery, you would expect that the more attempts you make the more likely you are to win, when in fact you could buy just one ticket and win.

Again it is probably a little discouraging to read the guitar thread and feel that to produce good songs they have to be written on a vintage Martin or a Gibson. Of course that is not the case.

I think what I am trying to say is don't give up.

I liked your song Kris very much.

Yours, Peter T.

We've talked about this before privately; I'm going public on the basis that this might be relevant or of interest to others.

Stuart, your "problem" is terribly common with adults. Most musicians I know, including professional musicians, have these same feelings most, if not all, of the time. Me too.

I could point you at any amount of literature to do with enhancing/unleashing creativity, but the bottom line is simple: you're an individual, you're not "mimicking" being an individual. You have your own take on life, your own sense of aesthetics: don't be afraid to use them. The main creativity-killer is a fear of what others will think of our feeble efforts, a fear of failure. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I occasionally give guitar lessons; many players wants to sound like Jimi or Stevie or Eric or [insert fave guitar hero]. It's great to have heroes to emulate, of course, it's the first part of the road; but I like to point out eventually that nobody makes their mark copying someone else. All my musical/artistic heroes tend to be individuals who have found their own voices; the more individual the better. It's the character that comes across, and only secondarily exactly how it's put across.

Similarly I've found a tendency to procrastinate: "I'll be more creative when I play better / when I buy that next indispensable piece of gear / a better guitar / when I've finished this rush job". Gollocks. Using one's imagination takes practice; start now even if you can't sing or play or paint or write at all.

One piece of literature I like to quote is a thesis by a friend of mine entitled "The Critic and the Creator". She points out that young children are primarily creative and non-critical, happy to splash paint over paper, the walls, the TV and the cat. Adults OTOH have necessarily become conditioned to be critical, to not make a mess, not to try things they don't know how to do - and have to re-learn how to "make things up".

Just before I shut up, some practical tips: - My own favourite trick is to fool myself into suspending all criticism until a later date. I like working under pressure; no time to get cerebral, just bang it out and see what sticks. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. It has at least served to demonstrate to me that I _can_ be creative, despite my expectations of failure. - Don't judge yourself; you're your own worst critic. Don't worry about criticism generally; I've said this before. Anybody can criticise. Only rarely is there anything to be learnt from the critics, no matter how well-qualified they are. Far better to create and tolerate the critics than not to create. In the extreme, far better to create garbage than not to create. - Carry a notebook and a pen (or a dictaphone) at all times. If you get a snippet of an idea, even just two words or a 3-note melody, write it down. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Do this again and again. After a couple of years you'll be surprised how creative you've been! Equally importantly, you'll see evidence that you can express your character. - Many songwriters (esp. Neil Finn) say that the best time to get ideas is just as you're falling asleep, or daydreaming. Keep that notebook by the bed (Neil gets up and grabs the guitar and manages not to lose the mood in the process - a neat trick in itself). - Some artists use spliff or alcohol to "get loose". I personally wouldn't condone a primarily pharmaceutical approach to anything, even creativity. But the point is that being creative _does_ require a different headstate, one which can sometimes be uncomfortable yet still useful (in my experience). Indeed there is compelling evidence that trauma and psychosis can help creativity enormously! (Again not recommended.) Do allow yourself the headspace to get emotionally involved, moved even, perhaps even driven - express yourself, get it off your chest, make a statement, weave a scene. If you feel passion, pleasure or pain, use it. - If you're stuck for a starting point, find one - read the papers, look out the window, go for a walk. Walking is good for songwriting - the walking pace provides a rhythm to start with. Try varying the pace. - If you're looking for a melody, stop listening to music. You might find after a while that the tunes in your head didn't come from the radio. - Remember: your main competitive edge as an artist is that there is only one you. - As an artist, you're one half of a relationship; the other half is the artee (the audience). You have control over the first, and none over the second. Don't try to control it - I firmly believe that any audience can smell the difference between a contrivance and an honest statement at 100 yards. Don't even try to analyse it; sometimes the audience seem to contribute more than the artist, they see things in there that the artist just threw in unconsciously and react to those. (Sometimes to a scary degree.) Just do what you do and see if anyone relates; I bet they do.

Anyway, enough verbiage. I hope some of this helps. We are all far more creative than we tend to get the chance to demonstrate to ourselves in the course of the daily "struggle for the legal tender".

Steve

Yours, Peter T.

Kris

>> A thousand pardons Steve, it should have read Steve Fairhead of course. <<

No worries, matey!

Steve

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