Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” has long been a favourite party piece of mine, although I have never quite mastered the rhythm of the repeated open G-string which runs throughout the song. However, apart from that little difficulty it’s a deceptively easy song to play – and a great song to sing. Mr McC certainly knows how to write for voice!
“Butterfly’s Wing” is my attempt to write a song in a similar vein to “Blackbird”. I remember thinking “I wonder if I could write a song where I am playing two notes of a chord and singing the third. Could I sustain that idea for a whole song?” Well I think I came pretty close to achieving it! I’m especially fond of the chorus of this one – the “Evening showers of rain” line. Technically, it contains what is known as a “false relation” with a B-flat clashing with the B-natural. This creates an archaic feeling much the same as Seal achieved in “Kiss from a Rose”.
The middle section “You can say what you want” was worked out academically on paper so that it would function as a countermelody to the “Lighter than a butterfly’s wing” line. I had half an eye on Paul McCartney’s “Silly Love Songs” here (which features three counter melodies – a tour de force of contrapuntal writing) and the other half an eye on his “Wanderlust” from “Tug of War”. Incidentally, the latter track is one of Macca’s hidden gems – George Martin considered it to be Paul’s finest ever vocal from any stage in his career and that’s praise indeed!
The instrumentation of “Butterfly’s Wing” is probably the sparsest of any of my songs – just a single finger-style guitar. I resisted the temptation to add bass guitar and strings because once you start adding instruments it’s very difficult to know when to stop. The essence of this song is its fragility, both lyrically and musically and, just like a butterfly, it could so easily have been crushed under the weight of too much instrumentation.
The song ends with the sound of falling rain and a nightingale singing. I vividly remember back in the 1980s in East Anglia, hearing a nightingale singing late at night from the open window of my house. It was one of the eeriest things I have ever heard and, like Keats, I have always thought that the song of the bird expresses as much pain as it does pleasure.
Instrumentation: All instruments played or programmed by Brian Parks:
Programmed acoustic guitar, lead vocals, backing and harmony vocals.
Lyrics
Lighter than a butterfly’s wing came the evening shower
Breathless as the nightingales sing, darker by every hour
Who would think those showers could wash away the pain?
That all those tears could now be swallowed by the rain?
Softer than a humming bird’s song, borne upon the breeze
Shows no sign of anything wrong, whispering from the trees
Who would think that all those moments that we shared
Should now be thrown away just as if nobody cared?
Evening showers of rain can wash away the tears and pain and so.
Can bring life back again so slow.
You can say what you want. I don’t care anymore my friend
But if you so choose to do then what would be your profit in the end.
Who would think those showers could wash away the pain?
That all those tears could now be swallowed by the rain?
Lighter than a butterfly’s wing [You can say what you want]
Came the evening shower [I don’t care anymore my friend]
Breathless as the nightingales sing [But if you so choose to do then]
Darker by every hour [What would be your profit in the end]
Who would think that all those moments that we shared
Should now be thrown away just as if nobody cared?
Evening showers of rain can wash away the tears and pain and so.
Can bring life back again