Wake Up

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Four for the Rook

The new song has passed what I call the “critical point” where I have enough of a tune with accompanying chords and sufficient lyrics which sing well and I don't squirm when I read back the lyrics as poetry - or prose.

I have been on several fruitful long walks in the countryside near my home when I have made notes on my iPhone after I have mulled over them in my head as I walk. Here are some recent fragments:

But just that one word still waiting to be heard
May be the spark that fires a revolution

Words are just like seeds that grow

Some are sweet and some are sour
And some like seeds may never flower

But that one seed knows 
There'll always be those
Who'lll say it's all a waste of time you trying
Just a little like pigs and flying

The section which I have tentatively called a chorus is now twice as long as it was because on playing the arrangement back in the score-writing software Sibelius, I realised it needed more time to put across the “earworm” tune. So here is the current state of the lyrics:

Intro 1: 
Ten seeds are in a row
Lying in the earth below
Which of them will start to show?
And which of them will fail to grow?

Verse 1: 
‘Cause there’s four for the rook
And there’s three for the crow
Then there’s two that’ll wither in the heat of the sun
Leaving one that’s sure to grow

Verse 2:
And though it seems a shame
It’s such a wasteful game
When you start with all those seeds you’re sowin’
And ending up with one seed growin’

Chorus:
Oh, but that one seed. 
Is all the earth needs
Before those winter winds and spring showers
Bring along the summer flowers
And that one seed knows
There’ll always be those
Who’ll say it’s all a waste of time you trying
Just a little like pigs and flying

Mm… Mm… Mm…

Intro 2: 
Seeds grow like spoken words
Some are silent; some are heard
Some are sweet and some are sour
And some, like seeds, may never flower

Verse 3:
‘Cause there’s four for the rook
And there’s three for the crow
Then there’s two that’ll wither in the heat of the sun
Leaving one that’s bound to grow

Instrumental verse

Chorus 2:
But just that one word
Soft and seldom heard
May be the spark that fires a revolution
Or a New Year Resolution

The last line was originally Or the one that's a real solution and I kidded myself that I was paying homage to John Lennon here but I felt it was me being lazy again (as I had done with "March winds and April showers")

Although I like the line “Just a little like pigs and flying” it might end up as “Ten to one you'll end up dying”. The jury's still out on that one - however the "pigs flying" line sings well.

For the arrangement I have put the chorus in a different key from the verses: the verses are in E major and the chorus is in G major. This gave me a huge problem when I added the second part of the chorus as this part of the song modulates from G major to C major so I neederd to quickly switch back to G major for the repeat. Whatever I tried it didn't seem to work. I eventually solved the problem with a “stop” where the acompaniment drops out for a bar and the vocal continues. I think it works but technically I'm on dodgy ground with the chord progressions here. I remember I had a similar problem returning to the verse section of “Up on the Downs” which had a similar (though not identical) key change between verse and chorus.