I bet you’ve been wondering how things are going with the recording project for Spellbound. Well I’m glad you asked, since it’s been a while since I posted anything about it. I spent the last few months working on a new song, called The Call of the Muse. The first four songs were all pretty short, totaling just twelve minutes between the. This one is seven and a half minutes long, so it took a little longer to record. It also has lots of layers of guitars and synthesizers.
This song was truly a collaboration between Martin and myself. It was a little bit ambitious, with two contrasting sections and a reprise of the first part as an outro jam. My recollection of this one is pretty hazy, and in fact I’d totally forgotten all about it until I heard it again last year. I think the initial impetus came from Martin. He had a guitar riff and a fragment of a lyric, and was pushing me to write, and particularly to come up with lyrics. The idea became to write a two part song, a sort of conversation, something like No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature by the Guess Who, or maybe Your Move / I Seen All Good People by Yes. So Martin mainly wrote the first section, based on a rhythm guitar pattern, and I added a swoopy, sweeping synthesizer solo. Martin sings lead and I sing harmony. Then the groove shifts to a keyboard pattern and there’s a new melody and lyric, and I’m singing lead on this section with Martin doing harmony.
I feel like my parts were kind of a response to the initial themes and direction Martin established. The imagery is bright and sunny and full of longing, the central metaphor being the call to adventure as a maiden made of sunshine. Back in those days I struggled with lyrics, just to make them fit the melody and rhyme, so there’s a fair amount of repetition and the images are all over the place (and it doesn’t always even actually rhyme). Maybe Martin helped with the chorus in the second section too. Ah well, you gotta start somewhere. The lyrics still are better than alot of songs out there, and at least they’re earnest and heartfelt from a particular time and place. Musically, the whole structure and chord progression and layers of sounds and instruments, and the whole dynamic journey is all pretty cool. And once I started working on it, the track has shaped up to far better than you’d expect, absolutely killer!
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Spellbound (The Call of the Muse)
Part I: Look for the Girl
Look for for the girl with the sun in her hair
She dances in the morning light
Hear the song she’s singing everywhere
She’ll make everything be alright
Look for for the girl with the sun in her eye (and you’re gone)
Gone to the meadows in the sun (on the run)
Run with the sun to where the ocean lies (everyone)
Water flow for everyone
She takes you away out of the crowd
Sings you a song and shows you the sun
Look for the girl with the sun in her heart (heart of gold)
Golden glowing in the night (night is here)
Hear the song she’s singing everywhere (and you’re gone)
She’ll make everything be alright
Sings you a song and shows you the sun
She brings you along brings you on the run
Part II: Time I’m Leaving
I think it’s time I’m leaving now the world won’t wait forever
She takes me by the hand and says you know it’s now or never
I think it’s time I learned how to see and open up my eyes
She takes my hand and sets me free and opens up the skies
I am flying ‘cross the land
And she’s showing me the sun
As she takes me by the hand
And she’s singing me the song of light, mystifying sight
Angel in the night, glowing with delight
I see the world that is calling to me
She sets, sets my spirit free
I think it’s time I visit the world it’s a long long way to go
She says that if I never try I’m never gonna know
I think it’s time I’m leaving now it’s a long way to the sea
She sings the song and shows me the way and opens up the key
I am flying ‘cross the land
And she’s sailing in the sun
As she takes me by the hand
And she’s singing me the song of light, mystifying sight
Angel in the night, glowing with delight
I see the world that is calling to me
She sets, sets my spirit free
Part III: Outro Jam
(instrumental)