Reading Again!

Time Away

I have spent too much time away from reading over the last year or so... That will change this week as the new John Irving novel came out yesterday. I'll be hunkering down for the next few days reading it before I head out to New York next week.

London, My Heart

London, My Heart

LONDON, MY HEART
by Patrick T. Power

London, my heart is calling
Through dust that fills your skies
London, my heart is falling
With the tears that cloud your eyes

London, my heart is aching
With the pictures on my screen
London, my heart is breaking
Is this all just make-believe?

London bridges falling down
Morning turns to night
Hopes and wishes all around
Does black ever turn to white?

London, my heart is bleeding
Will a cure come sure and swift?
London, my heart is pleading —
Will this shadow ever lift?

London, my heart is grieving
For the victims of this game
London, my heart is screaming
At the ones who are to blame

London tears are falling down
Does wrong after wrong make a right?
Hopes and fears are all around
Will black ever turn to white?


Download mp3. (Please don't stream.)

"Me And My Guitar..."

"Me And My Guitar..."

"...always in the same room" (James Taylor)

A little over ten years ago, I lost my interest in photography. Or so I thought.

Only a couple of years before that, I had begun writing songs, but with the demise of my thirteen-year marriage, songwriting took up a major chunk of my creative psyche. I wrote songs on the way to work, at work, on the way home from work, in the car, in my head... anywhere I had a free moment to think, it seemed, songs invaded my headspace.

I purchased my Martin guitar a few months before I moved out of my house. It was a present to myself as way of making up for all the years I'd pretty much denied myself many personal possessions. I'd owned a 12-string guitar which my wife had picked up from a friend of hers for $70 as an anniversary gift. It served me pretty well for a number of years, despite its rather high action. But to improve as a guitar player, I needed a better guitar. I'd always wanted a Martin, so over to Elderly Instruments I went. My choice came down to either a 30-year old D-21 or a brand new D-1R. I chose the latter.

Hour after hour I would play some days, either learning someone else's songs or writing and rehearsing my own. I met many local (and a few not-so-local) musicians during my first year after moving out of the house, so I was often invited to jams and song circles. Never wanting to be without something new to play on these occasions, I tried to write as often as possible. Mostly, I wrote about myself... taking some aspect of my life and turning it into song. Divorce is pretty fertile ground for songwriting, as you might imagine, so I did lots of plowing of that field. It's only natural to do lots of processing after such a life-altering event, so I did most of my processing in songs.

A couple of wonderful yet short-lived relationships provided more song material and for several years, I attended a songwriting retreat; I began writing songs that didn't necessarily involve me thematically, although I'm always in there someplace, I suppose.

For the last year or so, I haven't done a lot of writing, other than for my blog, which until recently, has even been forsaken for my resurgent interest in photography thanks to flickr. Every now and then, however, a song comes to me — whether to celebrate a friend's birthday, or in response to emotions I might read in a photograph. I write almost as if it's my duty, sometimes, whether that means giving voice to something I — or someone else — might be feeling.

I've re-recorded my most recent song (complete with train whistle).

Adrift

Adrift

Sometimes my songs are inspired more by others' lives rather than my own...

Adrift

by Patrick T. Power

Down by the water
Down by the sea
Adrift on the shore
That's where I'd rather be
Looking over the waves
And out to the blue
Clouds in the distance
Remind me of you

Slowly, so slowly
The ocean creeps in
I wonder, I wonder
Where does it begin?
And where does it end?
And where does it go?
Questions with answers
That I wanna know

Far from the city
Far from the lights
Far from the laughter
That once ruled the nights
Far from the people
Far from the streets
Far from the madness
That repeats and repeats and repeats

Here by the water
Here by the sea
Adrift with these thoughts
Washing all over me
Slowly, so slowly
A sadness creeps in
I wonder, I wonder
Where does it begin?
And where does it end?
And where does it go?
Questions with answers...
Will I ever know?
Will I ever know?

Listen

Guilty Pleasure

French Postcards (Screen capture)

This morning, I was reminded of an old (1979) film French Postcards. Many years ago, I happened to see it on Cinemax and it has turned out to be one of my guilty pleasures. So I pulled out the VHS (!) and watched it again.

The film is about a group of American exchange students who travel to France for a year to study the language and French culture. It's a fairly innocuous, predictable film, really, but it has many humourous moments and a few poignant ones. It also has – as one of its recurring musical motifs – a song that one of the students (Alex, played by David Marshall Grant) writes and sings for his teacher (on whom he had a crush) early on in the film. I suppose it's more of a ditty really, but I've always liked its naïve sweetness and the lilting melody. It's probably a song that only a songwriter could love... Download mp3 (Save it to your computer – please don't stream it.)

THE THING OF IT IS
by John Kander / Fred Ebb

I hear a sigh from a bench in the square
And the sound of the sigh says a lover is there
Then I suddenly see
That the lover is me
And the thing of it is...

Paris

Paris... is a lady with a light in her eyes
A surprise kinda glow about her
Paris... is a teacher who has lessons to give
how to love, how to live
That there's so much to learn
That you toss and you turn about her

I hear a song down a cobblestone street
And I've never heard singing that sounded so sweet
Then a jolt in my spine
Says the music is mine
And the thing of it is...

Paris

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Also notable about the film is that it's one of the earliest film appearances by Debra Winger (above right), who plays a bit role as the party-loving roommate of one of the main characters (Blanche Baker, above left), and Mandy Patinkin, who plays a sexist Iranian who Lora finds to take her to what she calls "The Festival". His favorite English phrase is "No problem!"