En-chant-ing songs, Covered in Flint, and Take A Good Look

The past few days I've turned off the radio in my car to re-listen to some of the wonderful music that I own, but perhaps haven't heard or thought about in a long time.  I've noticed that lately, I've gotten in a groove of loving music with a repeated chorus or chant throughout the song, as I can enjoy the music taking me on a journey inside myself.  Sometimes, it spurs thoughts for poetry or prose of my own, but often it just leads to a calming of the spirit, or an existential calm as I reflect on the songwriter's intention.  However, yesterday as I listened to the repeated refrains of "takes me" in Wordsworth's Ridge, I was compelled to do more research and find out where Sufjan was taking me.  It turns out, the somewhat nebulous song feels this way because it picks, chooses, and paraphrases lines from Wordsworth's The Prelude: Book I around line 357.  I have yet to read the entire prelude, but it is very much rooted in Romanticism and I have added it to my must-read list.

Some other songs that have this turning over/chant-like feel to them (think wagon wheels moving across the prairie) that I've enjoyed lately are the banjo line particularly in Sufjan Steven's All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands (bonus points if you know what the title references) and Walking Far From Home by Iron & Wine.  There are many others I could point out, but I have other topics!

As part of my goal of getting back to creativity, I spent a couple hours last night recording a version of another Sufjan Stevens song: Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid).  I felt that it would be discourteous to get out the trumpet and play in my apartment (neighbors being both above and below), so I recorded my version on multiple guitar tracks, with guitar playing the piano and trumpet lines as well.  The recording is currently located
Here

I have also written a new song for the first time in ages, which was apparent to me at the time of writing it, as I spent much longer on it than I normally spend.  Just a matter of getting the rust out and getting back to writing, and I'm sure if I keep it up future compositions will come more naturally.  The idea came to me while I was driving between Kansas City and Lawrence, as some Canadian geese were migrating south for the winter.  The concept was to set the scene of two "pioneer era" children burying their father in winter as the geese migrated south, and the rest of the poem unfolded and fell onto the page like a bow of ribbon being untied on a Christmas gift.  I also recorded a rough draft of the song, which will be linked to after the final line of the poem:


Take A Good Look
November 13, 2011

Katie O'Malley was a poor farmer's daughter
and Peter O'Malley, a poor farmer's son
Both lived with their father near Fort Leavenworth
Where they'd settled the fall of 1831
Their mother had died two years prior
giving birth to child number three
The young one also did not make it
both buried outside by the old white oak tree

So put on your dark mourning gown
And bring out the flowers, the shovel, the Good Book
'Cause now comes the lowering down
And it may be you next year, so take a good look

November had found Kansas quickly
The snow coated the ground, cleared the canvas anew
The geese brought the news of our neighbor
As the temperature sagged and the winter winds blew
Father was tending the stables
As he had hundreds of times, hundreds before
Bent over, the hoof struck his temple
As he fell to the floor, father would tend no more

So put on your dark mourning veil
And bring out the flowers, the shovel, the Good Book
'Cause we're hammering in the final nail
And it may be you next year, so take a good look

Katie O'Malley spoke the short eulogy
And Peter shoveled six feet out of the ground
They buried their father by the old white oak tree
In the winter of Kansas where death's the only sound

So put on your dark mourning gown
And bring out the flowers, the shovel, the Good Book
'Cause now comes the lowering down
And it may be you next year, so take a good look
And it may be you next year, so take a good look
So take a good look


Here is a link to the song draft