Member since:
July 19, 2008

You Have to Come Home (Songs from Scratch Vol. 2)

July 28, 2008 12:26 AM EDT (Updated: July 28, 2008 02:40 PM EDT)

views: 143 | comments: 4

To watch video on Gather
you need the latest Macromedia Flash Player software.
Would you like to install it now?

I had an accident and was hospitalized before I could record my song, so I can only post the musical file here. I have posted the sheet music (one page at a time) in the share photo section. There are five pages total, and you can see how the word underlay works. I will be happy to send the sheet music to anyone who asks, and I can produce it in any key. Maybe some kind soul would actually sing it and post it to this event. The text talks about coming home to heal. I took my cue from the line "won't fill an empty heart," which suggested healing and recovery. I thought that taking the first two lines of the given text and separating them and giving them somewhat better rhyming couplets made a smoother overall text. Then I incorporated more explicit Wizard of Oz themes in the second verse. The second two lines of the given text made a natural bridge. There is a musical quote in the piece. See if you can find it! I am in Kansas City in a hospital, so the words now have a special meaning for me. The song is a classical ballad, and here are the words:

From the ends of the earth to your own back yard,
The journey is long, the journey is hard.
Mouth and mind drink all, but won't fill an empty heart.
You have to come home so the healing can start.
(Instrumental repeat of last line)
It's all within -- energy and matter, namaste and ohm,
Myriad formulas, nostrums and prayer -- all roads lead home.
So start on your journey, unburden your load
And take that first step on the yellow brick road
Find the friends who will help you, with their spirit, mind and heart
Cause you have to come home so the healing can start.
Cause you have to come home so the healing can start.

Tag: songs from scratch

To Group: Minnesota Music

recommend this

link to this page

embed code

Bookmark this video:

Comments: 4

Julia Schrenkler Jul 28, 2008, 10:35am EDT

First: William, I hope all is well and you're healing.

Can you talk more about writing the song or your process? The lyrics are very clear and it is easy to see the story behind it.

reply to this comment

William Beeman Jul 28, 2008, 3:30pm EDT

Thanks for the encouragement. I modified the caption on the song to speak a little more about the text writing. In general, I like to get the rhythmic structure of the words established, and then usually one or more melodies suggests themselves to me. Many contemporary songs have a very narrow vocal range--4 or 5 tones. I am a singer myself, and so I like to explore the whole vocal range, and use unanticipated harmonies to underscore the most important words in the text. In this case, the word "home" in the refrain was especially important, and so it is the highest note in the song, and also is harmonized with a major 7th cord to give it a little shimmer. In the bridge, I used a little dotted rhythmic tone painting to emphasize "energy" and in the second verse, decorated "yellow brick road" with a turn to remind people of a winding path. I think that the melody must have a clear relationship to the text, and figuring out how that works is great fun.

reply to this comment