Previous to this month I had only ever written one Christmas song – a song recorded by the Jenny Burton Experience called Christmas In My Soul.  They say, in the music business, that the month of June is the month to write and begin one’s Christmas album, the preparation of such to be around 5-6 months.  Who can write Christmas songs in June?  What a silly notion.

This year the Missus has come up short in her search for the perfect Christmas song for her Christmas Day performance in church.  She had decided to employ a terrific Boston harpist and together with her organist, Bryan Ashley, keep it small and delicate in accordance with the spiritual implications of the morning.  Last year she used a brass quintet plus the church four manual pipe organ and blew the roof off, so this year she wanted to do something completely different.

But no song came to mind to fit the criteria.

While watching her go through her turmoil, I happened to mention one day several weeks ago that perhaps I could write one for her.  This was said in a fit of compassion for her plight while I was in the middle of the mad dash of the final throes of my own CD, Goin’ Home.

Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, she grabbed at the offer and signed me up.  At first I thought, “Oh no, what have I gotten myself into?”  Where would I ever find the time to do this?

Then she came up with the notion that not only should I write it and arrange it for harp and keyboard, but that we should also record it and sell it for Christmas.  Then she came up with the idea that we should also do the sheet music for it and sell that too and let others use it in their churches for their Christmas services as well.  Then she came up with the idea that as long as we were going to do all that, she may as well use the song for her musical Christmas Presence lecture that she does around the country with lecturer, Chet Manchester.  This only moved the deadline for all this up by about 2 ½ weeks!  “Egads,” thought I.  “What have I done?”

So I did it.  In the next 3 days Julia will record the lead vocal to the orchestrated track, Craig Wagner, the designer, will design all the packaging, I’ll mix the song, the WFM staff will manufacture about a hundred singles to start with and by Thursday we’ll be selling this song that will receive it’s first performance in St. Louis on this coming Sunday.  Whew!

Will we make it?  With God’s help, we shall.

It’s a new world.  Things like this can be accomplished in a matter of weeks, a matter of days now.  The power of computers – the power of Mind.

The writing was fun and accomplished in a matter of 48 hours.  Once that was done, I knew we’d be OK.  The rest was just a matter of getting’ it done.

Julia directed me to the Bible for my text and chose the tried and true – think Handel.

“And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful”

But I also wanted to shed some new light on the subject – not just rehash George Fredric.  Julia suggested that I combine the Bible text with some of the text of Mary Baker Eddy and her thoughts on the life of Jesus.  Julia and her big ideas!  Using text (non-lyrics) always makes good songwriting very difficult in that text is not metered and has a way of not particularly sounding very musical much less poetic.  On top of that the text of Mary Baker Eddy cannot be changed by even the alteration of a comma.

However the text she gave me was poetic to a certain extent so I thought I’d give it a go.  I had a great deal more content than I needed to begin with.  Julia can have her long-winded moments, so I had to do some clever editing.  Always easier to cut than to add.  While fooling around with several lyrical directions the line struck me like a lightening bolt — “And his name shall be called Wonderful,”

“What a great idea,” thought I.  Call the song Wonderful!

And so I did.

I was on my way…

Here is the finished lyric.  In another magical musical week you’ll be able to hear, sing, play, perform, buy and listen to the whole thing through the wonderful world of MIDI, LOGIC, the INTERNET and God’s gift of inspiration.

Hot off the presses!

Wonderful

Text by Mary Baker Eddy
Lyrics adapted from the Book of John
Music by Peter Link

The wakeful shepherd beholds
The first faint morning beams,
Ere cometh the full radiance
Of a risen day.

So shone the pale star
To the prophet-shepherds;
Yet it traversed the night, and came
Where, in cradled obscurity, lay
The Bethlehem babe,
And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Wonderful

The people that walked in darkness
Have seen a very great light:
For unto us a child is born,
And a son is given:
And the government shall be upon his shoulder:

And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful

Now the Son of man is glorified,
Yes and God is glorified in him.
Verily, he says unto you,
“He that believeth on me,
The works that I do shall he do also;
And greater works than these shall he do;

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father,
And he shall give you another Comforter”

The prophet of today
Beholds in the mental horizon
The signs of these times,
The reappearance of the Christianity
Which heals the sick
And destroys error,
And no other sign shall be given.

When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth,
The prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:
Saying “Unto us a child is born, . . .”
“Unto us a child is born, . . .”

And his name shall be called Wonderful.”
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful
Wonderful
Yes he is wonderful
Wonderful!

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• The Decline of Lyrical Craftsmanship – Part 1
• Nothing
• You Must Remember This!
• My Body

Last week in her church service (which gets broadcast around the world on the Internet) the Missus performed a new song fresh off the presses.  It has received tremendous feedback, the kind of response that makes all the blood, sweat and tears of this industry totally worth all the effort.  I’ll have to admit that we were not prepared for this response.  Who knew that this national occurrence would come?

Julia Wade (The Missus) chose the song to fit the sermon of that particular Sunday over a month ago, but it turned out to be the right panacea for the moment.  The trouble is, it is a new song that she has been working on for her new forthcoming CD, Silk Road, due to be released this coming Christmas season.  We have no single completed; we have no sheet music to sell – yet.

So we’re going to rush this one out to you ahead of its time.  We’ll release it as a single and its sheet music in the next couple of weeks.  I guess it’s just a song that demanded its own time – not on my schedule or Julia’s, but on its own schedule.   Like a baby who comes early – once it’s born, you simply have to stop all else and deal with it no matter what.

Here are only a few of the comments that we’ve received:

“We had the great good fortune to hear you perform “Even Now” in the Mother Church last Sunday.  We were traveling and just happened to be there in Boston. We both wept, it was SO gorgeous… even my husband cried — who is a Methodist!

Is there a recording of that song available?  My husband is an accomplished guitarist and he loved the guitar music so much too. Of course your singing was a gift!

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful singing with all of us.  We will never forget how special that was!” –Carolyn

“Thank you Julia and Peter for your loving support.  That new solo is so right for what we’re going through… It was as though you were singing to us!

Thank you.  And thank you, Peter.  Deepfelt message.

And we’ve already heard from family in South Africa who listened and loved the Internet relay.

Your support means so much to us.” -Love, K.

In the meantime, here’s the lyric to tide you over…

Even Now
Music and Lyrics by Peter Link

Even now
The sun will rise
The morning come
The day begin
Even now
When all seems lost
And darkness falls over all
Even now
God’s watching over you
Here in the dawn’s first light

At every turn
In every need
With every breath you take

Even now
With cross to bear
He’s always there
In simple truth
Even now
With heavy heart
His love will lighten your way
Even now
He soothes the salted wound
And eases your troubled mind

At every turn
In every need
With every breath you take

God loves you
Hallelujah
God frees you
Hallelujah

Even now
With broken dreams
And weary soul
He’ll carry you
Even now
When all has failed
And mountains are in your way
Even now
He stands a sentinel
The shepherd of all you do

Your every turn
Your every prayer
And every move you make

Your every turn
Your every need
And every breath you take

God loves you
Remember these words that I sing
God loves you
God frees you
Hallelujah

Even More Inspiration

• Wonderful
• You Must Remember This!
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• My Body
• Nothing
• Spiritual Scientist

Why?  Like I said, the problem is complex.  File sharing does not help.  The fact that many now find their music free and accessible on the Internet at any time and immediately also is huge.  Sometimes I think people are just too busy to listen these days and when they can, there are a myriad free ways to do so and access what they’re looking for.

So we’re all looking at alternate ways of doing business.  At Watchfire Music we are shifting more towards being a digital sheet music company and producer of ancillary music events.  Hence the WFM Listening Room and the WFM Learning Lab.

It’s a changing time and we’re having to change with it – whether we like it or not.

These changes have required wholesale changes within the company.  Focus, leadership, staffing, direction and the day-to-day implementation of just about everything we do has come under careful scrutiny as we fight to survive in a world of evolution.

So what it has meant to me, personally, is really a doubling of the basic work ethic at a time when we were already maxed out and maxing out our wondrous staff.  On top of that, less sales equals less staff, so for many of us our work-load has doubled and tripled as staffing has diminished.  Sleep becomes a thing of the past, people are more stressed, more fearful about their jobs, and the management of company morale becomes just one more issue to contend with daily.

Fortunately, we here at WFM do this because we love it and deeply respect the endeavor of inspiring minds and hearts.  Also your daily letters and notes of gratitude and praise are always a great lift.  That’s one of the great things about show business – there’s often applause.  Sometimes the applause is enough.  Sometimes ya’ gotta eat.

So we plow on.  Oh we sell recorded music, but not nearly on the level that we once expected and not nearly as much as we did just 5 years ago.

I don’t believe it’s our product.  We get letters every day from inspired buyers gushing their gratitude for our inspired words and musical notes.  I will tell you that every CD that we sell has inspired yours truly at one time or another and I keep going back to this music for more.  That’s why, as Creative Director of WFM, I picked it up in the first place.  The music is Inspirational.

So we plow on.  I know I already said that, but it’s what we do.  We come into a mountain of work each day and just plow through it.  I’m sure you do too in your endeavors.

I get asked about once a week, “How do you manage to accomplish so much?”  The answer is simple: hard work.  Hard work and a great dose of creative fulfillment.  We all get great joy out of what we do.  We work together well in a happy environment.  We feed our staff great healthy snacks all day long and keep their tummies happy.  We praise them for every little thing they do that adds to the effectiveness of WFM and we all do the grunt work.  There are no prima donnas in this company.  We all work together and get it done.

I just love our staff.  Most of us are spread around the country and work from home.  We communicate on the phone, through Google lists and email and the separation occasionally has its drawbacks, but basically works well.

Most of all, we try to run our business in a non-emotional environment of mutual support.  We work with a lot of artistic people and world belief is that these kinds of people can be highly emotional.  It comes with the territory.  But we try to diffuse that emotion early, stay away from the stress and offer a happy, quiet workplace that is conducive to concentration.

We set goals daily and expect everyone to fulfill those goals and work along side of them to make sure that it happens effectively.  Fortunately we’re still a small company and can do that.  It’s gotta be tougher as you get bigger.  I look forward to that challenge.

In short, we’re getting’ it done. We fall behind.  We catch up.  We work overtime to do so.  Just like the rest of the world.  Every day we turn out something new – something a little different.  We get off on the creativity.  Just yesterday our site manager, Craig Wagner, designed a new and innovative flyer (entitled New! New! New!).  When we first saw it, we all stopped our work and celebrated his creativity in the kitchen, ate some of my toasted, buttered, salted cashews, drank some Pepsi and then went back to work.  A happy family.

We celebrated Craig and his infinite creativity.  He was one of us — even though he was down in South Carolina.  He was Watchfire.

Today we pull off Show #4 of Series II of the WFM Listening Room – Julia Wade and Jimmy Roberts.  We’re inches away from selling out!  Bigger crowds mean more work.  But this will be a show to remember.  Jimmy’s a real pro and Julia’s debuting her new title song from her next CD, Silk Road.  It’ll be a night to remember.

‘Scuse me, I gotta get to work…

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Looking Back on 2010
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• It’s A Small World And Gettin’ Smaller n’ Smaller
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• WFM Listening Room Series II – 2

Originally created by Louise Maynard and developed over the years by both Ms Maynard and editor, Susan Lindquist, Solo Thoughts provides solo suggestions to match Christian Science Lesson Sermons each week, with songs ranging in style from Classical and Traditional to Pop and Contemporary music — for all singers from new soloists to seasoned pros.

For the last few years Watchfire Music has been the sole distributer of this product and has taken a large part in the further development of this resource tool through the creative efforts of Julia Wade, Director of Digital Sheet Music for WFM.

With a desire to further develop and enhance, Watchfire Music, under the leadership of Ms Wade, has now become sole owner of this most successful resource.  Ms Maynard and Ms Lindquist will continue their work as before and the spirit of the concept will be honored and respected going forward.

Watch for Solo Thoughts 3.0 to be released later this spring with greatly improved simplicity of navigation and one-click functionality.

“Solo Thoughts is a project very dear to my heart, having not only used it for many years, but also, being able to now assure its future.  WFM looks forward to maintaining the originality of Louise’s concept and further implementing its ease of use and scope.” – Julia Wade, Director of Digital Sheet Music and TMC Soloist

Even More Inspiration

• Wonderful
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• Phoenix Rising
• Even Now
• WFM Listening Room – Series II – Event 4
• Gettin’ It Done

This article has been reprinted from an article first appearing in the Principia Purpose, Peter’s High School and College Alumni Magazine in December of 2010.

Peter Link’s music career flowed naturally from his days at the College. After serving under Jack Eyerly as assistant choir director his sophomore year, Peter went on to be its main director until he graduated. “Jack believed in my ability, mentored me, and provided opportunities,” Peter recalls. “I really learned my craft from him!” Peter also directed a College production of Carousel. After seeing it, a parent told him, “If you directed this production, you can make it in New York.” With that encouragement, Peter packed for the Big Apple soon after graduation.

During the next two years, Peter studied acting under Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. From there, he landed a lead role in the TV soap opera As the World Turns as well as a lead role in Hair on Broadway. “Doing Hair and the soap was an incredible two-year ride as an actor, but I soon found that my real interest was composing for the musical theatre,” Peter says. During Hair he wrote the hit musical Salvation. Out of that score came a gold record that sold two million copies. “This was a whirlwind start for a young guy!” Peter notes.

Next, after seeing one of Peter’s shows, Joseph Papp, producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival, offered him the position of composer in residence. Over the next five years, Peter wrote music for 40 Shakespeare Festival productions. He has also written music for 15 Broadway shows and was twice nominated for a Tony Award.

In the following decade, Peter teamed up with his wife at the time, Jenny Burton, to develop a gospel show called The Jenny Burton Experience, which sold out in New York City for seven years and toured nationally. Jenny and Peter also had a son during this time, and although they’re now divorced, they remain friends and collaborators.

“Show business is about reinventing yourself from time to time,” Peter notes. “During this period, I recognized a need to write inspirational music of deeper content.” He also met Julia Wade, an opera singer crossing over into more popular styles. Soon the two were married.

Along with their love of music, Peter and Julia have Principia in common. Though Julia only attended for a few years of Lower School, she says that time was “an important backdrop” to her life. In particular she recalls her fifth grade teacher, Mr. Sellers, and playing flute in the band.

Eventually, Julia majored in music at San Jose State University in California and began her singing career at Opera San Jose. Later, she settled in New York City, but she has performed widely, including the Rome Opera and Palermo Opera.

By the time Peter and Julia got together, the music industry was beginning to change dramatically due to the Internet, so they contacted a Principia friend, Jim Birch (US’63), to help them navigate the business side of this new industry. Eventually, Watchfire Music was created, which now represents a wide range of inspirational music artists (including Julia) and composers (including Peter).

Julia also shares inspirational music each week as The Mother Church soloist. Describing her solo selection process as that of a “hunter-gatherer,” she pores over each week’s Bible Lesson along with stacks of solos. To help others in the same situation, she helped develop a research tool called “Solo Thoughts” on Watchfire’s website. There, 12 to 20 suggested solos are matched with the Bible Lesson each week, and the sheet music can be downloaded immediately. “I wanted to create for other people what I needed myself,” Julia shares.

As busy as they both are, Julia and Peter still find time to make music together. Their latest CD, entitled Every Day, features Julia singing Peter’s songs. Available at Watchfire Music (www.watchfiremusic.com), Every Day is definitely inspirational. As Julia explains, “The title track brings forth the idea that every day, every moment, God is enabling us and loving us.”

To hear the report Julia Wade gave during the 2010 Annual Meeting, go to www.christianscience.com/church/the-mother-church/annual-meeting. Julia’s report begins 50 minutes and 20 seconds into the webcast.

~ Heather Shotwell

Reprinted with permission
from Principia Purpose.

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Looking Back on 2010
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Hitting The Wall
• Gettin’ It Done
• WFM Listening Room Series II – 3

Rebecca Minor

I’ve been slowly becoming aware of Rebecca Minor’s talents as a songwriter for the past five years now.  Over that time she’s sent me songs occasionally asking me to review them and give her comments and I’ve gladly done so because I recognized in her a true talent.

About a year ago Rebecca presented me with a sacred song that I thought had real promise for the Digital Sheet Music division of Watchfire Music.  It needed a tweak here and there, but she seemed to eat up the information I gave her and came immediately back to me with fixes.

I took this immediacy as a very good sign – first, a desire to get it right and an egoless approach to correcting her mistakes of crafting, and second, an aggressive response to my suggestions indicating a drive to succeed that is so necessary in this business.

At that point Rebecca asked me if she could study the art of songwriting with me.  I gladly offered her a series of master classes and suggested that she set about to create six sacred songs over the next months and become a Watchfire Music composer.  It takes a minimum of six songs for us to sign a composer’s catalog.

She jumped at the offer.

We then began this series of two-hour classes every Saturday.  She would bring me her sacred songs, play and sing them at the piano and I would push her to clear up her ideas, perfect her rhyme schemes, scan her lyrics to her melodies perfectly and make sure her music illuminated the text properly.

I never actually made the corrections for her.  Instead I pointed her in directions so that she would learn to do it herself.  I tried to push her to the perfect model and raise her consciousness to a more personally demanding height.  I was a tough teacher and had her go back again and again and rework her songs to get them right.

She was a terrific student.  First of all, she’s very talented.  What she brought me in the first place always had great worth artistically.  Rebecca is also a church soloist with a lovely voice who studied as a classical vocalist and is in the process of widening her range of expression to achieve a more contemporary direction.  She’s still in her twenties and so her music naturally was evolving into an interesting mixture of some of today’s more popular artists, but still having its roots in a time honored classicism.

As a serious student of songwriting myself, I come from an opposite direction.  I started out as a Pop musician and in my latter years have evolved hopefully into a more classical composer still maintaining my roots in Rock and funk.

So we were sometimes meeting half way.  I simply had about 40 years of experience on her.

Within about 8 months Rebecca had fulfilled my challenge of writing the six sacred songs.  This was not easy for her.  Her finances were tight and she had no way of recording these songs for us or producing the necessary professional sheet music to submit.

We met and discussed the problem.  I suggested to her that since she was a much loved soloist in her church that she possibly approach several of the more affluent members of her church for some financial help in building a home studio, purchasing the Sebelius software necessary to create the sheet music, learning the software, also learning Apple’s GarageBand and eventually its big brother Logic Studio so that she could home record her songs and while she was at it, learn the art of studio recording and all the equipment necessary to record professionally.

She looked at me like I was crazy.

“How long would it take me to do all that?” she asked.  I answered, “Oh about five years.”

She then went out and did it all in a few months.  I’m telling you that this woman has some fire in her belly.  She’s smart, she’s driven and she’s talented.  She now creates her own sheet music and records her songs in her home studio carefully financed by happy investors.  She made it all happen with a little guidance from yours truly.  I’m proud as punch.

We signed her to Watchfire Music and are releasing her first six sacred songs this month.

Check out the music of Rebecca Minor.  It’s tuneful, uplifting, contemporary and yet most accessible to listeners of all ages and elegantly crafted.  Most importantly, it’s inspirational.  It will lift your Sunday services with a fresh sound and an inspired thought.

I’ve watched many talents in this business whither and die on the vine over the years because they did not have all the necessary ingredients for success.  In eight short months Rebecca has evolved into a successful businesswoman, composer, and professional.

Keep your eye and ear on this one.  She’s the real deal.

Even More Inspiration

• Wonderful
• Even Now
• Love Is The Reason For Living
• Watchfire Music Acquires Solo Thoughts
• The Road To Inspiration — Peter Link and Julia Wade
• Things To Come – Part 2

It’s a busy time.  Spent the weekend in the studio working on two projects.  Will spend today, the day after Valentines Day, celebrating 14 year anniversary with the Missus.  I’ll actually take the day off.

The rest of the winter months and spring are loaded with music projects for Watchfire Music – so many that I must get better organized and get my arms around them all.  Here’s a list:

• Just finished master of “Broken Feet” for Megan Neale, new super talented artist we’re developing.  At 21 she’s already getting on top of the recording process and making some fascinating headway on the road to success.  

• Pretty much finished up the track of “Woman On A Train” for artist Julia Wade’s new CD.  This one was a bear.  It took me several days to nail down the concept of the orchestration.  Such a different song for Julia and consequently a special challenge for me.  Love it though…

• Again, pretty much finished the new track for John Lennon’s classic song “Imagine” for Matthew Hoffman and his Laws 2 Live By project.  This great song is the perfect reflection of the first commandment.  We’ll do it with a gospel choir and though Lennon originally wrote it as a ballad, it works wonderfully well with its new smokin’ track.  Reminds me of “We Are The World”.

• We’re preparing “In That Great Gittin’ Up Morning” for my new CD entitled Goin’ Home. The track is finished and the choir will come into the studio later this week to lay down the vocals.  Margaret Dorn is preparing the vocal charts.  This song is a monster for the album – very complex with multi parts against parts and step-out solos.  Can’t wait to put the singers on it!

• This week will finish up redos and touch ups on “To My Father’s House” a remake of the classic gospel song made famous by The Edwin Hawkins Singers on their historic Oh Happy Day Album. Jenny Burton and Cat Russell will do the step-outs.  This song is also for the Goin’ Home CD.

• I’ll begin preparing 3 new compilation CDs this week for Watchfire Music mixing artists from the Universal Music Group catalog with our own WFM artists.  We’ll start out by doing one on peace, one on higher love and one on redemption.  These three CDs should be killers (a strange thing to say about an album on peace, but you know what I mean).

• Also will begin preparing underscoring for Jon McLaughlin’s modernization of the Ten Commandment project.  With Alfre Woodard doing the narration, this project promises to be a rich new look at some of the classic laws of life.

• Also need to comp a lovely vocal by future WFM composer, Rebecca Minor.  She was in Saturday past and recorded a demo of her new sacred solo, “Don’t Send The People Away”.  Watch for her new works coming this spring on WFM Digital Sheet Music pages.  A very real talent here.

What am I forgetting?  Several things are pending, but not yet rolling.  And several albums of songs to begin.  More on all this later.

Actually, this writing has been very good for my brain.  Here’s the organization that I was looking for.  If I need to get better organized in the near future, I can just read my own blog.

One more missive in this series – watch for Part 3 early this week.  Things To Come — as an artist.

Stay tuned!

For more inspiring music you can download
and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Gettin’ It Done
• The Road To Inspiration — Peter Link and Julia Wade
• Looking Back on 2010
• Phoenix Rising
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I

Ira Gershwin

In the music industry, when the royalty split is determined for songwriters, the industry standard for royalties is that the composer gets 50% and the lyricist gets the other 50%.  Each contributor to the song shares equally.  But when it comes to publicity, notoriety, and public appreciation, that’s where the equality stops.  The composer always gets the lion’s share of the attention.

And so to right this inequality, to re-balance the appreciation for these underappreciated wordsmiths, I’ve decided to create just what this world needs most – another awards show – The Ira Awards, presented by Watchfire Music.  Also I’ve decided to name it after the most underappreciated lyricist of them all – Ira Gershwin.

Over the next couple of nights I’ll be giving out Iras to many of the world’s greatest lyricists and discussing why we’ve voted for them.  Our panel of judges (consisting of me, myself and I) have been collecting and reviewing examples of the world’s greatest lyrics for the past 30 years now and the ballots are now tabulated, the voting is in and it’s time to give out them golden statues.

To right our first wrong, let’s first establish the derivation of our title.  Ira Gershwin wrote lyrics for his much more famous brother, George for many years.  When people say, “Ah, that’s a Gershwin song” let’s face it, they’re not thinking “Gershwin Brothers”, they’re thinking “George”.  How did Ira get left out?  I have no idea.  It’s an injustice that I hope to resolve.

The man who only lives for making money

Lives a life that isn’t necessarily sunny;

Likewise the man who works for fame –

There’s no guarantee that time won’t erase his name

The fact is

The only work that really brings enjoyment

Is the kind that is for girl and boy meant.

Fall in love — you won’t regret it.

That’s the best work of all — if you can get it.

Holding hands at midnight

‘Neath a starry sky…

Oh that is nice work if you can get it.

And you can get it — if you try.

Strolling with the one girl

Sighing sigh after sigh…

Oh nice work if you can get it.

And you can get it — if you try.

Just imagine someone

Waiting at the cottage door.

Where two hearts become one…

Who could ask for anything more?

Loving one who loves you,

And then taking that vow…

Nice work if you can get it,

And if you get it –

Won’t you tell me how?

Lyrics: Ira Gershwin

In my classes on lyric writing I always lead off with this: “A poem doth not a lyric make.”  I always get the same reaction,  “Wha?”

What it means is this.  The major difference between poems and lyrics is that with a poem, the reader can stop in time and investigate a turn of phrase or a deeper thought.  With lyrics, there ain’t no stoppin’.  The music prohibits that.  So lyrics have to be simpler, more straightforward.  There can be poetry in a lyric, but it can’t be so dense that the listener cannot follow.

In the above lyric, Ira gets my award for best simple story telling done economically.  Here’s another of his gems.

Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you

Embrace me, you irreplaceable you

Just one look at you my heart grew tipsy in me

You and you alone bring out the gypsy in me

I love all the many charms about you

Above all I want my arms about

Don’t be a naughty baby…

Come to papa come to papa do

My sweet embraceable you…

Again, Lyrics: Ira Gershwin.  Google just about any George Gershwin song and often it gives George the lyric credit and leaves poor Ira out, but the fact is that Ira wrote the lyrics and George, the music.

Paul Simon, another great lyricist from another age tells a good story as well.  He certainly is poetic and his lyrics more obtuse, but in the following lyric Paul gets my vote for painting a picture that sets a mood and tells a story that has so many blanks that we, the listeners, get to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations.  Call it, the award for gorgeous impressionism.

Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together

I’ve got some real estate here in my bag

So we bought a pack of cigarettes, and Mrs. Wagner pies

And we walked off to look for America

Cathy, I said, as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburg

Michigan seems like a dream to me now

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw

And I’ve come to look for America

Laughin’ on the bus, playing games with the faces

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy

I said be careful, his bowtie is really a camera

Toss me a cigarette, I think there’s one in my raincoat

We smoked the last one an hour ago

So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine

And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I’m lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping

I’m empty and I’m aching and I don’t know why

Countin’ the cars on the New Jersey turnpike

They’ve all come to look for America, all come to look for America

Now here’s another guy who is among my top 5 favorite lyricists.  Alan Lerner was one of the few lyricists who were probably better known than his composer, Fritz Lowe.  Alan wrote Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Camelot and a few others of similar magnitude.  Here’s one of my favorite Lerner lyrics.  From Brigadoon.

This is hard to say, but as I wandered through the lea,

I felt for just a fleeting moment that I suddenly was free of being lonely.

Then I closed my eyes and saw the very reason why.

I saw a man with his head bowed low.

His heart had no place to go.

I looked and I thought to myself with a sigh:

There but for you go I.

I saw a man walking by the sea,

Alone with the tide was he.

I looked and I thought as I watched him go by:

There but for you go I.

Lonely men around me, trying not to cry,

Till the day you found me, there among them was I.

I saw a man who had never known a love that was all his own.

I thought as I thanked all the stars in the sky:

There, but for you, go I.

Beautifully crafted, intelligently written, simple, and yet deep.  Kudos goes to Fritz Lowe also for a gorgeous melody.

But for me the all-time love song lyric, the winner of this lifetime’s Ira award, has to go to Alan Lerner for our next winner.

If ever I would leave you

It wouldn’t be in summer.

Seeing you in summer I never would go.

Your hair streaked with sunlight,

Your lips red as flame,

Your face with a luster

That puts gold to shame!

But if I’d ever leave you,

It couldn’t be in autumn.

How I’d leave in autumn I never will know.

I’ve seen how you sparkle

When fall nips the air.

I know you in autumn

And I must be there.

And could I leave you

Running merrily through the snow?

Or on a wintry evening

When you catch the fire’s glow?

If ever I would leave you,

How could it be in springtime?

Knowing how in spring I’m bewitched by you so?

Oh, no! Not in spring-time!

Summer, winter or fall!

No, never could I leave you at all!

Stay tuned for the next couple of nights as we romp through the great lyrics of the American songbook.  If you’re a bit of a lyricist, you won’t want to miss this.  If you’re just a person who loves a great song, you’re in for a treat.

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Grieving In Silence
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Gettin’ It Done
• The Road To Inspiration — Peter Link and Julia Wade
• The Ira Awards Part 5