The Regular Friday Post
Rando Lyrics: Born with a weary eye
I have an urgent call for assistance! Okay, it’s not really that urgent, but… I have these fragmentary lyrics from a song runnin’ all around my brain. The song is by a female vocalist, with a sort of Melanie (“Brand New Key”)-like quaver to her voice, maybe in the 2000s, possibly earlier, but dunno. I can’t find it in my (legal) Apple/iTunes playlists so I may have heard it on a “musical streetcorner” from back in the day (bootlegged from Limewire or Napster or something). The lyrics I recall are from the chorus (I think) and go something like this: “…and they say God is with us now And we’ll never find out how (something-something)…but it’s cold outside and I nearly lost my mind, there’s a light on in the window and it’s bringing me back home”. I think it’s a “light” but it could be a candle or something, could be “leading me” instead of “bringing me”. I freely admit I may have misheard much of this, but it’s become a major earworm… It’s not the Ashley McBryde song or the Maggie Rogers song. And yes - I tried Genius and all of the “Songfinder” type sites that I could think of - zip….
If this is familiar - please, please let me know the title and/or artist in the comments section below! Thank you!
This Week’s Documentary Film Recommendation:
“How The Beatles Changed The World” - 2017 documentary - On Plex and Amazon
Other Voices:
Really interesting photos of everyday life and things in Japan - I highly recommend!
So, moving on….
Last week’s rando lyrics: The lyric, “So I lit a fire” is from the song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”, performed by The Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it was released as Track 2 on the December 1965 album “Rubber Soul”. Produced by George Martin.
Credit: Genius Link >Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)<
From Genius:
“A dry-witted story of a man who failed to charm his love interest into bed, and how he got his revenge in an extreme (and sociopathic) way.
Norwegian Wood is my song completely. It was about an affair I was having. I was very careful and paranoid because I didn’t want my wife, Cyn, to know that there really was something going on outside of the household. I’d always had some kind of affairs going, so I was trying to be sophisticated in writing about an affair, but in such a smoke-screen way that you couldn’t tell. But I can’t remember any specific woman it had to do with.
John Lennon, interview with David Sheff
The song is known for its Indian influences. Hindu culture was very popular in the sixties, especially sitar music. This is the first recording of sitar in a Beatles record. George Harrison found an old sitar in a closet in Abbey Road studios and the band decided to use it for the song. Harrison would continue to play sitar for the next few years, even studying for a time with famed maestro Ravi Shankar.”
Credit: Genius ibid (Ed. Also, “dry-witted” means sort of deadpan, dry “humour”, sort of cynical or sarcastic. Yeah, I didn’t know either….)
And there’s gem this from Wikipedia:
“"McCartney commented on the final verse of the song: "In our world the guy had to have some sort of revenge. It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn't the decor of her house wonderful? But it didn't, it meant I burned the fucking place down as an act of revenge, and then we left it there and went into the instrumental."“
Credit: Wikipedia: Link >Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)<
(Ed. There’s a lot more in the Wikipedia article, like what “Norwegian Wood” is and the novel use of the sitar by George Harrison, but it’s pretty long - worth the read, though…)
Welcome to The Regular Friday post!
For Today:
I’ve been wanting to break out of the 4/4, common time rut for a bit, and also with a fairly simple song. Norwegian Wood is in 3/4 time - 3/4 time is often called “waltz” timing - it has an emphasis on the 1 beat, a sort of “ONE, two, three, ONE, two, three” feel, though that feel is not overly emphasized here. Tempo is a quick 176 BPM, Key of EMaj - though nothing really stops it from being the relative minor - C#m. The AMaj, BMaj, non diatonic DMaj (should be a D#dim in either key), and non-diatonic Em are pretty good indicators of a Major key, but if you really want it to be in C#m, you won’t find me standing in your way… also, it’s this week’s...
…A Song To Play…
Ed. See those two scary looking chords? Yeah, they aren’t at all (but you can make them barre chords if you want, though I’d probably say, “Really?” with a disapproving scowl, just sayin’):
Credit: Chordify Link: >Norwegian Wood<
Lyrics (From Genius)
[Verse 1: John Lennon]
I once had a girl
Or should I say, she once had me?
She showed me her room
"Isn't it good, Norwegian wood?"
[Bridge: John Lennon & Paul McCartney]
She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair
[Verse 2: John Lennon]
I sat on the rug
Biding my time, drinking her wine
We talked until two
And then she said, "It's time for bed"
[Sitar & Guitar Solo]
[Bridge: John Lennon & Paul McCartney]
She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh
I told her I didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bath
[Verse 3: John Lennon]
And when I awoke
I was alone, this bird had flown
So I lit a fire
Isn't it good, Norwegian wood?
(Ed. note - what these lyrics show as 2 differently worded “bridges” are actually 2 (British term) “middle eights” - as referenced in the Wikipedia article cited above: “According to Lennon in 1970, "Norwegian Wood" was his creation, with McCartney assisting on the middle eight.” As it turned out, there remains some disagreement regarding the contributions of each….)
The “ME!” Section…..
What I’m Listening2: Spotify Link: >Hard Rain Comin' Down<
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song is out! Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify
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This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI, things I link to might…
-Michael Acoustic
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Some Links For Today (I’m kind of experimenting with fewer links and limiting to just one or two sources per post - let me know if you have a preference!)
ED. None of these result in compensation to me in any way, and I’m not endorsing any of them, but some of my readers may find them as interesting as I did…
From Songtown:
Songwriting Thing - I know that sounds vague - it’s sorta about co-writing with someone - past that it gets a bit hard to describe - interesting though, in a sort of “don’t do this” kind of way…
I know I promised to keep it to just a couple, but this one actually fits well with the Songtown link above - it talks about co-writing “splits" - and ASCAP is authoritative on this stuff:
A few from Discmakers:
Singing Technique - so, lots of good advice here - mostly the sort of “heard it before but still a good reminder” kind of thing, though if you don’t know what “melisma” is (I didn’t), you can find out inside!
Optimizing Metadata - Lots of different organizations have something to do with your music, and -surprise! - each of them is mostly concerned with the information they need and don’t really care what anyone else needs. It pretty much falls to you to make sure all the data these organizations, like your Distributor, Publishing Admin, the MLC, your accountant, and others (can you say “US Copyright Office”?) need, gets to them in the format they want - here’s a primer on what that entails…
Telling Stories Through Songs - This is important - writing song lyrics is mostly about telling a story - but not particularly your story. Listeners want to hear their story, just in your voice. If their story is sorta like your story (and let’s face it, there are really only so many story categories that anyone’s interested in hearing in a song…), then tell your story, but make it about them, not you…
Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!! This Week’s Conversation With Mika, the Cat:
Mika: “You went nuts on Prime Day and all I got was this box?”
Me: “Yep!”
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”
sorry can't help with the song you're looking for, but I enjoyed the post! Gonna check out the Beatles doc on Amazon. Thanks!
Love Rubber Soul