This song was partially inspired by 'The Undoing' TV series that is in itself based vaguely on the book 'You should have known'. I thought that it would be an interesting exercise to write from the viewpoint of Grace, the titular wife and mother who should have known.
I started off with what I thought was the chorus three weeks ago, but this was not much more than a false start; the main idea that remained was that the song be in 3/4 time. Two weeks ago I changed slightly the chord sequence for the 'chorus' which meant that the verse music had to be completely rewritten (the chorus ended on E and the verse started with A minor; now the chorus ended on B and the verse had to start in E minor). Last Friday I was playing around with the song and wrote the verse and the tune, which was centered around the note B; the chord sequence was Em Dm C F, so the B is initially the fifth then the sixth then the major seventh then the augmented fourth: interesting harmonies.
I began sequencing the song with these chords and tune; I added a middle section with a rising bass - B (over Em), C (C), C# (A7), D (Em7). During the week I worked on an arrangement which still was fairly basic. Yesterday I had the time to start writing the words; during the week I had been thinking about the opening 'statement', and once this was down, the rest of the words came fairly quickly, although I changed a few here and there during the next few hours. The arrangement also became finalised, meaning that it was time to record vocals.
These required a few takes but in the end I had what I originally thought would be the vocal track. Listening back to it again this morning, I decided that it wasn't confident enough and certainly was too 'polite', a failure of most of my work. I didn't have a chance to do much about this during the day except think how I could make it less polite. The answer was to sing it angrily, as someone would be who had been duped in the fashion of the book. This evening I got the chance to sing it, as loud and as angrily as possible; I feared that I had recorded the vocal with too high a level, thus leading to distortion, but this worked quite well: slightly distorted and certainly not polite! I didn't bother with autotune as the vocal was near enough in tune throughout, and the autotune would probably diminish the impact. One take, albeit with a punch-in at the beginning, and it was nailed. A few mixes later and I had a completed product.
Unlike some of my songs, I don't mind publishing the lyrics here
How could I have known? How could I have known? True, there were no signs Not even a hint Nothing was out of place You said that life was just fine You were happy with me The sun shone upon us both You had me duped How can love remain? Should our love remain? I thought you were true But in the end You have betrayed me so You took me for a fool Whilst playing the field Leaving me on my own You told me lies Always a face for each person you knew with a Separate face kept for me Recalling each one took a fair bit of skill but now You’ve been revealed as a freak Where does that leave me? What choices do I see? I’m left on my own, Wondering how I can restore my life Trust has been destroyed Certainty lost Leaving me bruised and scarred I stand alone
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