Hollywood
First a quick note.
I thought I’d publish a bunch of my lyrics here, and say a few words about them. I have quite a few lying around, and I will try to go through most of them in time, although new songs will probably have priority.
I’m starting of with an old one though:
Hollywood
(A song about leaving home)
I’d like to take you to see LA, and the places I once called my home
It would kinda be like going back where it all began
And we’d stroll down South Normandie to the heart of Korea Town
Where I lived through the first five songs of my life
And I’d play them again on my new guitar, and we’d laugh at the years that’s gone by
At how young we were, and at how little has changed
Though things may not look the same – and you’ve moved, and you’ve changed your name
Still all the things we had could be ours again
Just like the songs we’re singing
Sing love
Sing, like you sang the first time
When we weren’t afraid to choose
And never look back again
I remember the first time you sang for me
I remember the first time we danced
I remember he words and the melody still today
It was a song about leaving home
And you left, and you came back alone
Now every single time I hear you sing since then
It seems like only yesterday
But when we dance, we dance for tomorrow
We twirl, we sway, we fly
And we dance away all your reasons to say goodbye
I’d like to take you to Hollywood, ’cause baby, you’d sure be a star
And I know some people who know some people there
And if we would just take a chance, and forget how the story ends
The all the things we had would be ours again
Is that not why we’re singing?
Sing love
Sing, like you sang the first time
When we weren’t afraid to choose
And never look back again
- – -
This song was written over the course of about four years. The melody of the chorus came to me first, and I spent several months figuring out what to do with the verses. I basically removed everything but two chords, which felt very good. It was something I had never done before, and as such I felt it was a great success. However, I wanted a modulation for the end, and it took me about a year to figure it out. I then lived with the melody for a couple more years, before finishing the lyrics in 20 minutes before a gig, in the summer of 2007.
So what’s it about? It’s about one or more persons I met before or after spending some months in LA, in the summer of 2000. That’s about all I’ll tell you ;-)
Seriously though, I’d say it’s about (as so many of my songs are) the desire to hold on to that which is undoubtedly gone forever (such as the past). She was of course very beautiful, as they always are, and what was with her was surely that which one would want lasting forever. However I suspect that when we’d get to forever, we’d realize that growth is better than holding on that which once was, however wonderful that originally was. Funny how the idea of a song can be the complete opposite of the story being told by the words…
/K
Tags: KWB, Songwriting