The Murky Waters Of Songwriting VII

Hmm.

I remember the time when i was in Secondary Two, (that means I was 14 years old) and I had only played the guitar for about one year or so. I was anticipating the Concert for Teachers' Day, which to my very simple mind (back then) was kinda like a Woodstock for me, cuz I would have the chance to perform in front of the whole school.

I formed a trio group including me, Christopher Loew and another friend of ours, who had learnt guitar from me. We called ourselves 'Steel Strings', which was kinda appropriate due to the fact all of us were playing on steel strings. Alvin was also involved with the Teachers' Day concert, but he was using his old Banjo at that point in time.

So I had written a song just a couple of weeks before the auditions for the Teachers' Day concert, and I named it 'Sweetest Dreams' which was the product of me making fun of one of my classmates who had a crush on our female science teacher. I mean, it just mentions the topic very subtly, and I hoped to play that song solo.

Steel Strings already had prepared a song for the Teachers' day concert, a low-key but intense song called 'Kite' by U2. It was honestly a slow but intense song, but we pulled it off for the Audition. My song didn't.

Although 'Sweetest Dreams' was in actual fact a love song, it doesn't have all that lovey-dovey effect that makes you go all jelly-legged. In fact, since the song only consisted of solely two chords, which produce that jazzy effect, while the style used was a bit spanish. Therefore you get a jazzy love song performed with a spanish tinge to it.

The audition teacher said my lyrics were slightly too inappropriate for the Teachers' Day concert, but hey, it has nothing bad in it. Apparently, when I wrote the song, I mentioned Gandalf (from The Lord Of The Rings) and his horse Shadowfax without meaning to.

Here are the lyrics:

Verse1
In my sweetest dreams, beyond my deepest realms, yeah
there's a girl out there, with the breeze through her hair (here's the pun intended for my classmate and his crush on the science teacher)

Verse2
In my sweetest dreams, beyond my furthers means,
there's someone out there, someone who really cares

Chorus:
Won't you come with me, see the things I see
to dwelll in the realms, in my sweetest dreams

Verse3
In my sweetest dreams, many places I have seen
One of many out there, in the fields not bare

Verse4
In my sweeetest dreams, many peopel I have seen
One of them is fair, riding a pure white mare (this is the line which mentions Gandalf and Shadowfax)

Chorus:
Won't you ride with me, see the things I see
To walk the plains, and run away from the rains

Guitar solo

Verse5
In my sweetest dreams, many poeple I have seen
Out of all theose out there, Who is the one that is fair?


As you can see for yourself, there really isn't any inappropriate material, so I seemed unfair for the auditioners to throw my song away.

I have recorded the song at least four times before today, I managed to do the song justice.

All my previous attempts to record the song were marred by poor balance and the inability for the instruments to come out clearly. Therefore, with clever use of overdubbing, and using a Led Zeppelin technique of playing called *light and shade*, I re-created a small masterpiece, and there is even the sound of a twelve-string guitar inside the song.

Frankly, the 'twelve-string' effect is mainly due to over-dubbing and the echo from one of the guitar tracks.

It sounds thick man.... I have finally done it: doing the song justice.

Cheers,

Crawldaddy