I posted on Kompoz my thoughts a bit, but I will kind of breeze over them again.
This is just and idea and a melody. From here it takes all of us to come up with the parts, so it’s a blank slate outside of the melody. Lyrics can “go” or stay", they popped into my head in about 30 seconds is the only reason they are in there.
So if someone has an idea of the progression for the “B” part then toss it out there…a minor chord may sound good in the other part (traditional grass/fiddle tunes have an A&B part) or the chorus…is this the chorus or a verse?
We could use this melody and progression to lead into a “stand up and dance” soulful song that is 240bpm and only use what I came up with as the “intro”…again it can go anywhere. Don’t like the melody and want to tweek it, well then have at it!
My ideas behind the lyrics I came up with and random thoughts of what I hear:
I hear a question with the lyrics…do we need and answer or do we keep asking questions?
Another idea is that those “Mountains, hills, and trees and stars” are things that are pretty 'Heaven like" here on earth and I’d like to think that they’ll be even better once we leave here and go on.
What things on earth would you really want to take to heaven with you…look around, maybe it’s a stream you enjoy, maybe it’s the ocean, maybe it’s a covered bridge that you really like. Me, I look at the hills, the trees, the stars and think “man that’s a little slice of heaven there”.
Now Larry lives down in Florida, maybe he thinks those big “skeeters” or a gator is a beautiful thing…all of us will see things in a different light.
The song and who I hear singing/performing it:
If I had to pick a singer I’d go with Levon Helm…that gritty “real voice” singing out.
Now who is asking these questions? I can see a man on his death bed asking these. I can see a soldier during the civil war asking these questions right when he is heading into a battle. I can see an aerial camera showing a civil war battle scene from overhead, maybe 300 guys on each side marching full force into gun fire in a formation and while the songs playing you see each one that has fallen in battle go down.
The melody is simple, I can hear a fiddle doing something as about as sad as Ashokan Farewell as a part.
I can hear a banjo lightly playing but nothing fancy, just accompanying with fills and light rhythm.
But then again we could come to a part and kick this sucker up to 240 bpm and go in a different direction and only use the the melody for an intro. Maybe this thing turns into something that is purely and instrumental like an old fiddle tune.
Just some ideas of what I hear and see and I am sure you guys hear and see something different…so let’s see where we can take it.
