Both Sides of Sorrow

Same as Fairy Dreams, I wrote this song long ago. I've composed the music but not recorded it yet. Both Sides of Sorrow is a duet between an orphan and a woman despaired to have no children.

The chorus, compared to the verses, is very short, and on the sheet music I've written it differently every time. First the two voices are clearly independant, then they alternate in some sort of cannon, and at the end they sing the same thing together.

Both Sides of Sorrow

Child’s words

Mother’s words

Both

My mother went, left me behind

She was so sweet, lovely and kind

She's all I got and forsook me

They say she went on a journey

But never answer when I ask

Where she is or when she comes back

My mother left

And I’m waiting, waiting, waiting…

I want to give birth to a child

So long I've hoped so hard I've tried

I've prayed God and my lucky stars

To hold my baby in my arms

But nothing comes, and I'm worn out

Month after month time's running out

I am worn out

Nights of waking...

Waking, waking, waking…

And I'm waiting, waiting…

Oh, Lord !

Giet her back if it's true

That orphans find mercy in you !

Lord, listen to my cry

Give me children, or else I die!

They said I needed to be brave

The day they took me to the grave

And then I was finally told

The harsh truth I had to behold

That she's never gonna return

That she watches me from heaven

I cannot hold

Her ghost waning, waning, waning…

I'm addressing the physician

As I'm growing the suspicion

That something's wrong in my body

I’ll never expect a baby

My plans are all falling apart

Oh I wanted a child so hard

So very hard

And I'm weeping…

Weeping, weeping, weeping…

Her ghost waning, waning…

Oh Lord !

Get her back if it's true

Lord, listen to my cry

That orphans find mercy in you !

Give me children, or else I die!

I've spent tens or hundreds or so

Hours sitting at the window

Because they had thought, the grown-ups

From their big height and experience

Poor kid is too young to bereave

And it's easier to deceive

At the window

Time spent wishing, wishing, wishing...

When the doctor told me my fate

How much more bitter could it taste ?

There must be shreds of hope to find

And yet today none comes to mind

All I can see is my future

Scattered by meaningless figures

Oh, the future

I was weaving…

Weaving, weaving, weaving…

Time spent wishing, wishing…

Oh Lord !

Get her back if it's true

Lord, listen to my cry

That orphans find mercy in you !

Give me children, or else I die!

They gave me to the orphanage

It is no home more like a cage

There must be children out there (There are children there)

Who would need my love and my care (Who need love and care)

We're facing the same wall of woe (Facing a wall of woe)

On both sides of the same sorrow

If I can make it go

Then I'm willing...

Willing, willing…

Oh Lord !

Bring us together if it's true

That orphans find mercy in you !

Flying Colors

Earlier this year, France - finally - permitted same-sex couples to get married and adopt foster children. And, let's say, it wasn't painless. Thousands of people demonstrated against this law, and other thousands demonstrated for. A great soil for resentment, homophoby, and political opportunism. Swampy France.

A few times, in the streets, I've been given tracts. Un papa, une maman, y a rien de mieux pour un enfant. ("A dad, a mum, that's the best for kids") I grew up with my father far away. Am I incomplete, mutilated? Who are you to assume that about me?

Other times, I saw gay people getting assaulted, insulted... no need to tell about that.
A wordplay about the colors of the rainbow flag and an expression gave me the start I needed to write a song on that theme. I imagined what I could tell a gay friend, male or female, to comfort them after he was insulted by people like that.

Please, everyone, meet Flying Colors. 

The first arrangement I've done was for a choir, and since I never released it, it was never recorded. So I only have synthetic sounds reproducing - weakly - the 4 voices. I'm working now on another arrangement with a guitar to make a real recording.

You may notice the structure is quite uncommon. The bridge, symbol of the insult, of the perturbation, appears very early in the song, before going back to a chorus/verse/chorus scheme. I also believed interesting to shorten the chorus every time, because the person should feel better along the song.

Lyrics

(Colors flying, colors flying)
Colors flying over the town
You 're in the crowd walking the streets
Colors flying for your right to marry
Your partner and start a family

But there's this group over here
They've come to say “no no no (no, no)
They can't have children it breaks every single natural law”
I hope you didn't hear, no, no !
Now you're on the verge of tears
Oh, can't they just let it go? (go, go)
There is no one on this Earth who less than you deserved this blow

[Indistinct whispers] It's the law, This is just so, how children grow
[Shout]Oh hell, what do they know?

They don't even know you, how are they qualified
What authority says you shouldn't have a child?
But don't we know better (yes, we know better)
You're loving and caring
And that's all what matters!
You will be wonderful, darling,
When the time comes, I'm positive
You'll pass with flying colors !
They say common sense should prevail
Well, isn't it a bit twisted
To think that if you don't plug male and female
You're unfit to raise a kid?
They should take time to consider
Acting with more humility
And remember there is more
(there is so much more) in man and Earth
Than is dreamt of in their philosophy

But don't we know better (yes, we know better)
You're loving and caring
And that's all what matters!
You will be wonderful, darling,
When the time comes, I'm positive
You'll pass with flying colors !

Haven't you turned out just fine
Growing up without a father
Say, (say,) where were they, back in these times,
To protect you from this danger?

As though their family design
Had never led to a failure
Truth is simpler for humankind
Parenting is beyond nature

Colors flying over the town
You 're in the crowd walking the streets
Colors flying for your right to marry
Your partner and start a family

You will be wonderful, darling,
When the time comes, I'm positive
You'll pass with flying colors, oh yeah,
You'll pass with flying colors!

How Things Unfold

How Things Unfold. Currently on training to be recorded for a demo, I'm still trying to figure out a nice coda I can't seem to find :( I imagined it as the harmonization of three women's voices, alto, mezzosoprano and soprano.

Lyrics

Together for the night

You must know how I care for you

We both feel it's all right

No matter what will ensue

Let's enjoy the instant

The world for once staying low

(Keep distant tomorrow)

Let us keep, keep distant

The cares of tomorrow

Only deep affection shared

No promise, no love declared

Nothing to lose or to claim

I feel for you all the same (Feel for you all the same, the same)

So hush, hush (hush, hush)

Now belongs to us

It is such a bliss to put time itself on hold

We'll see soon enough how things unfold

Just let them go their way

Let these chips fall where they may!

You know that I hold you dear

I just don't deal well with ties

(I won't disappear at sunrise)

I promise I'm not going to disappear when I leave at sunrise

It is quite a long run

To move worlds for each other

(Darling, why bother?)

Easier said than done,

so darling, why bother?

Instants are a treasure

Why should we care for the future?

I believe it best when it remains uncontrolled

We'll see soon enough how things unfold

I'm certain we'll be fine

Whatever lies down the line!

(Questions can stay at the door)

Lovers or friends down the line (For the time we've washed ashore)

Either way (Keep worries away from your mind, from your mind)

Now is our time (And let tonight be our night!)

Fairy Dreams

Probably one of the first lyrics I ever wrote, and for sure the first instrumental track I've finished. I put on YouTube the instrumental track to get a harpist's insight. I've noticed a few things I'm gonna change before I record the melody, but still, that's an overview of Fairy Dreams, with music and lyric. 

Lyrics

I may have been a fairy,

A child switched after my birth;

My mother often called me

The weakest baby on earth.

Legends tell that for so long

Fairies have watched humankind;

So my dreams bring me along

What humans have in their mind.

In the realm of the mundane

I can see a gardener.

Hoping for a little rain

The flowers need some water.

His garden is all his life

Every plant and every sprout

A source of grief for a wife

He doesn't care much about

Fairy dreams, not fairy tales

I see in the distance

Beyond my own experience

All the life I share

Everything is real somewhere

He’s gazing at the harbour,

At the sea covered in fog

Still waiting for his master,

The disappeared sailor’s dog.

“He won’t be back tomorrow,”

Widow and orphans cry too.

But faithful dogs feel sorrow

Far, far more than humans do.

[Chorus]

A smiling father watching

His son playing from a bench

A boy behind him scratching

His shirt on a holly branch

His mum taking a needle

For the clothes of her firstborn

Sighing upon this riddle

How they're relentlessly torn

[Instr. chorus]

Girl reading Wuthering Heights

Old man answering the phone

Bus of tourists see the sights

They only see what they're shown

A car falling off a cliff

Turned in scrap metal and smoke

Wide-eyed girl stopping to give

A stray cat a little stroke

[Chorus]

I see schemes, open new trails

All these encounters

All these dreams make me wiser

Enrich my spirit

Changeling and proud of it!

[instr]

Families are gathering

For this long night in winter

For everyone is marking

The time when time starts over

Welcome to this brave new world

A boy loudly makes it clear

He'll kiss this pretty young girl

To celebrate the New Year.