It's December 29, I'm sitting home on vacation... sick as a dog.
When I was 6, I got a nasty cold during Christmas, and for some reason... it became a repeating event. There have been far more years that I got a cold than not... and I don't know why. Well... not exactly true... I have my thoughts on that. I think I work so hard all year, in constant stress... then when I do take a vacation... my body relaxes... and that includes my immune system. At Christmas, EVERYONE is out... so the potential is high.
During 2020... I spent most of the year flying between New York and San Francisco for work... the two most infected areas... never even got the sniffles... until Christmas. :-/
This year has had many ups and downs... within the first 2 weeks, a friend of the family was shot and killed in a senseless crime. Then, only a couple of months later, my grandson Colby was also shot and killed... his brother Josh barely escaping.
Josh has been difficult... in and out of jail a couple of times... I tried to help with things, bail, food, transportation, and bailing his car out of impound. This to the tune of $1700 over the year. Did he pay me back? No, even after getting $20K in insurance. Unless he needs money, I am persona non grata. Forgotten.
I have just stopped supporting him... hopefully he grows out of it.
I've been proficient in writing music with SUNO AI... some people say it is just "AI SLOP"... meaningless. I disagree... I can write poems and lyrics... but never had a way to put them to music. This gives me that... and if you take your time, work on the prompts... You can get what you want.
I was looking at this text that I got a few years back... and I thought... let me make this into a song. Bob has gone through a lot... and I think it would give him a smile. My Christmas gift. Well, that became this...
A bond built from a hard life.
https://suno.com/s/fjQ7dx7XQee3Jnu6
[Intro]
[Verse]
He’s a man like an ocean—deep and mysterious
Dangerous to underestimate, he’s quiet and he’s serious
You only see the side of him he lets the world behold
While he’s moving Jersey earth in the freezing winter cold
From the heat of July to the Egg Harbor frost
Running heavy machines, no matter the cost
It’s a long, hard road, and it takes a heavy toll
But the open air of nature is what feeds his weary soul.
[Chorus]
Oh, he’s got a fiercely independent spirit, and the heart of an angel
Living through a life that’s a tangle
He’s been through the fire, he’s been through the rain
Overcoming everything meant to cause him pain
If you’re lucky enough to meet him, don't you let him go
'Cause Robert’s got a soul that the world needs to know.
[Verse]
He found the woman of his dreams, a love so deep and wide
Until the cancer came and took her with the tide
Then he lost his son, and his heart was nearly crushed
In the middle of the grieving, the world went quiet and hushed
I was there to be a friend, through the hit-or-miss years
Sending words of comfort through the silence and the tears
Helping him through the valley, holding back the dark
Trying to help my brother find a brand new spark.
[Bridge]
Then one day he says, "I know you... but I don't know from where."
I said, "We went to school together, man"
I knew it! he said, with a question in his voice…
With a smile I said, "I'm that geeky science guy you used to pick on way back then"
He said, "Son-of-a-bitch! I’m sorry, man... life was chaos, I never knew the real you"
I said, "That was forty years ago, life moves along"
It’s the fire we walk through that makes us strong
[Guitar Solo]
[Chorus]
Oh, he’s got a fiercely independent spirit, and the heart of an angel
Living through a life that’s a tangle
He’s been through the fire, he’s been through the rain
Overcoming everything meant to cause him pain
If you’re lucky enough to meet him, don't you let him go
'Cause Robert’s got a soul that the world needs to know.
[Outro]
So be patient and kind, 'cause you don't know the ache
Behind the lashing out and the hearts that might break
True friends are forged in the heat of the flame
Forty years later, it’s a different game.
I'm getting replies to it now... I'm glad he liked it... and I'm glad that I could make him feel better. I'm sick as a dog... so I'll just keep my mind busy and not think about that.
I wrote several songs this year... some funny, some sad. It was fun... I captured life.
Update: The night continues.
After Robert posted the song on his page, his cousin Karol commented on it. She wanted to know who wrote it, and then she contacted me to say thank you. We chatted for over an hour, such a sweet person. In our conversation, she told me how the school board was basically taking away what she loved: her classroom, her students, her way of life.
I looked up her Facebook page to get an idea of what she looked like... one of the pictures was her wearing rose-colored glasses. The way she spoke, her feelings, everything suddenly coalesced into a unified thought... my fingers typed incredibly fast... trying to capture my thoughts.
I wrote the song lyrics... tweaked the prompts... and listened to the first draft. How do you know when you have it right? When it makes you cry... when you are overcome by the message. And I was.
I took her picture and made a short video of a woman saying goodbye to her former life, starting on a new journey, and looking at the world through rose colored glasses.
Everything wrapped together... I sent it to her. From some stranger out of the blue... it touched her.
She asked, "How did you know how I felt?" I said, "I'm from a family of empathic people." 😆
Rose-Colored Soul
https://suno.com/song/a65ad114-e9e2-4f48-a47c-6ce1ad99e354
[INTRO, Soft Piano melody]
[Verse 1, female, nostalgic but strong]
Twenty-seven winters in the Allentown halls
I hung the children's dreams upon the cinderblock walls
Pre-school to the fifth grade, I watched 'em bloom
Before they took my keys and they took my room
Now I’m pulling a cart across the frozen yard
Sixty-eight years young and I’m working twice as hard
They want the screens, they want the cold machine
But they’ve forgotten what a human heart can mean.
[Chorus, joyous, soaring]
I’ve got rose-colored glasses and a master’s hand
Building a kingdom out of light and sand
I don’t just teach ‘em lines, I fill the soul (I make them whole)
It’s the hand and the brain, it’s the dance and the song
The "Dora Deer" melody helps 'em belong
They see an ending, but I see the light
I’m walking through the doorway into the bright.
[Verse 2]
I’ve got one-hundred-ninety-seven days of rest
Stored in the bank because I gave my best
I never missed a morning, I was always there
To feed their hungry bellies and to say a prayer
Principal says "move," so I move with grace
But she can’t take the murals or the light from my face
I’m a star in the system, a master of the craft
While the world went digital, I stood and I laughed.
[Chorus]
I’ve got rose-colored glasses and a master’s hand
Building a kingdom out of light and sand
I don’t just teach ‘em lines, I fill the soul (I make them whole)
It’s the hand and the brain, it’s the dance and the song
The "Dora Deer" melody helps 'em belong
They see an ending, but I see the light
I’m walking through the doorway into the bright.
[Bridge, emotive, building intensity]
Nature is the research, the journal is the truth I’m guarding the spark
in the heart of the youth Walk, dance, mindfulness—
keep the spirit clean
We are more than a pulse in a glowing screen!
(Stay human!)
We only have now, and now is a door
I’m not an art teacher anymore...
I’m the art itself.
[Guitar Solo, melodic and soaring]
[Outro, quiet piano, fading]
I’m taking my days, I’m taking my time
Leaving the cart and the stairs I had to climb
One last "Dora Deer" song, soft and low
(We only have now)
Into the next part of my life I go.
(Rose-colored glasses)
(Stay human)
[END]
This has been an incredible week... my long-time friend Stu had made a post on Facebook as well... it described a section of his life I knew intimately well... with only minor sculpting... I was able to make a song for him as well. Being sick this week has given me time... I will look on it as a time to reflect and create.
The Punchline and the Shin
https://suno.com/song/36c9cd24-13cb-4687-a5fb-79349ebb04d1
[Intro, Melodic piano with a slight circus-style whimsical trill]
[Verse 1]
Nineteen-seventy-six, I had a circus dream
Exaggerated gestures, part of the Ringling team
I blew my nose with flair, I gave it all I had
They took my name and number—man, I wasn't half-bad
But Florida never called, the phone just stayed still
So I built a stage in Detroit, by the force of my will
Two hours of stories in a mid-rise flat
While my mother threw pennies... yeah, it was tragic like that.
[Chorus]
But I kept on writing, kept on searching for the light
Down at the Delta Lady on a Tuesday night
Five minutes of silence, then a laugh or two
That’s the spark that carries a comic through
From the basement stage to the bright L.A. sun
I was chasing the funny, I was having my fun.
[Verse 2]
There was a girl named Bunny, a heckler in the crowd
The drinks made her brave and the laughs made her loud
I said, "Take me home and hurt me," like a Woody Allen line
She said, "Why wait?" and kicked me square in the shin
(Ouch! That’s gonna leave a mark!)
I took that bruise and turned it into gold
Told that story 'til it never got old
Three months in and I’m getting a check
The Delta Lady put a professional medal 'round my neck.
[Bridge]
I saw the big names, I shared the same air Dangerfield,
Rivers—yeah, I was right there
Sold a joke, shared a smoke, opened for the best
But life has a way of putting the punchline to rest
L.A. was a mountain, then the family came
Then a tragedy in Utah changed the whole game
The road got long, and the lights started to dim
But I wouldn’t trade a single mile for a whim.
[Verse 3]
From an Avon Park chorus to the Senior Games
Three hundred venues, too many to name
I stood at the banquet, giving it one last go
When my wife started heckling from the very front row
A fitting final nail in the comedy box
Just a man and a microphone and a few hard knocks.
[Chorus]
Yeah, I kept on writing, kept on searching for the light
From the Delta Lady to the middle of the night
Five minutes of silence, then a laugh or two
That’s the spark that carried this comic through
From the circus dream to the setting sun
I was chasing the funny... and damn, it was fun!
[Outro]
Regrets?
I had a few...
But I made the memories, and I made the friends
And that’s how the comedy story...
(Wait for it...)
That's how it ends.
[Big Final Chord.]
(Thank you! You’ve been a great crowd!)
...and the curtains close...
[End]
