Week 2 - Say The Word
Hey, it’s new music Monday! Thanks for coming back. First, here’s a little bit of history on last week’s song. While on a trip to Nashville, my husband was staying at the Day’s Inn on Broadway Street when he saw a documentary on PBS about sharecroppers. Lying there on that hard mattress in his underwear, he got the inspiration for the whole song. Somewhere, scrawled on a Day’s Inn notepad is the basic outline for it. If I can find it, I’ll post a picture. It ended up being one of those songs that he says almost “wrote itself.” (My husband would like to add that unless you’re on a really tight budget, don’t stay at the Day’s Inn on Broadway!)
And now for this week’s experiment. The title for this song is Say The Word. It’s a bit heavy, but I wanted you to hear one that wasn’t so country. Like many of my husband’s songs, it has a Nashville version that has a lot of bells and whistles but I like the simple version that I heard first. I hope you will, too.
Be sure to comment. We’re reading them all!
Say The Word
A busy airport on a Sunday afternoon
I went to see her off – the least that I could do
‘Cause there were dreams I had and fortunes to be made
And her love was in my way
As I watched her slowly walk toward the gate
Somethin’ deep inside woke up and called her name
She turned her hopeful eyes and through the tears that bled
This is what she said…
CHORUS:
Say the word and I would give to you my life
Say the word and I am your’s until the day you die
But I just stood there while my pride got in the way
And I still regret today the words I didn’t say
I heard someone in Denver made her smile again
And now she’s got his name and kids that look like him
And I got my fortune – more than I could ever need
But Denver’s got my dreams
REPEAT CHORUS
BRIDGE:
All the choices I have made
All that could have been
A thousand dreams have haunted me
I try to speak, but she just says again…
REPEAT CHORUS
Heartbreaking. Beautiful. Good thing I’m not PMSing or I’d be sobbing.
I like it! The piano is beautiful. The chorus is very nice — good build-up and then decline… the singer’s voice matches the music well. I thought the same about the voice on Sharecropper’s Son, and though it’s the same singer (I think?) I like that the style is different.
I love the melody and the hook. Very haunting, as I imagine the memory would be to the main character of the song. I think it would be nice with an ethereal female voice as the harmony on the chorus (a la Alison Kraus).
Makes your heart ache for what could have been. Another wonderful song, also, I agree with Tamara, an ethereal female voice on the chorus would be nice.
I like it!
This song could be made into a movie-all about a guy that decides that money is far more important than love or family. But money is a cold bed companion…..
And the way it is sung is haunting-as if he is troubled by his long ago decisions.
What I really like about his music is the tiny vignette we get to experience-a moment illustrated.
Thanks!
Loved the song just as it is. It’s one that will make you stop what you are doing and just listen.
I am no music guru!!! However, I love this song, and I love the voice of the person singing it!!! I would defineately by a CD!!!! The sounds familiar to me, would we know you if we knew your name?
I meant to say voice of the person singing sounds familiar… are you a big enough name that we would recognize? did that make sense?
I think it’s pretty safe to say that you wouldn’t know my husband from Adam if you heard his name.
love the chorus
Another good one! Love the piano and the gravel-ly voice! Both this one and last week’s song have haunting melodies. Thanks for letting us have this preview.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SONG!!! It’s beautiful and sad and who doesn’t in there past have someone left behind for whatever reasons.
LOVE IT!!
PS Where can I get it?
This song is fantastic!
The only suggestion? The line about his pride being in the way sounds too wordy. Maybe… “I stood there silent, pride in the way.” ??? I dunno.
I was immediately captivated by the melody and was hoping for another “story song” and you delievered.
Thanks.
I like this song better than the last one. I wonder about the bells and whistles version you mentioned. I hate it when those things only serve the purpose to make this song sound like every other song out there as if the consumer likes being in the box they try to put us in.
This song is, well, sad. I’m not one to want to listen to sad songs over and over unless they are about my kids growing up to fast and I’m a sucker for those. But how many of us haven’t been there, saying goodbye - even if we didn’t end up regretting it, we get it. So the emotional connection is good - but to what point?
I like the wording, well spoken (or sung). I think the tune is nice - sad to fit the song - not a song I would want to have stuck in my head for a week or one I personally would buy (the sad thing again) but I recognize that there is a place for this song in the hearts and ears of many.
Great song. Nice voice and piano. Good luck. It’s good. Thanks for sharing!
Great song!! I love the piano this time. Very beautiful chords. Thanks for sharing your music with all of us.
okay!!! So I have come back to listed to these two songs several times in the last couple of days!!! I absolutely love both songs…I love the stories they both tell, I love the way the music fits the lyrics, I love the voice singing both songs…I love the rawness of the songs….some of the artists out these days have done so much studio work to their voices and songs, i sometimes feel like, “where has all the real music gone?”…Like I said in my last comment, I am not a music guru, i don’t know much about the technical part, I mean I play piano and I read music, but I could not write a song if my life depended on it, however, I Love music, I love all genres of music, I especially love songs that you can connect with, and I feel like you can or atleast i can connect with both…In both songs you can connect with the character of the song, and i think both melodies were written wisely, they draw you into the emotion of the character and story…in my opinion, BRILLIANT!!!!
p.s. so sorry for the long winded, and multiple comments, but i just had to share my thoughts!!!!
I love the music, some of the lyrics stumble a little bit…I still regret today..that line isn’t quite right when it’s sung it gets kind of drug out and out of sync. Over all, with a little work it could do well.
I think that a lot of people have regrets like that, so the message is one that would resonate with people. I like the overall sound. The choice of he word “bled” struck me as a poor choice. I don’t know what would be better, but it bothered me to distraction.
I found myself wishing for a wrap-up verse that says something wise about not holding back when you want to say something, or following you heart or something. But maybe that would be too obvious and trite, since the story gets you thinking about those issues anyhow.
Good job! I think it has a lot of potential.
Lovely tune–an ode to the one that got away. Very poignant melody; great delivery… sparse and affecting.
I agree with Dollymama: “bled” is jarring and odd; I’m guessing Your Talented Husband thought about using “shed” but abandoned it because “through the tears she shed” is pretty ugly to sing.
And one punctuation error: ‘yours’ in the second line of the chorus shouldn’t have an apostrophe. :o)
Lovely, achingly regretful melody; sparse and beautiful arrangement and accompaniment; poignant lyrics that evoke painful memories of “the one that got away,” and don’t we all have one of those?
I agree with Dollymama about the word “bled;” it doesn’t work so well. Am guessing Your Talented Husband wanted to end that line with “she shed,” but those words aren’t very pretty to sing.
Also, “your’s” in the second line of the chorus doesn’t need an apostrophe.
Sorry… didn’t mean to post twice; I am getting an infernal Internal Server Error every time I try to post a comment… but it looks like my comments are posting just fine. Ahhhh! technology!
Nice site
Thanks, webmaster.