Garden Gnomes and Fairy Rings
By Cosmic Cairns on December 18, 2024 9:36 pm
I ended up with a mini suite of sorts this week. I started writing the first section of the track and kind of figured that would be the main thrust, but then I wrote a lyric about watersprites and it triggered a memory of a song I wrote about 24 years ago that I called the Watersprite Song. I don't have any recordings of it anymore, at least none that I can easily lay hands on, as it likely only exists on some dusty cassette tape I've probably misplaced. I had a sudden whim... what if I just inserted that song right here? So I did. I couldn't remember all of the original lyrics, so I had to write a few new ones. Then I decided to close things out with a little instrumental outro.
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The bench by the reflecting pond
Warmed by late morning sun
The robin in the alder tree
Whistles his merry song
The dogwood plants are overgrown
Concealing the forest path
That leads down to the old stone well
And untamed woods dark and vast
Hidden lairs lie deep in there
Where the old ones dwell
The woodnymphs and the watersprites
And unnamed things as well
Think what you'll find
Leave your diseased world behind
Oh child of light
Float closer to me tonight
Stay close
Goddess knows
Bask in her love
The stars smile at you from above
Feel nature's flow
And set the whole forest aglow
With your
Soul so pure
And think back in time
When you heard the windchimes
Please won't you stay
The ocean is so far away
Here you'll be safe
To dance in the lake's gentle waves
Stay here
Forever
And think of this place
As you submerge your face
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial (BY-NC)
Such a lovely outro with the strings and guitar.
I would love to re-hear the original myself. It's been a long time! From what I recall the arrangement was pretty similar. It was done on a 4-track cassette recorder and was thus pretty lo-fi. I do remember I manipulated the tape speed to make my voice sound higher and more ethereal, which I tried to recreate here by using Reaper's speed dial function. Some of the lyrics were the same, but I changed a few either due to not remembering them, or not totally liking them. I actually recall the opening line was "Sweet Caroline" before I realized there was an extremely famous song by that title and I decided I'd prefer not to go that route, but I think it was still there in the original recording. The other thing I remember was that it was part of a fantasy themed concept album I started but ended up abandoning for a variety of reasons. I was attempting to have the songs all kind of flow into each other, so in a way the way I ended up doing this track sort of pays tribute to that as well. Sorry to ramble on, but it was fun to stir up some memories!!!