I won't be home for Xmas

By horatiuromantic on November 3, 2024 11:56 pm

A beautiful but sad early Xmas ballad for you all! I wrote it today and performed it for the first time at the open mic at CPH Listening Room, on the amazing grand piano they have there, but the video and recording will be sent to me the next few days (and I might put it on youtube cause it was a good version) so I recorded a version for WB after coming back home.

I have been reading a lot of scifi the past week. I read all 3 Three body problem books, plus another of short stories by the same Liu Cixin, then The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin, and started on some book by Arthur C Clarke. I am sure those are the heaviest influences for this song. Besides that I also played a bit of Rimworld, a scifi-ish survival game set on an ice world where temperatures reach -80C outside, and the only way to survive the cold is to build a house around a geothermal vent which spits out steam every few seconds. Meanwhile I've been sick the past three weeks with some kind of cough bug, and forced to stay inside to prevent it from spreading, so I almost felt like I was on a small world entirely comprised of my apartment, the hallway, the driveway, and Lidl. Ok that's unfair, I also went to the park, and I'm lucky to have such a nice park near my house. Anyway I am back to health today, which is why I went to the open mic, and it was a lovely way to get back on the scene!

I hope you enjoy the song!

› Lyrics

‹ Lyrics

I won't be home for Xmas
It's just not possible this year
I'm already traveling
At 10 percent of light speed
And I'm already aging
Much slower from your point of view

By the time I would return
I'd be your junior by about 10 years
10 Xmases apart
It would add up to a lot of presents

I won't be home for Xmas
Don't think I'll ever come again
The place I'm going
Doesn't have a yearly cycle
It's just a perpetual twilight

On the bridge I have a picture
It's all of us in front of a tree
I won't touch another for the rest of my life
All I have is moss and algae

I won't be home for Xmas
Not in my old physical form
You know me as a human being
But I will be so much more

It's a strange world
Strange without the math
Try to let go of the things you never had
Accept that we're going at relativistic speeds
We're incompatible in the most fundamental ways

*piano solo*

I won't be home for Xmas
It's not the same thing anymore
I'm already traveling
At 10 percent of light speed
I've already spent my best years back home
Look for me in the stars

› Bonus spoiler

‹ Bonus spoiler

I will in fact be home for Xmas this year btw, that is home in Romania. And hopefully I will play some concerts while I'm there! They opened a new jazz club in my city so I would be a real fool if I didn't at least try ;D fingers crossed

Audio works licensed by author under:
Copyright All rights reserved

Play
Download

Tags: acoustic, jazz, piano, scifi, vocals, week 44 2024, xmas, View by:horatiuromantic

Next Item >

< Previous Item

Yesterday 1:58 am

Kedbreak136

Nice piano playing and good mix of sad lyrics and surrealist (a jazz bar piano song that talks about relativistic speeds?)!

Quote

Yesterday 4:31 am

jegasus

I can definitely see you playing this in a jazz club. Or maybe at a fancy hotel bar! Super cool, intensely moody =P

Quote

Yesterday 3:50 pm

LeBernd

Who made you leave?? :C

Quote

Yesterday 4:46 pm

prophisee

lol 10 christmases is far too many presents.

I wonder what your piano chops and funny lyrics would sound like over some corny musical theater kid style piano. Was thinking of this girl. I am not well versed enough on the style to recommend the primary source for it but she channels it well.

https://youtube.com/shorts/vj0_3jN42Lk?si=xxqBbCSQDf-DbPt0
https://youtube.com/shorts/pceFyCpAkVw?si=1w1iQE157KbZCr4h

Quote

Yesterday 6:55 pm

horatiuromantic

prophisee wrote:

lol 10 christmases is far too many presents.
I wonder what your piano chops and funny lyrics would sound like over some corny musical theater kid style piano. Was thinking of this girl. I am not well versed enough on the style to recommend the primary source for it but she channels it well.
https://youtube.com/shorts/vj0_3jN42Lk?si=xxqBbCSQDf-DbPt0
https://youtube.com/shorts/pceFyCpAkVw?si=1w1iQE157KbZCr4h

Ohh, my first reaction is shorts ew, but the reason is first of all how in general how the format is awful for creativity, just contributing data for big tech, chasing the dragon of the algo, and reducing attention span of people, and specifically for me I don't think I'm fast enough at singing and playing yet, to make good short-attn span content... at least not for improvising.

On the genre itself of corny musical theater I think I could enjoy doing it, but I feel like what I'm doing is already a version of that, just with my own weird style applied. I'm not sure what I could do to be more like that style except play and sing faster and with better chops. the girl seems to have a nice vocal technique. Or did I misunderstand your suggestion?

Kedbreak136 wrote:

Nice piano playing and good mix of sad lyrics and surrealist (a jazz bar piano song that talks about relativistic speeds?)!

haha thanks! I thought you would dig it, it almost has some kinda ref to AI. or at least hi-tech.

jegasus wrote:

I can definitely see you playing this in a jazz club. Or maybe at a fancy hotel bar! Super cool, intensely moody =P

I feel the room I played in qualifies as a jazz club, they occasionally play jazz. Thanks!

LeBernd wrote:

Who made you leave?? :C

the irresistible call of the distant unknown

Quote

Yesterday 9:22 pm

jwh

"look for me in the stars"
that piano sounds NICE

Quote

Yesterday 10:00 pm

prophisee

Yeah it probably boils down to something like “play and sing faster with better chops” but your chops are already good, just different chops. I think the theater sound does evoke some particular nostalgia that I don’t get from your current style, though

Quote

Today 2:51 am

fetalface

Word.

Quote

You need to login to leave a comment.
Login Sign-up