Archiv der Kategorie: songwriting

songwriting

Comments & Spam.

Since the entries in my music blog are supposed to remain on the main page, they are particularly vulnerable to comment spam. So, lacking a better alternative at the moment, I have decided to close all comment threads except the one for the most recently published song. So whatever you might have to say, please use that thread. Thanks.

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songs, songwriting

You Save My Life (2005)

A very light and romantic tune I wrote for the wedding of two good friends last weekend. As usual, home-recorded VST based demo available as mp3 (128kbit, enclosed) and. Words, music and vocals by Tobias Schwarz, © 2005.

Lyrics –

(1)
You save my life
With everything you do
You do it every morning
When I look at you
‘Cos in your eyes
Is where I find
The answer to all questions
Weighing on my mind

(Chorus)
You’ll be there for me
Whenever I need you
I’ll be there for you
Whenever you call
You hold my head
When I had too much to drink
You’re my best friend
When I need a shrink
I know that you’re the one for me

(2)
You give me faith
‘Cos your love is strong
You make me feel at home
When the road will be long
You lead my way
Wherever we may go
You do it every evening
When we let our love grow

(Chorus)

(Primary Bridge)
Like Romeo and Juliette
But we’re gonna live instead
‘Cos our love’s never gonna fail
We’ll always hear the nightingale

(Chorus x 2)

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Fußball, Mainz, songs, songwriting

Carnival Junkies

Back in 2004, my home team Mainz 05 was finally promoted to the first division of the German Bundesliga after having been beaten on the last day twice in a row. First by asingle point, then by a single goal. It was a tragedy not many teams would have been able to digest, let alone beat the odds and be promoted the third time around.

But Mainz 05 is a special club in more ways than one. It’s a club that, above all, celebrates playing the game. But, then again, maybe that’s not too surprising for a football team based in a town with even more carnival tradition than Rio (sorry Roberta ; – I agree that the Cariocas have come up with something unique – but we’re just a little older over here).

So when Mrs. T., one of my fellow authors at www.fistfulofeuros.net, and native to Ireland, decided to honor the lads’ promotion with an English poem in 2004, I came up with the idea to write an English song based on the poetry –

“Climb wither though couldst not before
Now freed at last from gravity’s restraints
To the Empyrean on eagle’s wings
O thou heroic FSV Mainz”

However, even disregarding the “eagle” thing (Eintracht Frankfurt, a regional competitor uses the bird as logo), I just could not come up with a decent hook using these words, and eventually, I put the idea to rest for a while.

So it wasn’t until I read in the supporter’s web forum ““www.kigges.de” that fans were trying to translate some German songs and looking for suitable English material a bit more specific than the classic from “Caroussel” now that Mainz have been chosen to play in the UEFA cup qualifiers based on fair-play criteria that I decided to give the idea another go. I eventually decided against using Mrs T.’s poem, rewrote the lyrics, and suddenly everything fell into the right place – or so I think.

Now the song is called “Carnival Junkies”, a title that is not just a summary of much of what I think the team and their supporters are about, but also an hommage to the Californian singer/songwriter Cindy Alexander, who has written a song called “Carnival Junky” back in 2001 (I think).

For the time being, it’s a VST based, home-produced, demo and available as mp3 (128kbit, enclosed). Words, music and vocals by Tobias Schwarz, 2004-2005. Note that I have not been able to stand to sing due to a leg injury… Please contact me about ideas for commodification, should you have any. Enjoy!

Lyrics –

(Intro)
05 05 05 05 (x4)

(Verse 1)
Feels like we’re at home
In red in white we
Face the floodlight
You’ll never walk alone
In bust or boom,
Glory or gloom.

Don’t know why we
Feel that way
It’s been like that
Since our first day.

(Chorus)
Mainzer!
We’re Carnival junkies
who know how to play ball
We’ll never falter
We will stand tall (05)
Not for the money or for the fame
We just want to
play the game (05)
We’re Carnival junkies
Always up for a fight
You’ll feel the fire we will ignite (05)
For all the money and all the fame
We’ll stay the same
And win the game (05)

(Interlude)
05 05 05 05

(Verse 2)
We held our heads high
When we were down cause
We knew all the time
They may laugh in our face
We’d try again
We’d win the race.

Don’t know why we
Feel that way
It’s been like that
Since our first day.

(Chorus)

(Primary Bridge)
We’ll be singing when we’re winning
When the cups are coming home
When you ask what really matters
We’ll tell you it’s in our soul
We tasted our share of sand
We’ve been down there before
However tough, we will get up
You’ll know it when we score!

(Chorus x2)

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songs, songwriting

Crying Out For Love.

Update

(27/01/2007) A first female version has been recorded, but the post-production hasn’t been finished…

Song written for/with a German Rock/Pop-Starlet in mind. Words and music by Tobias Schwarz, 2004. Demo in mp3-format, vocals by Tobias Schwarz. A version with female vocals will be available sooner or later.

Lyrics –

(1)
I’m a stand up girl
Wide eyes lashes curl
Blonde hair, smooth skin
Rred lips, big grin.
My smile is a killer

Tough times for soft girls
In this fucked up world
Games played in style
With too much guile
Don’t look in the mirror.

I thought that I would have to be much better
but you just wanted me forever

(Chorus)
I’m crying out for love
I don’t know how I
Could ever hide my fears
In front of you my love
I wish I had never
Done this to you
It took me far to long to see
The best things are free

The best thing I know is you

(2)
Etticette is my
Attitude for life
Should I feel lost
That’s just the cost
Of being the winner

It’s lonely on the top
And no one calls my bluff
I close my eyes
Shed my disguise
And just take a deep breath

I thought that I would have to be much better
but you just wanted me forever

(Chorus)

I’m just a girl on my way to love
And find the life I’m dreaming of
And that’s what I’m praying every night
When you’re not lying by my side
oh oh

(Chorus)

I wish I had never
I wish I had never
Done this to you

The best thing I know
The best thing I know
The best thing I know
The best thing I know
Is You

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songs, songwriting

Crossroads.

A power ballad I wrote in February 2005 for the wedding of two close friends this March. Demo in mp3-format, 128kbit, vocals by Tobias Schwarz.

Lyrics (© 2005) –

So many questions to ask
So many answers blind and mask
So many secret lies to be told in the name of love
So many moments when to think this might end rough

So many crossroads to take
So many errors to be made
So many feelings to be hurt by the one we love
So many moments when we fear love won’t be enough

Here we are
Hand in hand today
We took our chances
We made our way
And suddenly we both knew
That it’s fundamentally true
I need you.

So many mountains seem too high
So many climbers who can’t fly
So many ghosts to haunt the future from the past
So many runners without a chance to last

So many years that pass too fast
So many that did not last
So many lovers who don’t deserve that name
So many who think that love is just a game

Here we are
Hand in hand today
We took our chances
We made our way
And suddenly we both knew
That it’s fundamentally true
I love you.

Oh I love you
Oh I love you
Love you so

And when we hear our two hearts long
To gladly sing their favorite song
It’s wonderful to sing along
When two hearts begin to beat as one

Here we are
Hand in hand today
We took our chances
We made our way
And suddenly we both knew
That it’s fundamentally true
I love you.

And suddenly we both knew
That it’s fundamentally true
I need you.

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songs, songwriting

GW Blues

A song about a regular Texan guy’s blues in the White House, which I wrote in early 2003. Demo, vocals by Tobias Schwarz. The mp3 is enclosed in the podcast, but you can also download a 64kbit WMA file by clicking here.

Lyrics –

– 1 –
I’m a regular guy from Texas
You know I can hardly read
Went to school to count my cattle
Hoping for oil out in the field.
But I can’t…

I’m a regular guy from Texas
They say I am born to lead
And they put me in the White House
Made me think I were a geek.

– Chorus –
But I can’t read.
I can’t write
I need Condi, and Colin,
To make the army fight
I can’t read
I can’t write
I wish Laura was here
to explain that shite

– 2 –
I’m a regular guy from Texas
Now I think I was born to lead.
I still can’t spell ne-po-tism
but it surely fits my needs
For I can’t

I’m a regular guy from Texas
I know I was born to lead.
That guy tried to kill my daddy
Made me wanna see him bleed

– Chorus –

– Bridge –
Yet I’m the leader of the free world
‘cos Florida can’t count.
And since the leather seats
on Air Force One are fine
I’m gonna run a second time.

– Chorus x2 –

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almost a diary, songwriting, US Politics

Mary Hodder is right

to state that not all blogs that are inactive are abandoned.

Take this one for example. See, I haven’t updated my proto diary for a month now and not even written anything over on afoe but that doesn’t imply I have given up blogging much as I haven’t stopped reading in the meantime.

I have taken breaks from blogging before over the last two years (although I have to agree that the inactive intervals have become more frequent) and I am rather sure I will do so again in the future.

However – and I am saying this particularly to the handful of faithful readers of my personal blog – should I ever stop writing here for good, I would certainly inform you about it.

And thus, gentle readers, begins the third year in the young and exciting life of www.almostadiary.de. I’m starting off with a teaser… tomorrow I will regale you with a rough pre-demo of a little song I’ve written about a certain guy from Texas whose analytical skills have already been the subject of a certain number of posts on this blog. Until then, if you haven’t yet, please go and watch this clip about rural campaigning in the US, brought to you by the only reliable US news source, Comedy Central’s Daily Show with John Stewart…

Oh, and this is what I wrote two years ago, on August 19, 2002:

Is the bottom line really chapter 32, in part VIII of volume one?

Oxford’s Niall Ferguson thinks that Marx’s thoughts about crisis prone capitalism should be given more attention in light of the not so recently past days of “CEOcracy” and increased income inequality in the US. But today, Ferguson claims, the class struggle is not waged between workers and owners but between ordinary shareholders and their CEO and controlling oligarchs, so the Marxian acculmulation theory could have a point. In the end, he somewhat loses track and the article becomes more of a summary of recent estimates of American growth prospects. And he never tells us what the consequences could be if the analogy were correct.

But anyway. Could it be true? Could Marx be headed for big comeback in the digital age? I am very sceptical. Alhtough I do think that he has created a scary seductive beast whose feared return will likely scare this planet for some decades to come.

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oddly enough, songwriting, US Politics

Pretty Good.

The George W Bush Don’t Worry, be Happy List by Tim Dunlop.

Oh, and did I mention I composed a song called “George W Blues”…. well, it’s not actually blues, it’s got more of a Texan country feel in the latest version. It’s about a dyslexic boy whose dad once read to him from Machiavelli and then told him he would become a great leader, if only he learnt how to read…

If Michael Moore won’t produce it, I’ll post it here sometime.

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