[demo of original, on baritone ukulele]
Within a brief window of time, 3 people died – one I knew, one I knew of, one who didn’t know me – yet, in my meditations, realized I could draw a gossamer line between the three. And somehow I kept coming back to these tenuous but verifiable connections.
And, watching the aftermath of their passing – announcements, reactions and whatnot – all on various ephemeral “platforms/channels”, couldn’t help but to think they deserved a song, not only about just “them” rather the importance of remembering and how fleeting memories are when not “carved into stone” or, made into a folk song, to be passed along, possibly changed along the way to fit circumstance.
I meant to record this “properly” (tracked with drums at which I’m reasonably competent, tidy up the ukulele, add guitars, proper singing etc. – though not necessarily competent and any of those skills) instead of this hasty demo type spontaneous recording in which my hundred dollar baritone ukulele (which my three-year-old son often uses for caber toss) and me fumbling chords, buzzes and hums, changing tempos / time signature, tripping over my own lyric and so on.
Eventually, will receive a better treatment but for now: perfection is not the intention, yet celebration of impermanence is key.
This is for three families, hundreds of friends, thousands of admirers and mostly for the future. Let no one be forgotten.
Please accept my humble offering on those terms.
{Originally written on Ushimado Beach while vacating Tsuchida Cottage due to a tatami might infestation and subsequent fumigation, recorded in “Giggling Piglet Studio” Okayama Japan.
Fondly, daveo
Lyric (D.A.T. Olson, 2023)
V1
Barefoot Hugo Hamilton
Drifting so far from shore
Can't see you with my
periscope
Guess need something more
V2
Fine-tuned to spot the roots
branches and twirling vines
Catch cryptic fleeting runes
From Montreal to the Seine
Pre
They say you're gone
But still I wonder
Are any of us ever here?
C
(but) I lack capacity to be existential
But well tuned to care
Only thing I know for sure is
"we are the stories
we share"
V3
Artifacts and creations
More than momentary reaction
The Egyptian's got it right
Not dead til they're forgotten
B (spoken)
Craft an archive
From a shoebox
Filled with incense and receipts
Leveled and spaced
with precision
Framed with gentle grace
Each took a different path
Towards exit velocity
Trousers, rants and plays left behind
Before you charted your trajectory
C
V4
The obits followed on schedule
Timed in zeros and ones
Dispatched with gentle nuance
Pathos sure, but just gone gone & are we gone?
C
