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A huge thanks to Thoddi for collaborating on perfecting this tune with me. This is the 3rd version and, I think, by far the best. Thoddi's very cool bass playing made me think of a few extra things to add, so there is now flute (Sal Giorgianni) and trumpet (Carl Fischer), plus a few extra electric piano hits. Thoddi's bass is seductive, hip, lurking like a shadow in the jungle, growls of a tiger, rapists with a machetes waiting...
This is one of a handful of songs I wrote in 2004 that were self-consciously "impressionistic", letting images and sounds flow in a collage of intuitive meanings, a way of telling a story thru impressions only. Kind of my anti-musical theatre phase.
When I posted the first version of this song, Suzanne didn't want people to know it was about her. Now she wants to let people know. When she was 20 years old visiting St Martin's and living with a bunch of bohemian artists on the beach, one night she was abducted by 3 island men with guns and machetes. This was in 1976 when racial tension was high. She was actually walking back thru the jungle to her A-frame with friends when 3 men jumped them, throwing her into the back of their truck. She was raped, cut, dumped on the side of the road, left for dead. She crawled up to the only light she could see, a small house in the hillside. Thick jungle. The song is that journey, from party to hillside haven. She was certain she was going to die, and that belief was peaceful (certainty amidst the brutality, and knowing she would soon see her father who had died 4 years earlier). She recalls that she had just decided, that morning, that she had found Utopia on that island, the perfect place to begin her new life. Ironic. She stayed on to convict the 3 men, who were captured and imprisoned, but has never gone back. I offer this song as homage to her courage.
Tobin (synths, keyboards, handmade vocal fx loops; samples); Thor Oliverson (bass); Sal Giorgianni (flute); Carl Fischer (trumpet); Suzanne (woman's voice).
Other songs w/ Thoddi: Crazy Story
Original version of this song.
This track was remastered and appears on my 2007 release, A Bit Of Light, available through CDBaby.
This is one of a handful of songs I wrote in 2004 that were self-consciously "impressionistic", letting images and sounds flow in a collage of intuitive meanings, a way of telling a story thru impressions only. Kind of my anti-musical theatre phase.
When I posted the first version of this song, Suzanne didn't want people to know it was about her. Now she wants to let people know. When she was 20 years old visiting St Martin's and living with a bunch of bohemian artists on the beach, one night she was abducted by 3 island men with guns and machetes. This was in 1976 when racial tension was high. She was actually walking back thru the jungle to her A-frame with friends when 3 men jumped them, throwing her into the back of their truck. She was raped, cut, dumped on the side of the road, left for dead. She crawled up to the only light she could see, a small house in the hillside. Thick jungle. The song is that journey, from party to hillside haven. She was certain she was going to die, and that belief was peaceful (certainty amidst the brutality, and knowing she would soon see her father who had died 4 years earlier). She recalls that she had just decided, that morning, that she had found Utopia on that island, the perfect place to begin her new life. Ironic. She stayed on to convict the 3 men, who were captured and imprisoned, but has never gone back. I offer this song as homage to her courage.
Tobin (synths, keyboards, handmade vocal fx loops; samples); Thor Oliverson (bass); Sal Giorgianni (flute); Carl Fischer (trumpet); Suzanne (woman's voice).
Other songs w/ Thoddi: Crazy Story
Original version of this song.
This track was remastered and appears on my 2007 release, A Bit Of Light, available through CDBaby.
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Lyrics
MY HEART STILL BEATS
Let the sun shine out from your eyes
while the moon is on your skin.
What did you father say?
What did your father say about this?
Island party. Island party. Island party. Island party, yeah.
Barefoot, dancing 'round the world, you're...
Barefoot, dancing all night long.
What did you father say
about parties, drinks, and men like this?
What did your father say about you?
The sun is still in your eyes.
The moon is on your skin.
The sun it still in your eyes but the moon
is on your skin.
You came to lose your count of days,
your count of fears,
your count of nights.
But now you've lost your count of drinks,
your count of boys,
your count of blurring lights.
Let's get lost in the jungle, find a place to just unwind.
Let the rules unravel. You came here to travel
so let's go see what there's to find.
What did your father say?
(instrumental transition... when rape occurs)
You say you remember the stars.
You say you remember the mud that stained your hands.
You say you remember your heart,
the sound of your pulse as it kept you alive.
Kept you alive.*
Forget all the hands that held you down.
Forget all the scars that tie you to the ground.
I know my heart still beats.
*(Our father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us, sinners, now,
and at the hour of our death...
Maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
Leadeth me beside still waters.
Restoreth my soul.)
Let the sun shine out from your eyes
while the moon is on your skin.
What did you father say?
What did your father say about this?
Island party. Island party. Island party. Island party, yeah.
Barefoot, dancing 'round the world, you're...
Barefoot, dancing all night long.
What did you father say
about parties, drinks, and men like this?
What did your father say about you?
The sun is still in your eyes.
The moon is on your skin.
The sun it still in your eyes but the moon
is on your skin.
You came to lose your count of days,
your count of fears,
your count of nights.
But now you've lost your count of drinks,
your count of boys,
your count of blurring lights.
Let's get lost in the jungle, find a place to just unwind.
Let the rules unravel. You came here to travel
so let's go see what there's to find.
What did your father say?
(instrumental transition... when rape occurs)
You say you remember the stars.
You say you remember the mud that stained your hands.
You say you remember your heart,
the sound of your pulse as it kept you alive.
Kept you alive.*
Forget all the hands that held you down.
Forget all the scars that tie you to the ground.
I know my heart still beats.
*(Our father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us, sinners, now,
and at the hour of our death...
Maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
Leadeth me beside still waters.
Restoreth my soul.)
Macaudion
Ironically, this is as sweet as a tropic breeze on a hot island night. This
is dancing in my head and all over the rest of me with a movement that
is well grooved. I like the mystic undertones; albeit the origin of it's
darkness. Tobin, I like the way your voice and the lyrics stroke this
painting with a since of pure and heartfelt empathy, while cradling this
with the type of care that such a story would demand.
Suzanne, thanks for being willing to allow that this story be told, and
for trusting such a high degree of vulnerably in the hands of Tobin and
Thoddi. This is a sound of events that will heal by the vibrations of the
pure nature, of the willingness to share...
Thanks you Tobin and Thoddi for masterfully producing such an
amazing and wonderful piece. Outstanding storytelling and as well,
this is a very solid production.
Cydniko