The Patterico Music Project: The Lyrics to “Creation”
Yesterday I debuted a song written by me in the early 1990s, and recorded by Jay Semko of the Northern Pikes this year (2015). It’s all part of this crazy project I am pursuing, in which I try to get my musical heroes to record songs I wrote in the early 1990s. I am sharing these songs with you over the next couple of weeks, beginning with a song called “Creation.” Here is that song again:
Below are the lyrics to that song. To set the stage, let me quote the summary of the song’s theme that I gave you yesterday:
The song I present to you today is actually a dialogue between a creator and his creation. It could be God creating Adam; or a parent creating a child; or an artist creating a work of art. There is the moment of creation, and the love and gratitude the creation feels towards its creator for giving it life. But one day, the creation will seek its freedom. The creator will resist letting go — but will eventually set his creation free, out of love. Finally, the creator will die — but will still achieve a certain immortality, as long as the creation remains alive.
I’ll resist the very real temptation to point out alleged subtleties in the lyrics (“Without you I could not be” — get it? Get it?) and just let you read them. Or better yet, let you listen — since I recommend that you play the song above as you follow along with the lyrics below.
CREATION
[A dialogue/duet between a creator and his creation]Creator:
A child of fantasy
A being to call my own
A creature from my mind
You sprang full-blownAnd from that instant
You began to fully flower
Revealing openly
Your elemental powerThe world was yours
And each discovery was new
The setting of the sun
The early morning dewCreation:
I was born the day I met you
You were everything to me
I needed you to tell my story
Without you, I could not beBut I knew I’d have to leave you
The world was full of things I wanted to seeCreator:
But time rushed by
And soon you spoke of being alone
My thoughts and dreams were all
That you had ever knownYou wanted to escape
To break your chains and roam
From the comfort
And the paradise of homeI hoped some day you’d look
Into my eyes and see
The love that held you back
But finally set you freeCreation:
Then one day I came to see you
But ghostly shadows hid your eyes
I thought of what you once had told me
When we said our last goodbyesYou said: “I am immortal”
“As long as you’re alive, I’ll never die”
Tomorrow — unless I talk myself out of it — I’ll let you hear the wretched original recording I made in law school.
You can see how it would work well as a duet.
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/3/2015 @ 7:48 amMan, that is really, really good Patterico. And quite moving. I didn’t expect that from your build-up. Thanks.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 2/3/2015 @ 8:11 amYes. A recorded duet would be excellent. The way you formatted the lyrics above demonstrates that.
elissa (b37a78) — 2/3/2015 @ 8:40 amYou wanted to escape
To break your chains and roam
But you had not had all your shots
You had to stay at home
This confinement you so hated
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/3/2015 @ 9:18 amCame to an end in May
We got you vaccinated
And let you run and play
HF owes you some money. Call your entertainment lawyer!!!
hf, that was clever Maybe Patrick will email it to Chris Christie
steveg (794291) — 2/3/2015 @ 9:28 amThank you, Hoagie.
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/3/2015 @ 5:22 pmWait until you hear my performance! Coming tomorrow!
What kind of music do you like?
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/3/2015 @ 5:45 pmFor the record, this lover of the Patterico site appears never to have commented before.
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/3/2015 @ 5:59 pmThank you for posting this, Patterico. It was brave and bold to do so, and to all of us who have half-finished manuscripts shoved in our desk drawers, half-written songs stuck and unfinished, and plays with scenes left hanging, this whole project is just inspiring.
With that, the song is interesting. To me, it’s as if you wrote a simultaneous look back and look ahead woven with a wistful look in both directions. Sweet. And sad. I can tell it’s written by a young man on the cusp. I would like to ask you, what do you think of the song lyrics as you look back from the perspective of mid-life? How would you handle the theme now?
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/4/2015 @ 5:33 pmAll I can say is that I had no children when I wrote the song, but when I sang it recently for my almost-15-year-old daughter and explained the lyrics’ meaning, she started crying and gave me a big hug. I don’t know if that answers your question or not.
Mrs. P. and I face (what seems to me now to be) a very sad situation in a little over three years, and another one in 6 years or so. I think there is some solace in realizing the love that it takes to face the prospect of setting your child free to make his or her own way. Which is, admittedly, only one possible meaning one could take from the song.
FWIW, this is the “deepest” of the lyrics of the three songs Jay did for me. The next one is a wistful break-up song, and the last is a bitter break-up song set to a cheerful tune.
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/4/2015 @ 5:40 pmHagrid turns out to have been a drive-by troll. My. I never would have guessed.
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/4/2015 @ 5:41 pmA drive by, but Hagrid is someone who keeps watch your site apparently.
elissa (089d2b) — 2/4/2015 @ 5:43 pmI don’t know if that answers your question or not.
I don’t think there could be a finer or more complete answer.
Dana (8e74ce) — 2/4/2015 @ 5:55 pmSo, what color was your Vespa?
Just kidding. I envy you, in the non-covetous sense. It’s good to have passion. And passions.
nk (dbc370) — 2/4/2015 @ 6:11 pmI was born the day I met you
Shouldn’t that really be:
It’s not even hat you need to reverse it for a rhyme. Meter, maybe.
It’s too poetic, anyway, to make clear sense. You have to actually explain the lyrics.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 2/4/2015 @ 6:41 pmNo.
No.
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/6/2015 @ 11:34 pmSF trying to school our host on the host’s own lyrics, is the height of hubris.
felipe (56556d) — 2/7/2015 @ 5:38 amThat is something, isn’t it?
Patterico (9c670f) — 2/8/2015 @ 10:36 amWell, this is nothing new, Patterico.
Many people conflate honesty with tactlessness. It appears SF is one of those.
I tend to get spun up about misrepresentations of facts, or unkindnesses. SF is, I’m sure, a nice person who has a neurodiversity (as it is actually called on campus these days) issue. A lack of a filter, and an inability to perceive how something sounds to other people.
I continue to think of this comments section of your great blog as a cocktail party in your home, Patterico. You get to invite the guests. We all have preferences…but in the final analysis, it’s your party.
You just have to watch out for this:
http://vimeo.com/46907376
It’s different for everyone.
Thanks for sharing your music, as well as all of your other posts.
Simon Jester (dd05d9) — 2/8/2015 @ 11:55 am