Original Song: Time To Go

A few months ago I was down at Narrabeen beach and noticed a guy who appeared to have turned a picnic shelter into his temporary home. With a couple of old bags and a surfboard, he sat there looking out to sea, and I wondered what his back story was. When it came time to come up with an original song for June, I went through a notebook where I’ll jot down lyric ideas and this song became the result. My only regret now is that I didn’t take a picture of him to accompany the song.

Happily, the lyrics came reasonably easily, but as my spare time this month has been taken up by either motorbike trips or remodeling our kitchen, finding time to create a musical idea was tough. In those situations I’ll generally pick a random key, decide whether it’s happy (the major key) or sad (the minor key) and then randomly slect some appropriate chords to muck around with.

I started with with a basic electric piano line then used a Line 6 Variax on the dobro setting to create some guitar lines and a bit of synth padding. Finally I added a few bits using my custom box guitar. Not much to it, but I’m reasonably happy with the result of an hour or two’s work.

Time To Go
© 2014 Chuck Smeeton

Em
He lived under a shelter
Looking out across the sea
D
And waited for the waves to come
For a moment to be free

Everything he owned
Two bags and a surfboard
So many places he could go
But none he had explored

(chorus)
C
It’s time to go
D
It’s time to leave this all behind
C
There’s nothing left to do
B
There’s nothing left to find

All the things he’d done
And what he’d leave for you
All the things he’d said
All that you’ve been through

Picasso without paint
Ferrari without fuel
This is the time to walk away
To not would be too cruel

(Chorus)

(Bridge)
B7
And so he took the chance
The shelter was left bare
C
He walked away from everything
D
To see how he would fare

(Chorus x 2)

About the original songs
In January 2012 I commenced a goal of trying to write and record at least one song from scratch each month – sometimes it comes easily, sometimes it’s a real challenge, but I love the discipline it creates. I managed to complete the year, but it was so much fun that I’ve decided to keep it rolling for as long as I can.