Original Song: Blind

Month 67 of the original song a month project! Blind was an interesting case where I had the lyrics and then went hunting through all my Logic files looking for a previously written piece of music to put it to. The first version felt all wrong – like trying to wedge a square peg in a round hole. So I came up with a new piece of music specifically created around the lyrics. A good lesson learnt! The lyrics are about a drifter/hippy kind of person heading into Manhatten and observing the corporate mindset. It’s loosely based on a piece I read about Neal Cassady. With so much songwriting these days focused on The Magnificent Compañeros, it was nice to come up with something a little different, although I guess there’s a chance it could emerge in a different form at some point!

BLIND
©2017 Chuck Smeeton

Dm
He drove from Queens in a white Dodge Dart on the Long Island Expressway
C
Past graveyards behind which glittered Manhattan’s skyscrapers of cliche
Bb
Grown ups walked with purpose and ignored the fourth estate
Dm
Acted out their stilted roles and lived their robot fate

He read Tom Wolfe’s Kool-Aid Acid Test, instead of Dale Carnegie
No interest in the views of another corporate effigy
Searching for the right words that would be his trademark quote
Resolve the tension in the language like music’s tonic note

(Chorus)
F
Statements about truth and life
Em
Delivered for their own kind
Dm
Everyone a genius
C
And the blind will lead the blind

Broken men with no other means of expressing their affection
A frame that does not reveal a view but just their own reflection
Full of selective knowledge and sophisticated desires
But no idea of moral strength and all that it requires

A mission to proclaim the sanctity of the human soul
Where accoutrements cannot define the purpose of your role
To leave a footprint by the stream that will forever flow
Questioning the journey and what you must let go

(Chorus)
Statements about truth and life
Delivered for their own kind
Everyone a genius
And the blind will lead the blind

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.

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