I Wish I’d Known – The Berryman/Smeeton Project

For the past month or so Will and I have been bouncing ideas at each other. While it’s not the first collaboration I’ve done, this is more about me being reactive rather than coming up with lyrics and a basic musical structure. Until we started I’d never written lyrics to music – which I realise is the more commonly used approach in songwriting – so it’s been a really interesting and very rewarding exercise. The music is all Will’s, and my approach is to simply start humming along to the music (it helps that it’s a brilliant tune!) until a couple of phrases jump out and then away I go. The goal is to really work the tracks we create up, but “I Wish I’d Known” has ended up a being such a cracking track – and not really needing too much work – that sharing it, as the first public outing of what we are working on, seemed like a good idea! We hope you enjoy it.

I WISH I’D KNOWN
© 2016 Will Berryman/Chuck Smeeton

When I was a young man
With not too much to say
I listened to my elders
It was the learned way

Taught the things that I should do
Not all of it was good
If I had my time again
I’m not sure that I would

(chorus)
I’ve reaped the seeds that I have sown
Regrets, I’ve got a few
I wish I’d known what you knew
Been chasing trouble all my life
Mistakes, I’ve made a few
I wish I’d known what you knew

I never served my time
But in my heart I know what’s due
A black mark on my soul
For all that I’ve been through

It’s the path that I must follow
No myths left to dispel
When the time of judgement comes
I know I’ll go to hell

[break]