Making art, falling in love, and trying to touch forever.
Listen to the Studio Version
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Lyrics
Sparkle-dusted sunlight rays
Kiss pathways on the plaster
Kaleidoscope of palette trays
A clock that won’t tick faster
A chair for you, is wishing too
Oooo I wanna touch forever
Footfalls on the spiral stair
Keep pace with double heartbeats
Prairie flowers in your hair
The first time that our eyes meet
A shy hello, already know
Oooo we could touch forever
Canvas blushing, sunset hues
Invite the brush to wander
Fearless eyes, a thousand blues
A breathless falling under
Hold on tight, I think we might
Oooo reach out and touch forever
♫
Gilded frame and walls of white
A party for a painting
A crowd without your face tonight
Now I’m the last one waiting
A quiet love, a portrait of
Oooo the time we touched forever
Back Story
The leader of a local songwriters’ group gave us a prompt to write a song about an old painting. I went full romantic imagination about the moment when an artist and the woman he will paint meet in a loft studio. How through the making of art, while falling in love, they long to touch each other forever, and to create a timeless work of art. To never lose the magic of that moment. Longing for, loving, losing, these are the plot lines our lives turn on. All the while time will neither speed up to bring a moment sooner, or slow down to let it last longer.
Making of the Studio Version
Co-producer Cody suggested piano and mandolin. I thought that sounded unusual, genre-bending, and interesting, potentially weird. We did several takes of Cody improvising beautiful expressive mandolin and edited pieces from them all. The result my daughter called “ancient and romantical” and I agree.
We imagined upright bass, and friend and prolific bassist, Charlie Harris, came to the studio to record that. We spent hours recording bowed bass parts because I imagined that fitting, and then spent a short time on a plucked bass part. In the end I didn’t use any of the bowed bass (sorry Charlie!) because the plucked part just seemed to fit.
Vocals on this were tricky for me and my beginning singing skills, with few places to take a breath, and the unusual 1 -> 3 -> 7 interval on the 5th line of each verse. After a few different takes on different days, I did my best to relax and sing this simply, however imperfectly, and convey the emotion I felt when I wrote the song.
Art
Credits and Thank-You’s
Co-production and mandolin by Cody Jensen. Upright bass by Charlie Harris. Cover art by Ally Grayce. Thanks to Aubrie for the challenge to write a song about a painting. Words, music, piano, vocals, recording, and mixing by me.
