Good night

Good Night - MP3

Lyrics

when the wind blows softly down your old flat street
and the moon shines down on where you put your feet
and the night flows slowly into day
and the dawn comes you shake your head and

when the words come slowly or not at all
stare so fiercely at the blank brick walls
and you scream so quietly that it seems no one hears
and you dream so helplessly but

we were here

i don't know where you are now but i feel you near
i don't know why you're gone now after all these years
and i know you would tell me all the things you hold dear
and i would tell you

we were here

Music

Chords

verse: g flat major, a flat major
chorus: d flat major, b flat minor

Structure

a b a b b b a b b b....

Author's Comments

i wrote this after gabe sent me an email late in the evening. i made a first recording right away which was awful. did it again, and then decided that a four chord song was pretty boring. so i added a ridiculous drum part and some distorted piano, and then a lot of effects and some cut up parts at the end. unfortunately, this recording suffers from some rhythm issues, so i will probably have to rerecord the piano, at least. i don't know. it's a weird little song.

Comments

i am having trouble analyzing this song in a qualitiative or quantitative way right now because i'm so emotionally involved in it. a very moving number.

1. i love the arrangement. it's a very "cure meets postal service" treatment, which any one from our generation should be proud to have achieved.
   • the piano figures are so lovely, and robert smith would have been lucky to write anything that nice. it's like if he took the ballads on "bloodflowers" and recorded them for "the top" or "head on the door". which would have been awesome, i think you can agree.
   • i say "postal service" probably mostly because of the delay on the snare and tambourine at times. the drum samples you used are really excellent; they sound natural, like part of the song, rather than like "some kid arbitrarily adding beats to her track."
   • the cut up stuff at the end is actually really cool, and made cooler by the occasional rhythmic ambiguity in the rest of the tune. though i suspect it would be just as cool if you tightened that down.
   • vocal harmonies = oh my yes.
2. the things you've done with rhythm in this song are interesting, despite it being a relatively slow song.
   • the rhythm of the vocal melody on the verse is exciting, especially the way it scans, that is, (i think), the way the words work with the shape and rhythm of the melodic line.
   • the play between the left and right hand on the piano totally make this song; bringing that up front in the intro is very effective.
   • again, those drum parts are just what the doctor ordered.
3. somewhat perversely, i have to wonder what would happen if you took this incredibly funky beat and sped it up to aqua-dance-hit superspeed, and added some house-type synth pads on the refrain.

Gabemcelwain 08:59, 30 January 2007 (PST)

thank you! i am glad you like it. the drums are from the hiphop beats folder in fruityloops, and i can't believe i never tried them before. they are a little noisier and much bassier than the other drumkits.

i really wanted to make the song fast. i even thought about making two versions. maybe i will try that when i get home tonight. yay aqua! the cure! postal service!

Sara 17:20, 2 February 2007 (PST)