Free Single: Sleep

 

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This was the first song I wrote after first becoming a parent. Echo was just a few months old and I was so tired–CONSTANTLY–that I couldn’t think about anything else except sleep. The rhymes in this piece are simple and predictable because they’re the product of a sleep-deprived brain that couldn’t think beyond that. I’m sure all parents can relate to this one! Sleep is truly the one thing that deserts us after becoming parents; sadly, once we get it back, we can’t remember how to use it fully. Our babies train us to be sleep-deprived and that takes years to unlearn…

 

SLEEP

we used to spend every night together
I thought it would last forever
but then it did end
you were my best friend
how could you let me go?

sleep, I took you for granted
you are among the precious things on this planet
but now the world has got another
and she is cryin’ for her mother
sleep, come back to get me
sleep, please don’t forget me
sleep, how could you let me go?

I used to share all my dreams with you
and now it seems what they say is true
look to the future
and let the past blur
how could you let me go?

sleep, I took you for granted…

I thought you’d be there for me every day
I never thought you’d go away

sleep, I know you can’t hear a word I’m saying
sleep, I know it’s not clear that’s ‘cuz I’m praying
for reprieve, and I’m grieving rest

sleep, I took you for granted…
you are among the precious things on this planet
but now the world has got another
and he is cryin’ for his mother
sleep, come back to get me
sleep, please don’t forget me
sleep, how could you let me go?

I thought you’d be there for me every day
I never thought you’d go away

oh sleep, sleep, sleep, I took you for granted

It's official: I have an MFA
Free Single: Balloon

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The Philosophy

Before 1910, with the production of the first vinyl record, music was a live experience, not a physical product sold as a commodity. But then, everything changed. Music became something that could be bought and sold.

Over a century, fans who formerly were pure supporters of the artist whose visits to their towns brought them an experience of joy, slowly began to value the songs and the albums more so than the people who made them. To possess the object—the record, cassette, CD, mp3—was the main goal, not to support the making of that magic in the first place.

So, it makes sense that when music first became free via online downloads, most people didn’t think twice about downloading it; it had long ceased to be about the people who made the art. Free stuff is fun! We had become consumers of music, not patrons of its production.

But what is music really worth? To me, besides family, it’s worth more than anything else in the world. I would give up on almost everything else in my life before I would give up music. Music is magic. It’s priceless. Money is just money.

And as a fan, if I love an artist, I can’t assign a price either. Their songs are worth so much more to me than $0.99 or $1.29. Their songs are inside of me, rattling my spirit. Music keeps my cells awake.

So now you know what music is worth to me.

The question is, what’s it worth to *YOU*?