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When Mariana Noble walked into our town's first "Songwriting Club" meeting in 1982 with a 3-ring binder of "lyrics without music" under her arm, I offered to collaborate with her. One of her pages was this song, which we recorded on tape with Mariana singing and me playing guitar. I've wanted to bring this into the digital era for a long time, but Mariana isn't an option for singing. I hired "Chelsea" from Fiverr in her place, and she did a wonderful job. Mariana was so unique--all of her lyrics were so musically perfect for me, and we collaborated on a half-dozen songs, all with her special sense of mature feminine insight. My recently-posted "Reed Man" was originally her "Queen Bee". Please comment on mix/levels, etc. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------- "Birds" I want to say something to you, 'Cause I think I see through you, But my words are like BIRDS, they go their own way. I want to say what I feel, What I often conceal; I can't hold what my soul wants to say. You've heard love is simple, But it's only brought pain; The winter has touched you, but the spring has brought rain. When your ship has been shattered And your love has been scattered, Like wild geese that touch down, but don't stay. You think that nothing is free; Raise your head and you'll see That the leaves are unfolding today. Will you let me inside? Or will we both hide And watch while the BIRDS fly away? ----------------------------------------- No Style used RD: BossaRock HiHat, Shaker RTs: 712 Bossa Acoustic Bass, 709 Bossa Nylon-Elec Guitar Midi (SampleTank4): Strings, Flutes, Trill Strings Vox: Chelsea from Fiverr
Windows 11, Intel Core i5-8600T 2.3Ghz, 16 gig ram, BIAB 2025 MegaPak, SampleTank 4, Keystation49 Kybd, Neewer NW-800 mic
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Tom,
What a great song and track. Chelsea sings this beautifully. I also love the band - everything feels perfectly placed.
Awesome job.
Bob
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Cool song, Tom! Love the gentle bossa sound and Chelsea navigates the vocals with subtlety, warmth and feeling. The mix sound perfectly fine to me. Not much to recommend, maybe a more realistic strings patch, but that's a nit. My only real complaint is the song is TOO SHORT! Ha!
DC Ron
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Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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It's excellent, nothing to add except that I agree with DC Ron about the less synthetic strings; I used to give it a 10/10, but now it's a 9.9/10.
Laurent
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Thanks for sharing Mariana's fine lyrics, and you really gave them a special melody (love the half-steps). Ha, I scrolled up to see what Style you used, and see you have no style. Well, that's definitely not true, Tom. I always enjoy the style you bring to your music. A fine production, too.
Last edited by BabuMusic; 11/19/25 01:28 PM.
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Hi Tom!
Ooo yeah. This song is smooth. I can hear what you mean about Mariana’s lyrics, and your music brings them to life! I agree with Ron about the strings and also wanted more of the song in length, but hey - great song!
On a tangent, your first line in your post could easily be the opening sentence in a novel…
‘When Mariana Noble walked into our town's first "Songwriting Club" meeting in 1982 with a 3-ring binder of "lyrics without music" under her arm, I offered to collaborate with her.’
Andrew
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Wow, this is beautiful! Birds and Eleven are your best songs this year, I think. I agree with others about Sampletank - not the best package. I have used Chels on two songs and love her voice. And she works cheap for the quality you get. I've listened several times, may have to go back and listen to Eleven again, too.
Last edited by TuneMonger; 11/20/25 06:33 AM.
Windows 11, Intel Core I5 10400, 16 gig ram, Scarlett 2i2, Sony Acid Music Studio 10, BIAB 2020 UltraPlus Pak
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Loved everything about this, great write, composition, band, and the vocal is fabulous!
Your best yet, Tom, at least of the ones I've heard, well done.
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Hi Tom, can't add much constructive that hasn't already been noted. It's a truly lovely little song.
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Really cool vibe to this song. Mariana's lyrics are very poetic - I particularly like " But my words are like birds, they go their own way" - and Chelsea's vocals really suit it.
Some favourite Waoist Adages:
#1: Play on the Way.
#13: Ask not for whom the flower blooms, it blooms for you.
#58: Bring consciousness to it.
#63: On the road to effortlessness, effort must be made.
#92: Be Love Now, the rest will come on its own.
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Thank you all..I think the solidness of the lyric really is the key!
Windows 11, Intel Core i5-8600T 2.3Ghz, 16 gig ram, BIAB 2025 MegaPak, SampleTank 4, Keystation49 Kybd, Neewer NW-800 mic
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Beautiful, gentle song with a great singer. The mix sounds good, and Ron has already mentioned that the strings don't sound perfect, mainly because they have minimal breaks between chords. BIAB/RealTracks pads often have this problem too. The easiest way to hide it is to add a reverb with a decay long enough to bridge these gaps. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed my listen ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/images/icons/default/thumbs_up.gif)
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Hi, Tom. Lovely song and lovely vocal! I agree on the strings - they sound too synthy. I've recently been using MuseScore strings, partly because the free version sounds really nice, and because I find it easier to add articulations via notation instead of using keyswitches. Layering solo strings on a string ensemble is especially lovely. Of course, it requires learning MuseScore.  I'd be tempted to add a bit more reverb on her voice. It doesn't need it, though. As Andrew said, it's a bit short. Or more specifically, it left me wanting more, which is certainly a good thing. I sort of wanted to hear a flute solo. 
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Chelsea has a fantastic voice and did an excellent job on this song.
Mariana wrote some great lyrics.
Tom, you perfectly put everything together.
Loved it
Life is short so make sure you spend as much time as possible on the Internet arguing with strangers.
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Super smooth song, you have there Tom. Beautiful vocal.
Kind regards.
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BD/David/Mario/KW...thank you for listening and your generous comments...I hear you about the strings patch...there's probably some better patches within SampleTank that I could use, and I'll probably take a look at that at some future point when I dive back into it. Thanks again.
Windows 11, Intel Core i5-8600T 2.3Ghz, 16 gig ram, BIAB 2025 MegaPak, SampleTank 4, Keystation49 Kybd, Neewer NW-800 mic
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Beautiful and an excellent band and singer.
"When your ship has been shattered
And your love has been scattered,
Like wild geese that touch down, but don't stay."
We enjoyed the lyric and we love to watch geese land on water ... and take off.
Well done,
J&B
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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J&B, thanks. I’ve always thought that Mariana’s lyrics represented the viewpoint of a woman who has fallen for a younger man. Her thoughts and reflections are far deeper than the guy’s at his youthful age.
Windows 11, Intel Core i5-8600T 2.3Ghz, 16 gig ram, BIAB 2025 MegaPak, SampleTank 4, Keystation49 Kybd, Neewer NW-800 mic
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Unique and cool, intriguing. I really enjoyed that.
I think the mix is right on.
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Excellent listen. Very cool vocal and backtrack well done
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