I married the girl next door.

Well, actually, the girl down the street...
We met the first day of 8th grade at the bus stop. I had just moved to town.
We became best friends... through junior high...until I moved away. Never "dated".
Sort of kept in touch. A few years later, I was in Ft. Lauderdale playing in bars.
Got a message from her that she wanted to visit over spring break.

She never left. We've been married 37 years.


THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

with two tin cans...some string from my kite
we made a telephone and talked half the night
when morning would come, she'd be waiting on my front porch
my very best friend.....the girl next door

the first time we danced... i was scared half to death
the whole time she held me, i was holding my breath
i knew we were friends...but i was feeling so much more
i was falling in love.... with the girl next door

   as time went on i just fell deeper
    could she ever feel the same
    a raging river starts high in the hills
   from a single drop of rain

a little french cafe....soft candlelight
i practiced all day to get the words just right
when i gave her that ring my heart heard what it'd been waiting for
she said, "it looks like i'll no longer be the girl next door"

   as time goes on i just fall deeper
   and i know she feels the same
   a raging river runs deep in our hearts
   from that single drop of rain

we still talk all night... we're still best of friends
our daughters have grown like weeds on a fence
can't help but laugh when we hear the knocks from our front porch
it's every boy on the block.... for our girls next door

gotta shake my head...cause i know how it feels to love ....
the girl next door


Here are the RealTracks used...
RealTracks in style: ~518:Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085
RealTracks in song: ~2051:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking CountryBrent Ev 085
RealTracks in song: ~365:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 1422:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm PopCalypso Ev 100
RealTracks in style: 1856:Cello, Background PopCountry Ev 085
RealDrums in style: NashvilleEven8^1-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride

I did the vocals. Harmonies are me and the BIABettes.
I played the strings (not the violins, of course... a Yamaha P-85)

Have at it.

floyd

Hi Floyd,

you did it again!
What a beautiful declaration of love.
I think I can spare my words on story, vocals,
harmonies, arrangement and mix, I've said that so
often.
I can't get enough of it.
(One nit: there's a pause at the end followed by an ugly crackle. Perhaps you can remove that).

Guenter

Hi, Floyd !!

Yes, you really made it this time...
You got me crying....I have an almost
similar history as you, but we only
got 42 years, me and my sweet dear Beni !
I can only hope and pray that your marriage
would last much, much
longer !:))

Cheers
Dani

Now THAT is how to write a love song! What a wonderful tribute Floyd.

Nice story, great song, excellent mix and soulful delivery.

There's a lot of solid craftsmanship in the writing.

I liked the way you snuck in the cello, built to full strings, and then thinned out the instruments again. Very effective.

Outstanding lyrics and the emotion you put in the vocal brings it to life. Top notch work here, very well produced tune, thanks for sharing and congrats on the marriage.


My Music

Hi Floyd

Beautiful song. What even makes it more special as I was written from a very personal place. Most of my songs while only instrumentals were discovered from a very personal place. This is definitely my favorite song of yours. Well done.

Hey Floyd, I'll bet this scores some major points at home, with the wife and the daughters too. Another great write, production and vocals. You leave us all in awe with

your work. One very minor thing I would change and as you know mixing is all opinions, the strings are very effective with crescendo as David pointed out, but I

thought they got too loud. Loud enough that they drowned out the other instrumentation. Could just be my compromised hearing too. Great song, one of your best of

which there are many. Tom

Floyd,

This is very sweet... Love the sentiment and feel. Great job.

Bob

Guenter - thanks for the nice comments - and thanks for the heads up on the ugly crackle - I took care of it.

Dani - never meant to make ya cry, man... hang on to the good memories..

Joanne - thanks for that...

Almost lost for words.

Even without the message, the song screams out "professional". Wonderful arrangement, great choice of RTs and the usual Radio-Ready mix.

Add in the inspired lyrics, delivered with a beautifully emotional voice and well...

I'm lost for words!

ROG.

Good job Floyd.

Yeah, I can relate to that having raised 2 daughters....

Hey Floyd,

Another outstanding job! Very well crafted and an excellent mix!
Your a machine! My beautiful wife & I will be celebrating 29 years on the 24th of this month.

Well Done!

Greg

Well thank you very much Floyd! Because of this wonderful song you may have just ruined it for every married male musician in the world!

My bride and I are approaching 50 years and I do have a song ready to go, thinking should I wait out the next five years before I publish it, cause hell in five years I may be in diapers unable to hold a guitar, or bite the bullet and do it now. Anyway I digress, I loved this song.

Re: The you ruined it for us part of this reply, I was just kidding, well sort of.

Later,

Floyd,

What a sweet story and song. Love everything about it.

Also congrats on 37 years!

Floyd, Dude, really!!!!

That folks is how it's done!

David - Thanks for all that. So.. you do a lot of "string work"... did you feel the levels were a bit high? First time I've added strings and I struggled with them a bit...




Robert - thanks. good to see you dropping by.





Scott - every once in a while I still write something "real". Of course, there is a little "license" taken here as well. Thanks for the listen..

Tom - Thanks. Like I mentioned to David, this is the first time I've added strings - and I played them in one pass - which took about 40 times before I got one without totally flubbing it. Trying to get the level right was surprisingly hard. I did re-mix (again!!!) and brought them down just a smidgen. However... they were intended to "take over" the chorus. Like a full orchestra behind the singer (me). Like Glen Campbell when he would play with an orchestra behind him. Or Neil Diamond. That kind of thing.


I would be interested in impressions from anyone who might want to chime in on the subject. If they don't "work", I'd like to know - no need to hold back opinions...

I think the strings sound good, the level is ok to me. I thought the effect you you were going for (Glen C orchestra, etc) was pretty much achieved... I mean short of actually having a full orchestra.

I'm liking it!

Greg

Floyd,
That is a wonderful song; the sentiments, the vocal delivery and the arrangement are all top class.

Strings are in my opinion notoriously difficult for us "home recordists" to get to sound accurate as there are SO many variables to play with. I just mention attack and decay of the individual instruments as an example.
Then there is the arrangement of the notes. If the chord change is G to C, for example, then the movement of the notes are important, as are the inversions of the chords for each section of the orchestra. eg: the notes are G B D to G C E, or G B D to E G C or B G D to C E G, (no passing notes mentioned here)

I sometimes use Cakewalk Studio Instruments in my arrangements in my string sections and I try to get the 3 instruments Bass, Cello and Violins,recorded individually, to stay in the range of their real counterparts. Which is <swear word> difficult to get to sound right as it takes as long to do that as it does to do the writing,singing and recording.
So I usually just dial up an orchestra patch in say EMU Proteus Free and play the chords and then add some movement after.....sometimes!!
I also use the CHORD track, which can be saved from a BIAB song, for this as all the notes are already displayed as midi and need some judicious transposing which then achieves a simplified version of movement. A few songs I have done have involved many versions of that track, with notes added by me and some notes of the same pitch "glued together". In a 2 bar version of the 1st example above, G B D to G C E, I occasionally glue the G's together and say split the G in the second bar at beat 2.
In my DAW, Cubase SX, there is a midi mute tool which I use a lot to try and keep a part to, say, a 2 note chord which moves. Usually done visually by looking at the piano roll with a chorus/verse fitting the screen.

Here is an article giving advice on Arranging for Strings which explains it better than I could.


BUT the song, The Girl Next Door is still as in my first paragraph. A wonderful listen.Well done, I assume the wife is proud to be the subject of such a wonderful song.

Alyn

Hi Floyd,

I like your song very much.

I don't normally comment on songs but as you asked about the strings I will give my opinion.

I saw Tommy Emanuel play live and he said that when he is playing with someone else and the other person is playing open chords he will play higher chords and vice versa so as not to conflict with one another.

So, on to the strings, perhaps if you raised the strings an octave or to a higher but sympathetic key it may help (separate your singing from them).


Just trying to be constructive

Regards

George

Bob - thanks for the listen.







ROG - Those are some very nice things for you to say... certainly appreciate it..





Thanks Herb

Thanks Greg. And Happy Anniversary!



Danny - LOL - Sorry, man. Unforeseen consequences... 50 - Zowie - the really big one! Congrats!... and DEFINITELY just "bite the bullet"!!
Do it!




Josie - Thanks. Appreciate that.

Rob - in less than 10 words, you gave me one of the best "reviews" I've ever had. Appreciate that immensely.



Greg - thanks for coming back to weigh in on the "strings issue".



Alyn - appreciate the comments and the discussion. I'll definitely be taking a look at that article. It's a never-ending learning process.

George - thanks for the comments and the thoughts... I'll be working on it...

Hey floyd,

What a great image and equally great philosophy. I can see myself quoting you to my students!

Right now, I'm sitting here with my fingers poised over the keyboard and they have no idea what to type. This is a bit of a nuisance because I'm so incredibly impressed with this song that I have to think of something to say that does justice to how very much I enjoyed listening to it.

The ballad-meets-country-meets-folk-meets-floyd feel is EXACTLY (and I mean 100% 'exactly') perfect. The strings worked for me. In fact, when they came in, my first thoughts were, "What a very polished sound! I don't think I've heard strings in one of FJ's songs before. Really nice."

Also ...

... the way you developed the hook was incredibly skilful. Once again you have taken me another couple of miles along the road to my becoming a better songwriter. Without exception, I always learn something from every song you post. Today's most important lesson was how to use AABA form to tell a story. By the way, I love the lyric variation in the repeated B and final A section!

For me, and I've said it a few times on this forum, AABA always works incredibly well for an isolated moment in time. In a sense, this is the music-form/lyric equivalent of the Aristotelian unities of Time, Place and Action. Pat Pattison calls this isolated moment, the "Now" of the song.

Because AABA has such a strong sense of 'the moment', when I listened to this song, the image of a father/husband talking to a friend and telling them about a cross-section of his life was incredibly vivid in my head. In this way, what was a story came across as a first-hand reflection, like it was being told by a storyteller - and a mighty fine storyteller at that!

Thank goodness that even though my fingers didn't what to type, my brain got them working in the end

Mega-congratulations on a brilliant song.

All the best,
Noel

P.S. Congratulations on 37 years, too. That's something to celebrate!

Sorry for the late reply Floyd.
Another superb song with lyrics that we can all identify with.
We've been together 47 years gone September last so you're catching up fast, my friend.
I dont think our daughter would like to be called a "weed" though.
I enjoyed the pace of the song and the way the backing rose and fell with instruments coming in and building to something and then falling away again.
As always, you have my admiration.
cheers
ian

Noel - I like that you picked out those lines. I don't write those kind of "grandiose" lines often, but I like this one... (it's fun to sing, too).

I'm pleased to hear that the strings worked for you. You just never know with something new like that....

I thoroughly enjoyed your critique... as always...

Ian - Thanks - I appreciate it. And.. you weren't exactly "late"... this had only been up a couple of days...

Ya know.. it's a common expression... "the kids are growing like weeds..."

Floyd,

I've just joined this forum (and love it!), have never heard any of your songs before, but after hitting play, it was like reading a good book that you can't put down until it's finished!

Impressive! Looking forward to hearing more of your work.

Wally G

I'm late to the party and can add nothing to what has been said about the arrangement, the dynamic mix, the vocal and the lyric. All of it is simply in a word, superb. Another clinic in the outcome of a great vocal, wonderful songwriting and the sheer power of BIAB in the right hands.

What I can add is that this one struck a great note with the two of us. I won life's lotto when Janice and I married 32 years ago.

Floyd, this is first class from the superb vocal through to the stunning lyrics and sentiment to the excellent engineering. A great job.

John

hi Floyd jane this a excellent job a keeper for sure we raised four daughters and a son totally relate to this well done eric

Wally - Welcome to the forum. It a great place to hang out. A lot of terrific people and a lot of good music...

I like the book analogy - thanks...

Hey Bud! Thanks for all those very kind words...

John - That's quite nice of you to say. Appreciate it.

Thanks eric!

Floyd:

I think this may be my new favorite of your songs. Nice job with lyrics, story telling and use of BIAB. 95 out of 100.

My only suggestion would be to use perfect rhymes instead of porch/door fence/friends because you use them everywhere else.

To me, the tag line would be just that much stronger with a perfect rhyme.

Otherwise, really good job.

John