Hello everyone,

This week's new song:

Ageless

I'm influenced by many acts of the 80s. Alan Parsons is one of them (Chris Rainbow's vocals in particular). You may hear this resonate in this song about aging. The lyrics are pretty dramatic at times.
I did the backing vocals myself on this one. Anne-Marie created the video. At first glance it appears to be just a simple picture, but watch it closely on the choruses!
Hope you like it, any comments are welcome.

Regards,
Rob

Song specifics:
Style is =DONIE_G.STY (Fnk Gospl, ac.guit (102 RT))

RealTracks in song: 1856:Cello, Background PopCountry Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 1006:Piano, Acoustic, Solo-Accompaniment, PopCaliforniaSlow Ev 085
RealTracks in song: ~~2051:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking CountryBrent Ev 085
RealTracks in song: ~2265:Synth, BellPad, Rhythm 80sPopMelodic Ev 085
RealTracks in song: ~~1029:Guitar, 12-String Electric, Fingerpicking Ev 085
RealTracks in song: 2338:Violin, Background, PopLow Ev 085 (1TrackStringSection)
RealTracks in song: 2337:Violin, Background, PopHigh Ev 085 (1TrackStringSection)
RealDrums in style: NashvillePop16^4-a:SideStick, HiHat , b:Snare, Hihat



Lyrics:
nobody wants the fear of being old
heading nowhere, lying in wait
everybody wants to feel like someone new
when life is holding you back, bringing you down

leave our souls ageless
turn back the time
being young forever, fearless
of living, or dying

nobody wants the fear of slow decay
marking your time, numbering your days
everybody wants to feel enduring love
lifting you up, brighten your days

here in my own world time passes by
losing sweet memories, praying for time
am I living, or dying

leave our souls ageless
turn back the time
being young forever, fearless
of living, or dying

Lovely song. I'm just getting to that point to realize I'm not really ageless. Especially, after and afternoon working my German Shepherd, Justice. With her, it's mental and physical.

Back to the song, I really like the instrumentation on this and your vocals and harmony are done to near perfection.

Anne-Marie has quite a talent of matching the feel and message of your songs into pictures.

Enjoyed this from start to finish with the exception of the reminder I'm getting old.


Charlie

Rob and Anne Marie,

A song up to your usual high standards!
A lovely minimalist video, Anne Marie, you are an inventive video producer.

Sad sad words, especially as I saw a dear friend of 20+ years,a few days ago who is counting his days

Take care both

Alyn

Lovely work all round. Well done both on a beautiful song.

Triggers those feelings that Wordsworth called 'intimations of mortality'. But then hey, George Bernard Shaw said "We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing." So I'm going with that one!

John

Wow! That is powerful and the vid is very
effective. John's Shaw quote nailed it.
And as Janice says "Never grow up --
it's a trap!"

Thanks for the opportunity to hear and
view another well done and effective
production.

J&B

Hi Rob and Anne-Marie,

beautiful song. Great singing and harmonies. And an arrangement and mix of the usual high standard.

Guenter

Another beauty!! Arrangement is perfect, and vocals are superb. Strings work beautifully. Really interesting chord changes. A winner all the way around. Great stuff!! Take care. Greg

Hello Charlie,

Thank you!
Well, you're not all that old yet and creating music surely keeps you young.
OK, looking forward to your new recording with the vocals recorded in steps.

Regards,
Rob

WOW! What a great song! This really expresses the end of the cycle sadness that many have.

The video was extremely well done!

As I was listening to this I thought this is something that John Prine might have written. Excellent lyrics and vocal with a super backing track.

Hi Alyn,

Thank you!
Glad you like the song.
About the video: first we were lucky to get our hands on 2 suitable pictures. The young man is Portuguese and the old man is an image from The Old Man and the Sea movie.
The young man's picture could be used courtesy of the photographer. Next, Anne-Marie had to do quite some editing in order to get a rather seamless transformation.

We're very sorry to hear about your friend.

Regards,
Rob

Anne Marie is one clever video producer.

Thanks Rob, Peter looks really ill. He is an artist and I visited his hobby rooms many years ago and said I liked one painting. He and his wife nearly dissolved laughing and when they could speak he said "that's the board I wipe my brushes on" and has never let me forget that. LOL

Sad and haunting. A reminder that none of us are ageless..... I'm reminded every morning as I crawl out of bed......

Nice work.

I loved the song. I hope this doesn't offend, but the song and vocals remind me of some of the animated movies from my youth. I mean that as a tremendous compliment. I loved the soundtracks for many of the 1970's non-Disney animated movies I grew up watching. I was flashing back to some really good memories listening.

Rob,

A beautiful song! Well written (beautiful in its simplicity) and very well produced. And beautifully sung.

Anne-Marie - cool video!

Y'all just get better all the time. No small achievement since you were terrific to begin with.

Super. Beautiful.

floyd

Hi John,

Thanks a lot!
In our case Shaw's words "playing" could also be replaced by "singing"!

Regards,
Rob and Anne-Marie

Thank you J & B,

Rob was never very good at growing up , but he's using it in his music, haha,,,

Regards,
Anne-Marie

Thank you Guenter!

Hi Greg, always appreciate your kind words!
Regards,
Rob and Anne-Marie

Hi, Rob & Anne-Marie !:))


I have to join in with
what the others have said
before ! Awesome in every aspect !:))


Cheers
Dani

Such a pretty song Rob and love the falsetto with the harmony which added a little extra magic dust to the melody. I've had that on my mind for adding in one of my own tunes and you beat me to the punch. You handled the delicate and universal subject in a heartfelt almost raw emotion way that works really well.

Great job on the video effect AM - no easy task there.

Josie

thank you Guenter!

thank you Dani!

Thank you Mario,

we haven't heard of John Prine, but we will take a listen!

Regards,
Rob

Ha ha, we're not offended at all!
Thank you for your very positive comments!

Regards,
Rob

Oh my! I could NOT let this go by without comment...

Prine's debut album (called simply "John Prine") was my songwriting bible.

Several of the songs from that are included on a later release...

https://myspace.com/johnprine/music/album/souvenirs-10760220

START with "Hello In There"
"Far From Me"
"Angel From Montgomery"
"Sam Stone"

Hi Floyd,

The link you provided, didn't work, site was down for some reason.
But his debut album is on YouTube, listening to it now.
Songs like: 'hello in there' are totally my style.
Also detect some Dylan influences here.
Indeed a great inspiration!

Regards,
Rob

R & AM, A wonderful song. Sung and produced with great expertise. Fascinating video to boot. I enjoyed it very much. Tom

Rob and Anne-Marie

You two are a very talented song-writing team! I always enjoy your songs.. never once have I been disappointed!

This song is particularly compelling to me, as I lost my dear wife a little over 2 years ago, and that event has forced me to consider the topic of your song every single day since then.

The topic, in my opinion, takes boldness to address. Small changes in lyrics or composition could have rendered it cheesy or patronizing. But you avoided all that with good choices; and as a result, you have a real masterpiece here.

Anne-Marie... regarding your video:
I must admit I was totally blindsided by your creative decision to morph the photo between an old man to a young man and back again! The song was halfway over before I caught on.. and when I did, the significance to the song really struck me! Very, very artsy!

When the strings began playing and you introduced the silky waves of smoke flowing across the screen, I almost expected the photo to morph into the moon and the smoke to morph into clouds... in the sense that the moon itself is ageless.. and it shines upon all of us at every age, from birth until the grave. But the film is perfect exactly as it is! Good Job!

Rob, back to you:
It's easy to get jaded on excellence when you hear it all the time. I EXPECT your songs to be top-notch, and they always are. But sometimes something about a song really strikes my fancy above all else, and in this song it was the way you introduced the strings. Strings are something else that can be used very badly. They can make a good song sound cheesy in a heartbeat... (don't ask how I know this). But your handling of them in this song was just perfect. Smooth. Melodic. Ageless in fact.

Sorry for rambling, but I think the effort required to write a good song is significant... and I think such effort on your part deserves something more than a sound byte in response. Especially when I like the song as much as I like this one.

Hi, Rob % Anne-Marie !


I am truly impressed at
your ability to put together
tune after tune and not any
tune too ! Every tune of yours
is a gem in itself and they are also
quite different ! :))
Just great !!!

Cheers
Dani

Thank you Herb,

much appreciated!

Regards,
Rob

thank you Tom!
Regards,
Rob

Thanks Josie,

well, getting those high-pitched backing vocals in properly, took some effort
I would love to hear some falsetto harmonies in your songs. Will probably sound very good!

Regards,
Rob

Hello Pat,

I'm very sorry to hear about your wife's passing.
But I'm glad to hear you like this song so much.
It took quite some work actually, rearranging the real tracks properly.
The belpad is quite functional here, and yes the string quartet also works pretty good in this song.
Getting the high-pitched backing vocals properly in tune took quite an effort too

Thanks for your very, very positive comments. Much appreciated!

Regards,
Rob

Thanks Dani,

yes, we're quite productive
But it also takes a lot of work, musicality and then there are the lyrics..... sometimes they come out of the blue, but mostly it's quite a struggle getting them to fit in properly, or having inspiration at all....
but then again, with a program like BIAB most of the musical work is already done, better than I could ever play myself.

Thanks again for your very positive comment!

Regards,
Rob