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1814 Guitar, 1173 Accordion, 1422 Piano, 2448 Guitar, 1175 Guitar, 2475 Bass (a lot of popcalypso)

Vanish (3- 11 -2012)

I think I'm gonna vanish today/ I think that I'll just up and slip away
Been feeling kind of weary, tired let's just say/ I think I'm gonna vanish today
I'm not really feeling social right now/ wish I could jump the moon just like the cow
nothing oh so serious just feeling kinda down/ wish that I could vanish somehow

I put all of my money in this truck/ the seller said that she would bring me luck
but most days she just sleep there in my yard/ I don't think she could really get me far
I throw all my belongings in her bed/ I'm the kind that goes where he is led
visions of a perfect life swimming in my head/ I'll settle now for vanishing instead
and oh come a rain/ a cold wind blowing my way

I turn the key and head on down the road/ and wave goodbye to Harlequin my crow
sometimes I think there ain't a thing in this world he don't know/ a philosopher that flies both high and low
I travel by the stars at night, I sleep during the day/ where ever my heart takes me is where I stop to stay
I study on just how my path got turned around this way/ I think I'm gonna vanish today
and oh come a rain/ a cold wind blowing my way

I think I'm gonna vanish today/ me and this old truck and slip away
I wonder bout ol Harlequin and what he'd have to say
I think I'm gonna vanish/ I think I'm gonna vanish/ I think I'm gonna vanish today

Hi Lawrence,

This is a truly incredible listen and is inspired songwriting at its very best.

Words that popped into my mind as I sat here with your music playing were: desolation, isolation, abandoned, lonely, depressed, vacant, lost.

It is outstanding how your lyrics, your music and your performance work together to paint an incredibly vivid portrait of a weary soul who is struggling with bleakness of spirit. You manage to resonate with the human psyche through the skilful use of musical prosody at its ultimate.

I honestly don't think there would be a person on earth who could not identify with this song on some level. Such a powerful listen.

Regards,
Noel

P.S. I thought Harlequin the crow was a terrific character to incorporate. From literature and folk lore, the crow has many connotations associated with it and its colour. Also, by identifying it with Harlequin, the image metaphor takes a whole new twist.

• latest song: Just A Little After Midnight

Lawrence

a great song, but most importantly, sensational lyrics.

I really liked the build - very slow and gradual.

It's not hard to imagine the situation, the sad but believable tale of how the song is portrayed

Really great write. You'd be pretty pleased with the outcome I guess.

Thanks again
Trevor

I like this.

Lawrence,

This is a new favorite for me. I'm a big fan. Extraordinary song with an outstanding arrangement and vocal.

Bob

Poetry in motion. A man and his truck. This is really nice and kept my interest from start to finish. Good performance, mix and your vocals were spot on.


Charlie

Hi Lawrence,

Very nice song, I loved it.

You have the knack of writing what many people may be feeling at times in their life.

George

Hi Lawrence,

great poetry and an awesome performance.
I like your vocals a lot.

Guenter

Hi Lawrence, Since I'm late listening to this one and most of what I would have said is said, I just say, great all around!

Mike B.

WOW!!! Beautiful!! Wonderful, high-impact melancholy writing. Really captures "the blues" where nothing is that bad but you just feel sad. Reminds me of "Sunday Morning Coming Down". The vocal performance is stellar. There's something in the recording/mixing of it that is not as good as I feel it could be (maybe too far from the mic or too much room sound) but the performance is mind-blowingly good. This is probably my favorite of favorites of yours! Take care. Greg

What they said.

This is a really terrific song - evocative writing, great singing, wonderful arrangement. I particularly like where you leave holes instead of filling everything up with words.

Noel, thank you for your kind comments. It's good to hear that the song resonates on the level I was aiming for.

Trevor, thank you for listening and for taking time to let me know how the song struck you. I glad that you liked it.

Herb, thank you.

Hi Lawrence. Like this song. Reading the lyrics I expected it to be very sad but on listening found it quite delightful.
Wistful perhaps. And very well done.
Can certainly relate to the characters in your songs. Cheers.

Very good, touching and inspiring song. Very well produced too. Keep up the good work!

Lawrence,

A terrific write.

"I put all of my money in this truck/ the seller said that she would bring me luck
but most days she just sleep there in my yard/ I don't think she could really get me far"

...nice.

Nice arrangement. I like how you brought the accordion in at the end in such a subtle way. Good build throughout.

"and oh come a rain/ a cold wind blowing my way"
- love your vocal on that...

Enjoyed.

floyd

Thank you Bob. I'm glad it struck a chord with you.

Charlie, thanks for taking time to comment and I'm glad you liked it.

George, I appreciate your kind words.

Guenter, thank you for listening and taking time to comment.

Mike thanks for stopping in for a listen.

Greg, I tweaked the effects on the vocal and replaced the first version but I don't know if I really changed anything. If you listen again please let me know. And thank you for your very generous and kind comment.

Lawrence - Beautiful stuff. Am I hearing Katrina in that Harlequin reference? I love a lyric that makes me think. I hardly ever do that any more.

Love that thing you got goin on.


Regards,

Bob

Lawrence - This is just terrific. What an excellent write. Sometimes I wish I could also just vanish for a few hours. Great song. Great vocals. Great production. What else can I say.

dcuny, thank you. Yes, I like a bit of space when I can pull it off in a song.
Rich, thank you. I didn't want to write just another sad song but at the same time "sad" is certainly ripe for material.
Thank you for stopping in to listen and comment.

Hi Lawrence.

I just came across this at approaching midnight here in the UK.

I listened to this first of all on the headphones and then, for some reason I'm not sure about, I put it up on the main monitors and turned off all the lights. That's definitely the way to listen to this song. A very moving an eerie experience indeed.

I'm still not sure whether to take the lyrics at face value, or to treat them as one long metaphor, but either way it's an impressive piece of writing.

ROG.

Hello, Lawrence.

Thank you for this little gem.

Quite enjoyable in a poignant sort of way.

Thanks for the music,
Dan

There are an awful lot of things to like about this. Aside from the outstanding vocal performance and the excellent choice and editing of the real tracks, the part I like best is the mix of conversational lyrics with strong poetic imagery. Just flat out beautiful. What a great listening experience. Bravo Lawrence, Tom

"I turn the key and head on down the road/ and wave goodbye to Harlequin my crow
sometimes I think there ain't a thing in this world he don't know/ a philosopher that flies both high and low
I travel by the stars at night, I sleep during the day/ where ever my heart takes me is where I stop to stay
I study on just how my path got turned around this way/ I think I'm gonna vanish today
and oh come a rain/ a cold wind blowing my way"

Poetry...period.

Poetry and one of the strongest vocals I've ever heard here
here is a potent mix. A vocal that "milks it dry" but never
goes overboard, i.e., talent AND taste.

When wrapped up with an effective RT selection and mix
you've gotten a production to be extremely proud of!

And, for us, another fine song to add to the SC playlist!

J&B

Thank you floyd. This is one of those songs that I don't know where the lyrics came from. Except that as I wrote it I tried to give it a narrative progression, a movement forward from the preceding verse.

Musically after I pick out a few chords and a vibe but before I wrote the lyrics I knew that I wanted to put a long held note somewhere in the melody.

Bob, thank you and that's a good question that I don't really have an answer for. I will say that those memories are forever ingrained in my poetic morass.

Josie, thank you for the kind words.

Thank you Rog. I think it is of the metaphor variety. I was looking for more haunting than sad so lights out seems appropriate.

Dan, you're welcome and thank you for taking time to listen and for the kind words.

Tom, you are very kind. Thank you.

Thank you. I swerved into the idea of introducing Harlequin the crow and the lines about him. I don't know where it came from but my suspicion is that it was inspired by Townes some how.

Hi Lawrence,

This is definitely another winner!
The guitars sound wonderful, a beautiful mixture of RT's
Top notch vocals as always.

Rob

Thank you very much!

Listened again (and it was a pleasure). I liked the vocal processing better. And, let me say again...What a vocal performance...you nailed it! Take care. Greg

Well thank you for the input. It was a situation of addition by subtraction of some of the effects that I had added.

Lawrence,

This is one of the best written melancholy songs I've ever heard on this forum. Prosody doesn't get any better.

For me, the mix has too much going on in the center which is fighting the vocal impact. It also sounds eq'd just a little bright for the dark mood of the song - but hey mixes are so subjective....

Great song and vocal.

Well done!

Josie

Josie, thank you. That is very kind of you.

I'm glad that you commented on the instrument panning. I am experimenting on exactly that aspect of my mixing. I felt that I had fallen into a rut of doubling the guitar then panning them hard left and right and building a mix from that starting point. So I decided to try and brake the habit by doing something that to me is the opposite. A single guitar in the middle (with a slight 10% pan left). I sent everything to a bus where I side-chain compressed all the instruments to the vocal in an attempt to get the vocal to step out.

As for the eq it's interesting that it sounded high to you as I made an effort to emphasize the lows lol! That just go to show how different we all hear things.

Thank you again for commenting.

Lawrence,

I can relate to the lyrics
Your vocals as usual are excellent

thoroughly enjoyed

a haunting song,

ALyn

Thank you Alyn.

I like how the theme is consistent throughout. Really nice story telling. Having the photo of the crow in the bare tree and crows mentioned in the song ties everything together well.

I don't know if you have someone riding the fader while you record your vocal tracks but you get a lot of dynamics in your vocal track without clipping. Nice. You have a nice voice to listen to.

Thank you Jim. With this one I experimented with side-chain compression. I ran all the tracks to a Bus and compressed the bus to the vocal.