This is the second to last song that is going onto my collaboration album. The song was selected by my good friend Karen Wilmot who you some of you may have heard me refer to as “Cuzzie”.

Karen and I had a duo in about 98/99 called “Alice Band”. We did the pubs and private functions, dressed up in Abba wigs, drank tequila and generally had a ball. Karen left SA in 2000 and has not really come back and so a wonderful period of my life gave way to an equally wonderful period of becoming a wife and mother.

Anyway, this is long story! Cuzzie asked to sing Beautiful Scars for the album and tried with no success to record some vocals in her little beachfront flat in Oman. She then went to Bali to run some workshops and I asked her to try and find a studio there to lay down the tracks. She found a little studio in Bali and laid down this wonderful vocal for me.

The song is a deeply personal song about growing up in that dreadful bush war in Zimbabwe in the 1970’s and how all of us who lived through that time have end up with beautiful scars. The scars have made us what we are. We cannot regret what has happened. It just is. I wrote the song last year but battled to put a melody or chords to it so I asked a woman called Cheryl Teal, who I had met on the internet, to help. Cheryl wrote the music for this song.

I was not really happy with my first attempt at mixing this song and asked Herb to listen to the mix and see what he thought. He offered to do a mix, which he has done over the last few days. In the meantime I made a few tweaks to my mix.

So the long and the long of it is that there are two versions of this song and I am not going to say who mixed which version (although I am sure you will be able to guess!). We would love your input on which mix you prefer and why.

Have at it (as Floyd would say).


Beautiful Scars with Karen Wilmot MIX A

Beautiful Scars with Karen Wilmot MIX B

BEAUTIFUL SCARS WITH KAREN WILMOT FINAL MIX

Lyrics
Born in '64 'neath the shadow of a war
Fear was written on my page
Silent spaces silent prayer waiting for the news
the names of the unlucky few

Beautiful scars and Jagged imperfections
Hidden down in the pocket of a coat I don't wear
Beautiful scars and Careful redirection
Covered over in colours A sketch no longer there

My past with tales Retold stacked wooden Russian dolls
I know if I take a look pressed in a dust poetry book
Show up in print I am a frame I'm living in

Beautiful scars and Jagged imperfections
Hidden down in the pocket of a coat I don't wear
Beautiful scars and Careful redirection
Covered over in colours a sketch no longer there

Through the chaos and tears hands reach across the years
Never knowing whats in store
It's not finished yet there's nothing to regret
And there will be a thousand more

Beautiful scars and Jagged imperfections
Hidden down in the pocket of a coat I don't wear
Beautiful scars and Careful redirection
Covered over in colours a sketch no longer there
Covered over in colours a sketch no longer there
`

Last edited by JosieC; 05/29/15 07:08 AM.
LyricLab A.I assisted chords and lyric app. Export lyrics and import directly into Band-in-a-Box 2024.
https://lyriclab.net
Play-along with songs you know and love, download SGU files
https://playiit.com/