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Neverland
The second to the right
And straight on until the morning
The paths we knew
From the stories from so long ago

Bright pennies in a box
A ring missing the stone
All the places I'd hide
When I wanted to be all alone

The time has come to put away
These childish things (These childish things)
No shoes, ship, no sealing wax (Shoes, ships, sealing wax, no kings)
And no kings, no kings

[CHORUS]
But like the sea sings out softly to the sand (Softly to the sand)
I still hear the call of Neverland (I still hear the call "Neverland")

An old stuffed rabbit in a field
Telling others he is real
Although not flesh and blood
Become real because they are loved (Loved, they are loved)

The stories end
My childhood friends (My friends)
All are put away (All put away)
Safe in a place where I used to play (Say goodbye)
Just yesterday

Neverland - Female Lead
Someone on the Synthesizer V forum wondered what this would sound like with a female lead, so I put together another version. The range was a bit high, so I altered the melody a bit.


The Band
Bass, Electric, Country Ev 065
Guitar, Electric, Soloist CountryPopBrent12-key Ev 085
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 085
Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085
String Quartet, Rhythm PopHall Ev 085
NashvilleEven8^1-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride

Vocals: Synthesizer V, Eleanor Forte (Lite)
Wooden Flute: Embertone Jubal Flute

The Processing Chain
Lead Vocal: Synthesizer V (Eleanor Forte Lite) -> Nectar 3 Elements -> Greg Wells VoiceCentric
Lead Vocal FX1: Aturia Rev PLATE-140
Lead Vocal FX2: Nectar 3 Elements -> SketchCassette -> NI Raum
Harmony Vocal: Synthesizer V (Eleanor Forte Lite) -> ReaEQ-> Greg Wells VoiceCentric
Bass: ReaEQ -> Waves Renaissance Bass -> Scheps Omni Channel
Drums: Sunset Sound Studio -> ReaEQ -> Ghz Vulf Compressor
Guitar1: EZMix -> ReaEQ -> BlockFish compressor
Guitar2: EZMix -> ReaEQ -> BlockFish compressor
Piano: EZMix
String Quartet: ReaEQ -> SketchCassette -> Raum -> BlockFish compressor

Short Version
I apologize in advance for using a synthetic voice. My goal here is to get more songs written, and using the Synthesizer V is just a means for speeding up my workflow. If I was singing on these, they'd take much longer to finish!

As usual, all comments welcome!

The Backstory
This was built aroung the demo song for _GETAMP.STY. It caught my ear because it a sort of '70s Los Angeles sound, so I figured I could do something in the vein of Jackson Browne/Warren Zevon sound. That's one of the reasons I put in the diminished chords I'd pilfered from Browne's "Sleep's Dark And Silent Gate". (Spoiler: This song is nothing like something Jackson Browne or Warren Zevon would write. Maybe next time... in my dreams).

It's also mostly in a minor key, which has a really nice sound - to my ears, anyway - but combined with the slow tempo, I had some misgivings. But it was too late to change, because I'd already committed to the track.

Once I built the backing tracks in BiaB, I brought that into Synthesizer V and started working out the melody line. Recalling prior songs that didn't seem to have any internal consistency, I tried to repeat melodic elements.

"None But The Wind" was the working title, which seemed like a cool title. Prior experience told me that there was zero chance of that happening, but hey... hope springs eternal. (Spoiler: that's not the song title).

The song was basically three repetitions, clocking in at 4:55, which was way too long. I added a climb to the final verse, and listened a couple more times, and then cut out the middle verse. Shorter, and far less words I'd need to write. Great success!

I'd been listening to my prior songs, and wasn't terribly happy with the intros. I decided to give this one a short two bar intro, but ended up cutting that out as well. Another win!

Then came the hard part - lyrics. I listened to some Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon, and then wrote a bunch of derivative and dodgy lyrics.

Lather, rinse and repeat. This repeated for about a week and a half - lots of lyrics but no idea behind them.

I finally wrote a few lines that seemed to stick to the notes I'd written. From there, I was "inspired" to borrow heavily from the following books in the public domain. Bonus points if you noticed!

• Peter Pan
• Alice In Wonderland
• 1 Corinthians
• The Velveteen Rabbit

Before anyone says otherwise, the opening line from the song is from the book "Peter Pan", and not the Disney film. Yes, I'm that scared of Disney's laywers. And yes, although "Peter Pan" is granted a permanent copyright in England, that's not the case in the United States.

Everything went into the DAW at this point, and I try to make some sort of arrangement. The backing track I've been listening to has the piano placed prominently in the foreground. It's a cool part, but by the time I've settled with which instrument gets to be heard, the piano gets few parts. (Shed a tear of the poor piano player - it really was a lovely part).

When it was time to add the harmonies, I'd come to rather like the solo voice. But there were some places at the end that were crying out for some echoes, so I figured I'd add them and see what happened. But of course, I started adding harmonies at the beginning and moving forward. I'm glad I did, as I'm overly pleased with the results.

I had always intended to do a string fade outro, but using the Jubal Flute meant less work.

My son helped a lot with the final mix. One thing new is the use of Renaissance Bass from Waves. My son always complains that the BiaB basses are too low and lack midrange. As a result, mixes don't always translate well. In theory, it should add a bit of midrange and work better on smaller speakers.

(He also complains that BiaB puts in too many tom fills, but I didn't do anything about that).

The vocal is a bit compressed, and perhaps a bit loud at the top of the climb. But it's time to post it and get some feedback.

And yes, the mismatch of number is intentional here. I may rewrite in the future:

An old stuffed rabbit in a field <-- Singular
Telling others he is real
Although not flesh and blood
Become real because they are loved <- Plural

Thanks for reading this far! Now I can get back to listening to what other people have written!