by OGSR | Apr 20, 2020 | Story Behind the Song
If/Everything’s Going to be Fine
By Barry Keenan
“Everything’s Going To Be Fine” was written as the opening track on my album, “Contrary To Popular Belief.” The song’s point of view is that many of the world’s problems boil down to selfishness. In all of us. I also believe that while that selfishness lies within us, so too does love. And that if we manifest the love rather than the selfishness, then many of society’s problems will be reduced and “everything’s going to be fine.”
When renowned studio tech, Charlie Bolis (Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty) called me after listening to the song in his car, he suggested that I re-release it. Out of the blue, in the same week, I was contacted by Kevin Lewin (World Entertainment News Network) suggesting the same thing: that I re-release the song. This prompted a discussion with Matt Forger (Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones) to do a re-mix of the song.
Forger then adapted the Rudyard Kipling poem “If” as an opening to the song. I then had arranger Barry Fazman (Billy Joel, Fame) orchestrate the poem. Next I contacted poet Loring Evans who came in from Idaho to recite the poem.
The finished version can be heard at www.invisiblepoetkings.com.
To finish off the project, I brought in Photographer/Author Paul Zollo (Songwriters On Songwriting, Volumes 1 & 2 and Conversations With Tom Petty, Expanded Version) who contributed many of his photographs for the “If/Everything’s Going To Be Fine” video, which was edited by Forger. The video can be view at the link provided above.
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Listen to the Song
by OGSR | Mar 28, 2020 | Story Behind the Song, Uncategorized
I’ll Meet You in the Middle
By Dale Menten
My first wife died in 2008 after a ten-year struggle with cancer.
In 2011, I married a lifelong friend, Julie Johnson. It didn’t take us very long to discover that our political views were ‘slightly’ at odds: she was ‘slightly’ left of center, and I was ‘slightly’ right of center. I wrote this song in an effort to bridge the gap.
It’s a musical plea for non-partisanship. “We are more alike than we are different.”
Julie and I are happily married, and residing mostly in the middle.
Listen to the Song
by OGSR | Feb 12, 2020 | Story Behind the Song
Best Days of Our Life
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Smoke
Not long ago I experienced a life-threatening incident. A real one. Theoretically we all know we’re not going to live forever, but when you see how easily, and without warning, it can all go away—when you truly feel that experience—it changes things. You don’t have to make a list of “what’s important.” You know. With a kind of clarity that only such experiences create.
One morning, not long after this incident, I was sitting in our great room watching my wife making breakfast. Something she did every morning. But this particular morning I was not preoccupied. I saw her clearly. I realized that this small thing was important. To me. It wasn’t important to anyone else besides us. But at that moment it seemed so important that it was, in fact, a unique and beautiful moment. I understood that my life was held together by these moments. Small moments. I also realized that the important moments in my life were almost all small ones. And that they happened with much greater frequency than I had imagined.
In fact, they happened every day. They had happened every day before then, but I just hadn’t noticed that…
These are the best days of my life.
Listen to the song
Lyrics:
Best Days of Our Life
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Smoke
I see you in the morning, makin’ breakfast
A moment untouched by time
It makes me happy, after all these years
Baby, you’re still mine
Life is messy, sometimes worse
Hard to see how pieces align
But ev’ry night when I kiss you, before we go to sleep
I see imperfect perfection and I feel fine
Chorus
These are the best days
These are the best days
These are the best days…of our life
Sometimes we say nothing, for hours
A silent lovers’ lexicon
Funny how the small things, become the big things
What you miss most when they’re gone
You’re not perfect, not even close
There been times I been halfway out the door
When we let each other be who we really are
Somehow…we love each other more
Chorus
We’ve been hurt, we been mended
Lovers’ hearts are strong that way
Love is a light in the darkness
Love can heal a broken yesterday
I no longer feel invincible
Tomorrow could be a no-show
We live forever in hearts of the ones we love
And my songs go where I can’t go
And my songs go where I can’t go
Chorus
© Stephen Smoke 2019, All Rights Reserved – Published by Kitmun Music
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