Showing posts with label julia wade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label julia wade. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

For The Birds

For five years my wife and I had a house at 9000 feet in the mountains of Colorado. With relatively few neighbors, (I say relatively few because here in NYC we have 10 million) we lived on 5 unmolested acres of wooded land in a mountain paradise, in a house of picture windows, each one framing a gorgeous shot of the mountains that surrounded us. Bear, elk, fox, deer and other various animal folk visited our yard every morning. We had bear claw scratches on our wooden deck and outer door frames. Fun for a couple of New Yorkers who visited regularly.

I had a second recording studio there that also looked out on nature and all its glories and my wife, Julia, ringed the house with bird feeders so that we were a regular mall for birds. Instead of waking up in the morning to buses and sirens and NYC, we woke to the songs of birds. And yes, we became bird watchers.

Our hands down favorites were the humming birds. These amazing feathered friends would frantically slurp our spiked sugar water for hours outside our windows. They got so used to us that when Julia would refill the feeders, they couldn’t wait and would drink from the feeder still in her hand.

Sometimes I would be deeply immersed in my music recording, with the speakers cranked, and I would turn in my chair and there would be 3 or 4 staring in the window at me, wings ablaze in flight, doin’ that hummingbird boogie. We loved these little guys and spoke about them and watched them daily and kept paper birds taped to all our windows so they wouldn’t crash into them and break their little necks.

We sold the house. Julia’s job in Boston every weekend prohibited us from visiting. Oh how we miss them birds! But for five years, off and on, we lived with them and they were a big part of our life. So this song is for the birds…

Tweedle ee deet ‘n’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee

This song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s a blue jay on my doorstep
Tryin’ to steal the laces
Off my runnin’ shoes
He’s some kinda mad kleptomaniac
He can’t help it cause it’s in his genes
He don’t read the magazines
So he don’t know what kleptomania means

Clear of conscience,
But still guilty as sin.

So this song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s a hummingbird at my window
Lookin’ at me while I write this song
And we’re eyeball to eyeball
Listenin’ to his wings beat the rhythm of life
Listenin’ to his wings beat the rhythm of life
Listenin’ to his wings beat the rhythm of life
Hummingbird
Hmmmmmmmmm
Hummingbird
Hmmmmmmmmm
Hummingbird

Tweedle ee deet ‘n’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee

Birds:

They don’t know where they come from
Don’t know where they’re goin’ to
Don’t have time to wonder
Too busy flyin’ at the moon
Too busy tryin’ to prune
Too busy workin’
For the early mornin’ worms
Singin’
Baby I’ll be comin’ home soon

So this song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s a woodpecker peckin’
On the side a my house
Puttin’ a hole where there ain’t one
An’ it ain’t very nice
I already got me some mice
And they’re fillin’ my life with their holes

Just like the moles.

And oh what a mess
But I got to confess
That I tend to digress

Point being:

This song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

There’s an eagle in my back yard
Wonderin’ what became of America
He’s got the whole world on his shoulders
Musta gone bald thinkin’ about the a-bomb
Musta gone bald just tryin’ ta’ stay calm
He’s still worryin’ about Vietnam

Somebody oughta tell ‘im.
The war’s over.

And this song is for the birds
This song is for the birds

Each mornin’ they sing a new symphony
It’s a soaring cantata to the sky above
An’ it’s all about feathers an’ makin’ love

Tweedle ee deet ‘n’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee
Deet
‘N’ dee dee

So this song is for the birds!

You can listen to and buy this song (if you’re a bird lover too) at Watchfire Music, or by visiting Peter Link’s Artist Page.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Leaving You

3/8/09

We had been married for just four months when she got the job. We were thrilled. Julia was going to sing at the world famous Palermo Opera. A dream come true for her. On top of it, Italy is the paradise of her imagination and dreams. And she would be there for three whole months!

Groan… What was I to do for three whole months? Just married and so soon separated.

And so she flew away. And I waited. Two months went by. Not fun. But then a dear friend who recognized my loneliness actually gave me the money for a plane ticket.

And so I flew away. And for ten wonderful days we lived the way we were meant to live.

But then I had to go home. I couldn’t face another month. The parting at the airport in Palermo was rough. Tears. Two broken hearts. By the time I got on to the plane I was just numb.

And so I flew away. And left her behind…

When I got back to New York I wrote and recorded this song.

LEAVING YOU

I left the hills of Sicily behind me
I flew away from you
Across the Mediterranean moon
I closed my eyes and there you were
Deep inside me

But you’re still down there
A speck upon the ocean
And I sit up here
A speck up in the sky
Here in mid air
Lost in the emotion of goodbye

Leaving you
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ll ever do
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ve ever done
And oh God the leaving’s just begun

[Interlude]

Minutes ago
I held you in my arms
Just minutes ago
Under the Mediterranean moon
I’ll never know
How I could walk away and leave you

But you’re down there
A speck upon the ocean
And I’m up here
A speck up in the sky
And oh what a pair we are
Lost in the emotion of goodbye

Leaving you
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ll ever do
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ve ever done
And oh God the leaving’s just begun

You’re moving on down there
Smiling through your tears
I fly so far away
And wrestle with my fears

[Interlude]

Leaving you
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ll ever do
Is just about the hardest thing
I’ve ever done
And oh God the leaving’s just begun
Oh God the leaving’s just begun
Oh God the leaving…

Click through to Thru Me page to listen to song – it’s a free download.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Inspiration from Africa

“I think music is a universal language and the Julia’s “Alabado sea Dios” speaks to me very deeply. I don’t understand a word in Spanish, but the music is WOW! I received this CD when my country, Kenya, was undergoing a very unharmonious and unhappy time.

I believe her voice echoing over the seeming chaos has been, and continues to be a most healing effect to this city just as it has soothed and healed me. This particular CD is most profound. I would like to thank Julia again and again and again.

Thanks! Asante sana Julia!”
(signed) Joseph.

How can this be? A CD sung entirely in Spanish finds its way to Kenya, Africa and moves and inspires this gentle man, Joseph, who speaks not a word of Spanish.

What is it about music that touches the heart, fires the imagination, brings us closer to God, reconnects us with our spiritual selves?