[PistolPete]

This a demo of a recent song of mine.  I'm working towards making a studio album, so this is a fairly rough & ready home recording to show the bones of the song.  The instrumentation of the final version is likely to flesh out a little as I get into the studio with some other musicians & I will definitely be getting someone with a better voice than me to do the harmony parts on the chorus!

I was inspired by the a tale related on a guitar forum of someone who'd lost an instrument he'd had since his teenage years to his drug addicted stepson. 


https://soundcloud.com/pistol-pete-wearn/68-harmony/s-WbzUo

It was a fateful morning in ‘74
When I picked that guitar off the floor
Where it had sat for a year or more
Underneath my girlfriend’s bed

And I guess her folk weren’t much disposed
To having guitars picked & songs composed
Because that there case had stayed shut closed
It became my guitar instead

It was a ’68 Harmony
Wasn’t much to look at
but it sounded good to me
It was real well battered
And real well played
And I fell in love with the sound it made

Well I played it for her by the shore
And in the parking lot of the ice cream store
I played that guitar more and more
Until the day that we got wed

And I played it for our firstborn son
I played Twinkle Star and Aiken Drum
And the day that he took his first strum
Felt so much pride that tears were shed

Chorus

And I played it for my daughter too
I played camping grounds and school revues
I learned every Disney song right through
Just to sooth her pretty head

And I played it once more on my own
When my wife had left and my kids had flown
I played for a girl from San Antone
She was the second one I wed

Chorus

One day I loaned it to my new wife’s son
Who headed straight down to the Pawn & Gun
He traded it for a stack of ones
He could spend on crack instead

And I hope whoever has it today
Has friends to love & songs to play
& my old guitar has things to say
& music it can spread

Chorus

[mickyplankton]

Hi Pete and welcome to the forum. cracking song with a great story. The lyrics are great as they weave in a love story to a guitar with an anti drugs message at the end. the lyrics are also an interesting take on the passage of time juxtaposing the circle of life against the journey of an inaminate object. this is really neat.
couple of comments on the song. its decent as a demo and works with vocals and acoustic guitar. Your voice sounds fine to me.
All round a real decent job. hope you stick around

[PistolPete]

Thanks for taking a listen @mickyplankton   Really glad you liked it.

Interesting that you picked up on it as an anti-drugs song, as I wouldn't have especially said it was (although it's certainly an anti-having-your-beloved-guitar-stolen-to-pay-for-drugs song) - it could just as easily been gambling, or some other kind of addiction as I was writing it.

[RealKevM]

Really emotional chord progression. Great pacing/tempo. I love this. Have you got a youtube/website mate?

[PistolPete]

 Thanks @RealKevM  

I see you managed to find my YouTube channel, but if anyone else is interested it's http://youtube.com/user/fortyfourpistol & my website is www.pistolpetewearn.co.uk

I was concerned the chord progression might be a bit of a cliche, but I figured I'd never used it before XD

[hardtwistmusic]

I "loved the sound this makes."   
I didn't really get that the last verse was an "anti drug message."   It seemed more to me like it's a "who can you trust" message and that the drugs were incidental. 

I loved how the guitar was used as a lyrical device to tie together the stages of the protagonist's life.  And I loved how the loss of it emphasized the emotional importance of it. 

I really loved the subtlety of the guitar music.  The rhythm line was good, but the enhancements were soooooo perfect and subtle that they would be easily missed at a casual listen, but they were vital to the performance.  Sorry I don't have any suggestions for improving this, but I didn't hear a thing I didn't like. 

I remember when songs like this (i.e. songs with meaning and emotion) used to make it onto the radio.  That probably labels me as "old."  I am guilty of being old.