Pop songs
If you've read some of the things I have had to say about popular music, you might be a little surprised to know that I have written some myself. There was a time when I had a strategy to make money writing pop songs while spending my free time writing more substantial music. It doesn't quite work that way. Making it in the popular music world requires an enormous amount of time and energy, which I quite frankly believe can be put to better use.
What Price Love? is a song cycle about lost love. The idea for this cycle developed in small stages. First, I had wanted for years to write a song cycle like Schubert's Die Schoene Muellerin, but decided to do it from the feminine viewpoint, since Schubert had already portrayed the male viewpoint to perfection. In 1985, I woke up one morning, and in the confused state just after waking I momentarily confused stories of the divorce of my fiancee's parents with an old Doonesbury cartoon where a distraught girl calls a radio request line threatening suicide. In this cartoon, the woman requested a song called "Can't Live Without You". I wasn't familiar with this song, but my brain began to spontaneously fiddle with the lyrics until I had the third song in the cycle (see below). The rest of the cycle was built around this.
The song "When the Well Runs Dry" was originally an independent song, but it works well as an introduction to the cycle, so it was "assimillated".
Unlike Schubert's song cycle, this one is not about unrequited love, but about love lost, regained, then lost again. Having grown up in a Catholic family, the idea of a long-term relationship just ending abruptly was alien to me (at least, it was at that time). The song cycle explores the emotional consequences of such a division.
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All around me Bad things I see, Do we carry on Or just curl up and die? I've always said Get those thoughts right out of your head, Think of happiness instead, For happiness won't lie. |
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Even when the well runs dry, I still go to sleep with a lullabye. We can laugh or we can cry, The world will still go on. |
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All around you there is life If only you open up your eyes, I know that times are sometimes bad But we can't help by being sad. Look at me and you will see The paragon of serenity. I live my life like it's my own, And I know more than I've been shown. |
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Even when the well runs dry, I still go to sleep with a lullabye. We can laugh or we can cry, The world will still go on. |
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Every day I find a way To put aside what the people say. Things are not quite hopeless yet, Just think how good our lives can get. I'm not saying I don't care About all the people in despair, But thinking about the good in life Can help to melt away the strife. |
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Even when the well runs dry, I still go to sleep with a lullabye. We can laugh or we can cry, The world will still go on. |
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We're all afraid we'll lose our place Just keeping up with the human race. Well I, for one, say "Let it come, "We'll see what happens when we're done." Oh, na, na-na, na-na.... etc. |
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Boy, you're taking a chance with me, I know there's something here you don't see, You don't know what you're doing, You could lose everything. Boy, you're making a big mistake so please, Be careful for heaven's sake I just want to help you, Listen to what I sing. |
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Why don't we leave this madness and get away? Why don't we pack our things and leave today? Where there's noone to remind us, We'll go so far they can't find us. |
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If you listen to what I say we can start making a better way, We have got too much going to give it all up now. Can't you see, the way things are going we won't make it, there's just no knowing. I just want to help you, if you will show me how. |
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Why don't we leave this madness and get away? Why don't we pack our things and leave today? Where there's noone to remind us, We'll go so far they can't find us, I know together we'll make it, we've got the chance so let's take it! |
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I won't let us break apart; I know that deep down in your heart, you don't want it either, you know what it would bring. I just know if we only try our love will reach right up to the sky, you are my only love, you are my everything. You are my only love, you are my everything. |
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Saying goodbye is so hard to do, I thought I'd always be here with you. Nothing to say and there's nothing to do, 'cause I can't live without you. |
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Wand'ring around now, still in a daze, I can't believe we've gone our sep'rate ways. Maybe I'm foolish, or maybe just crazy But I can't live without you, Can't live without you. |
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I know I can't make you stay, I just want you to see how I feel. After all that we've been through together, I think you owe it to me. |
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What will I do now, where will I go, Who will take care of me? I just don't know. How will I make it, I'm feeling so low, 'cause I can't live without you. |
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No turning back now, we've reached the end, To think that once I called you my friend. Maybe I'll break or maybe just bend, But I can't live without you, Can't live without you. |
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I know I can't make you stay, I just want you to see how I feel. After all that we've been through together, I think you owe it to me. |
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Never have I felt so all alone, I feel so cold now, chilled to the bone. Sometimes I wonder, if only I'd known... I can't live without you, Can't live without you. |
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God, remember a little girl praying, Lord I know it's been a long, long time. Now she needs you, now she heeds you. Help me God, before it's too late. |
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Cold winds blowing, through my heart they're flowing, but my blood is boiling, giving me no rest. Never slowing, on the surface, glowing, But I'm hiding a fire burning in my breast. |
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If I could only let it go, and quench this fire in the soothing snow, but these cold winds keep blowing through me. It's freezing me over, it's burning me up, but I've no choice but to drink this cup, and I know it's still not as bad as it will be. |
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All my senses and all my defenses Have been blown to tatters, Never to be mended, I stand beaten, From the tide so weakened, That I wonder what is left to be defended. |
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If I could only let it go, and quench this fire in the soothing snow, but these cold winds keep blowing through me. It's freezing me over, it's burning me up, but I've no choice but to drink this cup, and I know it's still not as bad as it will be. |
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Cold winds blowing, but my blood is boiling, burning in my breast, cold winds blowing, No, no, no, ... etc. |
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I've got a pain in my chest. I don't feel right, and I never will again. I've never been so depressed. In all the world, I don't have a single friend. I've never been so alone. I'll never make it on my own, but I will never love again. |
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What price, love? What fools are we, To have, to hold, to love, to grow, and have it end up on the floor in a heap? What price, love? What makes us dream, So when it's time to live our lives, We always make it out To be better than it seems? |
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I've got the whole day to cry. The funny thing, is I've quite forgotten why. So I look up to the sky. I'm still alive, but my life is just a lie. The whole thing seems so unfair. It's really more than I can bear, But there is nothing I can do. |
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What price, love? What makes us dream, So when it's time to live our lives, We always make it out To be better than it seems? |
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Hello, I've seen you here before. Hello, who are you waiting for? Don't want to be a nuisance, don't want to be a bore, You just seem much too nice to ignore. |
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Hello, I'm pleased to know your name, Hello, I'm really glad you came. Maybe we're just wasting time, We might be playing games, I'd really like to know you, just the same. Hello. |
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Can't hear what you're saying, I hear music playing, This is just as nice, though, I can't believe my eyes, Suddenly I finally see, what life has had in store for me, I know what I must do. |
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I know, it must sound crude of me, I know that we were meant to be. If ever I could love a man, I swear it would be you. Now what do you expect me to do? |
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I know we've only met just now, I know you must be wondering how A lady like me could presume to love a man like you, But I can tell it's just the same with you, I know. |
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Can't hear what you're saying, I hear music playing, This is just as nice, though, I can't believe my eyes, Suddenly I finally see, what life has had in store for me, I know what I must do. |
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Something has come over me, Something I can feel, It's a feeling I have felt before, But it never felt so real. Love is calling, see me falling, Like the perfect fool. I know it by name, It's an old game, But I don't know the rules. |
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Should I take the chance, And start a new romance? Should I turn away from him, Or let it take me to the rim? Should I thank my lucky stars? Should I take the chance? Should I take the chance? |
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I've no idea what to do, Even if I did, I wouldn't know how to proceed, Or how I could forbid, Future sorrows From shading tomorrow, Just like yesterday. But could it be such Like asking too much, If things could go my way? |
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Should I take the chance, And start a new romance? Should I turn away from him, Or let it take me to the rim? Should I thank my lucky stars? Should I take the chance, oh, Should I take the chance, And start a new romance? Should I turn away from him, Or let it take me to the rim? Should I thank my lucky stars? Should I take the chance? Should I take the chance? |
Making our way to Santa Fe, we're heading for a brand new day, and it doesn't matter how much we pay, doesn't matter where we stay. It doesn't matter where we are, I don't care if we don't have a car, as long as I have you by my side I know we can go far. |
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Being with you I feel alive! It gives me the strength I need to survive any heartache, any sorrow, it gives me the strength to face tomorrow and thrive! |
Being with you it's hard to be Alone and sad, it's hard to see How I could ever not feel so free, Face life so fearlessly. When have I had the freedom to Kick up my heels and still stay true To all that I value; All is new When I am here with you! |
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Being with you I feel alive! It gives me the strength I need to survive any heartache, any sorrow, it gives me the strength to face tomorrow and thrive! |
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Being with you I feel alive! It gives me the strength I need to survive any heartache, any sorrow, it gives me the strength to face tomorrow, Being with you I feel alive! It gives me the strength I need to survive any heartache, any sorrow, it gives me the strength to face tomorrow and thrive! |
Baby, why do you have to go? I'd finally found someone who I could call my own. Baby, don't go and make me cry. I thought that we were in this thing together. |
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Maybe I've made a big mistake. Maybe I've been clutching more than I could take. Baby, why don't you stay with me? If only we could hold the past forever. |
Stay with me Baby, let me hold you close to me. Make things as they ought to be, binding me to you; Stay with me, my evergreen, 'Til our dreams come true, Stay with me my evergreen, 'Til our dreams come true. |
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Sometimes when I look back again, I see my life unfold but I don't comprehend. Why then must I retrace the path, When I know it will be so unforgiving. Someday when I have learned to cope, I'll know not to rely on hope against all hope. Doubtless, I'd even lose the pain, But somewhere I would lose the art of living. |
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Stay with me Baby, let me hold you close to me. Make things as they ought to be, binding me to you; Stay with me, my evergreen, 'Til our dreams come true, Stay with me my evergreen, 'Til our dreams come true. |
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You made me want to live again. You made me want to share the pain of a life that seemed so hopeless then. You made me want to live again. You made me look around and see More love than I could comprehend. I never knew that I could be Surrounded by the love I feel Whenever you are close to me, Or if you're just around the bend, I only need to know you're there, And I've only to remember when You made me want to live again! Words can't describe the feeling I hold in my heart for you. |
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You made me want to live again. And I don't know what I would do Without your love to pull me through. You made me want to live again. And when I think of you I'll always think how broken hearts can mend. No more a wounded little waif, You've helped me to restore my faith. I love it when you're close to me, I know that every wound will heal, I know that I can count on you And I know I'll always have a friend. You made me want to live again! Words can't describe the feeling I hold in my heart for you. |
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You made me want to live again. |
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