Keep My Love in Amber

I played all the tracks, and billiebee came up with a melody and lyrics based on a Yeats poem, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree". It's about bees.

This song has taken at least ten years and dozens of takes to extrude. I have picked it up and put it down numerous times. I tried to get my band to play it. I even put it in an obscure folder and forgot it existed, only to have it come back and find me. It had become The Song That Would Not Leave. Finally – thank you SO MUCH billiebee – I can put it in the drawer of completed songs.

• play
• pause
• min volume
• max volume

posted by not_on_display (14 comments total)

OH YEAH THE LYRICS. Thanks again, billiebee, it was worth the wait.
__________________________________
When the sun moves through the trees,
I dream of honeybees —
Let's arise where the water meets the shore.

And the birds begin to sing,
As they rest their weary wings —
Given time, yours and mine will unfold.

Keep my love in amber.
Tell the bees what is to come.
We two in the sunlight
In the place that we call home.

I will find my way to you,
I'll follow sun and sky and field —
I'll be as a flower, draw you near.

And I will smoke you out
To get your honey, honey —
I know it's worth the sting.

And when twilight ends the day,
We will weave our gentle way —
To the place where silence fills the air.

Keep my love in amber.
Tell the bees what is to come.
We two in the half-light
In the place that we call home.

Keep my love in amber.
Tell the bees what is to come.
We two in the starlight
In the place that we call home.
posted by not_on_display at 8:15 PM on October 5, 2017

Ahhh the bees song completed! Congrats!

- Excellent melody and vocal by billiebee (for some reason I forgot billiebee composed music; I need to remember this...)
- Yay for stereo panning.
- I was wondering if there would be buzzing and chirping sounds, especially since this is a not_on_display Production™, and was not disappointed.
- Love the layering of the arpeggios, harmonica, synths and percussion around the vocal. Nice warm effect. It gives the impression of a meandering walk through the meadow and gosh that sounds nice about now.

Really nice work, you two.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 1:29 AM on October 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

(Also I did my senior year high school English final paper on Yeats' poetry, so +1 for that, too.)
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 1:32 AM on October 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Beautiful
posted by manoffewwords at 8:02 AM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ha!
posted by pracowity at 11:15 AM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

I like that harmonica.
posted by pracowity at 11:16 AM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Lovely.
posted by chococat at 3:12 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thanks everyone!

I don't have a harmonica in "F", so I put it through one of those virtual pedal-board pitch-benders, and output the song so loudly in my headphones that I couldn't hear the input, just the transposed result. It was weird; you should try it sometime. The strangest part was taking the headphones off afterward, and then tooting the harmonica, expecting a different note in the key of F, because my brain had shifted gears so quickly to adjust.
posted by not_on_display at 4:58 PM on October 10, 2017 [3 favorites]

this has so many fun little parts and sounds. I love the way the drone bits play against the bright, glittery bits. And I love the thoroughly scored fake drums. The years of love (and a bit of the frustration) show thru.
posted by es_de_bah at 7:59 PM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thanks! Having a midi drum kit helps make the drums feel less programmed. (That was a gift from jessamyn and her mom a few years ago.)

Also my son used to call this song, "that annoying coffee commercial song: wake up, it's a folger's morning." But when he heard the final outcome, he actually thought it was good.

But it feels so good just to have it done. I'm finishing my version of meatbomb's LSD song next, which I started months ago.
posted by not_on_display at 8:48 PM on October 26, 2017

Used this on this month's podcast!
posted by cortex at 12:23 PM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

KAPOWIE thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 8:57 PM on November 2, 2017

This is lovely! Great lyrics and divine voice billiebee, and love the instrumental, glad it's finished after 10 years! Came here via the podcast.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:42 AM on November 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

dig it! now I'm mad that billiebee and I never finished a little collab we started a few years ago :)
posted by gorbichov at 1:34 PM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]