The Lyrics:
These lyrics, as one of my first non-humorous lyrics, were a bit of a rebellion for me. I've never really resonated with negative lyrics or victim lyrics. And yet, so much popular music is overflowing with "my baby did me wrong" type of lyrics.

My challenge here was to come up with a positive message that I would be willing to have repeated again and again in my psyche, without getting too sugary sweet, or sounding like a club rally song, or being too preachy, or using the words "party" or "rock."

So I challenged myself to look within, and ask myself: What do you want to say to people? If you could start from a clear slate, what would you use this music for? What ideas or message would you like to have re-visited every time the song is played? I realized that I'd like to remind people of Who They Are, and encourage them to choose to live in ways that enhance and express who they are, and to let go of all of the distractions that interfere with and delay the actual living of their higher purpose.

So what makes these lyrics a bit of a rebellion for me? I've noticed that most people don't like it when you try to wake them up. I chose to have these lyrics be an invitation to wake up anyway. So for this song, rather than writing something that everyone can relate to, I looked within to discover what I wanted to say. However, I do think that anyone who is already engaged in their own self-improvement and enlightenment will appreciate these lyrics. If that's you, then congratulations; this song is for us!

The Music:
I was inspired by a song from the progressive rock band Yes, called "Siberian Khatru." They had a rockin' Bass and Drum foundation, with an intricate, repeating line played in unison by the Guitar and Piano; and on top of that they added these soaring, angelic vocal harmonies. The longer, sustained notes of the vocals were a beautiful compliment (and contrast) to the beat-driving Bass and Drums, and the rapid counter-melody of the Guitar and Piano.

The verses are my application of that idea; soaring, long-note vocal harmonies sung over a brisk rock beat. To make sure I didn't sound like I'm just copying Yes, I made the verses in ¾ time. But it's not a waltzy ¾; it has a strong rock feel, even though it's in ¾.

Returning to a 4/4 time signature, the chorus is an exercise in polyphony - multiple simultaneous melodies. If you ever tune in at an energy level to sense the human aura, you may notice a similarity between this type of musical polyphony, and the way the human energy field functions.

The human aura consists of many different structures of light, and flows of energies, simultaneously interacting and overlapping. Each of the various flows of energy and patterns of light that you "are playing" in your energy field, contributes to how you show up in the world. Similarly, this tune has many simultaneously overlapping melodies, that all work together to produce a Symphony of sound.

The chorus starts with a wide-interval, melodic Bass line, and an unusual Guitar chord pattern. We then add a Lead Guitar melody, then a Violin counterpoint melody. On top of all of that we add yet another melody, sung as a 3-part Vocal harmony. I felt that for this chorus, any message or lyrics at all would cheapen the joyous effect of the melody. I just didn't want to detract from that state of joy by attaching concepts to it. I ended up just leaving the melody to be sung with da da da....

My first recording of this tune was performed live with my band. It was our first performance, and we weren't ready with this song. The band broke up before we got a chance to record the song properly. I started laying down some tracks by myself on the 8-channel reel-to-reel tape machine. The Violin and Guitar solos that come right after the first Chorus (as well as the Bass and rhythm Guitar) were all saved from the original 8-channel tape reel. All other Lead Guitar, Violin and Drums were added more recently.

This song features Vocals by Christopher (a studio singer) and Tom Gawecke (my friend). All instruments are by Ray Hix.