This is the fifth in a short series of posts I’m writing about the songs on my new album, ‘The Great Divide‘. Here’s the first (about ‘Arab Spring’), the second (about ‘Post’), the third (about ‘Listen’) and the fourth (about ‘Dead Ringer’).
This post is about ‘Annie’:
‘Annie’ is a song named after my Gran, Anne Howie. I was going to write a post about the song this week anyway, but this time it’s not so much about promoting my music as it is about remembering my Gran herself, as she quietly passed away in her sleep a few days ago. Her funeral was held yesterday.
She would have been 99 in October and was a kind, extremely resilient and funny old lady; the last time my kids visited her she enjoyed giving them the fright of their lives by taking out her entire set of teeth, just to shock them 🙂
I wrote the melody and chorus of this song in a dream (I know – it sounds pretentious – but it’s true) about three years ago. Neither the dream or the song were specifically about my Gran at first but, over time, the song has slowly become a small tribute to her long life.
It started off as a short and quiet acoustic song, but it’s now a pretty huge sound-scape lasting over 7 minutes. The choral sound you can hear at the start, and throughout the song, is a sample of a Japanese choir singing the hymn ‘Softly & Tenderly’, a song I associate with my Gran.
You can also hear her own voice towards the end of the song. That recording was taken from an interview I did with her for the BBC and The British Library, as part of their Listening Project.
“Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.”
– ‘Softly & Tenderly’, by Will L. Thompson
P.S. Listening to this song on speakers doesn’t really do it justice (does it ever?) so please do stick on a pair of headphones for the full immersive soundscape experience 🙂
You can buy it in these places:
Bandcamp
iTunes
Amazon
Here are the lyrics. Enjoy 🙂
Annie
Longing to be free
From across the hall
Approaches me
It is a lovely thing to have known you
It is a lovely thing to have known you
It is
As we start to dance
Around and around
You close your eyes with a smile
And tears trickle down
It is a lovely thing to have known you
It is a lovely thing to have known you
It is a lovely thing to have known you
It is a lovely thing to have known you
It is
