Walk Upon The Water - About The Songs, You Save Me, #5 - The Acoustic Single Version

Walk Upon The Water - About The Songs

You Save Me

#5 - The Acoustic Single Version

I really loved the version of You Save Me that I recorded. It felt... right.

Upon playing my tracks for my friend, Jeremy, I waited to get a response. Just what would he think. I value input, and want to tweak if something is "wrong" or "missing'.

Jeremy replied with a suggestion that I hadn't considered, "You need to do a full acoustic version, no big arrangement and big guitars. Just stripped down acoustic and intimate. And you need to release the acoustic version as a single, not as an album cut."

Again, I REALLY liked the version I had recorded, so it took me by surprise.

I decided to copy the entire recording session, strip away the big drums, electric guitars and electric guitar solo. I kept the acoustic performance, strings and percussion, and built from there. Since I liked the electric guitar solo I had come up with, I replayed it all on acoustic, and kept the same "vibe" as the original.

One piece I really liked from the original version was the end. I had created a multiple acoustic lead counterpoint ending that was fun, and reminiscent of the song 50 Years that I had written for my parents 50th anniversary. Sadly, the idea of creating an acoustic single would mean I would have to edit out time, and I sacrificed that section. It remains on the album version, although there are times I think the album version should be acoustic with the elongated ending, and the single should be big and edited.

Oh, well. The things we do for our art...

Walk Upon The Water - About The Songs, You Save Me, #4 - The Lyrics, Part Two

Walk Upon The Water - About The Songs

You Save Me

#4 - The Lyrics, Part Two

Why, oh why, are there so many naysayers in life?

Why do people feel they have the right to steal your joy?  Or better yet, control you and your happiness, your decisions and choices?

That was one thing I wasn’t ready for after starting my relationship with Kerrie.

I won’t go into it all, mostly because, after being divorced a while, I still get people who feel they have the right to tear into me and my decisions.

As I tell my mother - that is not my zoo and that is not my monkey!

Let’s just say, no one has the right to tear you down for deciding to live a better life, for any reason.  They haven’t lived your life and wouldn’t let you live theirs!

That said, the bridge of this song wrote itself.  I had to silence the negativity and I did it quickly and easily, “Though some don’t think it’s right, I know it’s not so terrible.”

And the final bridge line was something Kerrie and I say to each other all of the time.  The past behind, the future ahead, we are where we are because of where we have been, so “I’m grateful for the years that brought us to this day.”

All in all, for an hours time writing, I am well pleased with this piece.

It made my daughter cry when she first heard it.  She realized that I was back to writing, and she was happy to know that I gave love another chance.  That was a great response, and one I didn’t expect.

When I played the rough recording of the song for Kerrie, she sat stunned.  No one had ever written a song for her, and she was overwhelmed.

She says I saved her, too.

But, wouldn’t that have to be yet another song?

Walk Upon The Water - About The Songs, You Save Me, #3 - The Lyrics, Part One

Walk Upon The Water - About The Songs

You Save Me

#3 - The Lyrics, Part One 

“I love your smile and I love your laugh.”

Those words were so easy to come out of me when I was writing this song.  

Kerrie has a beautiful smile and an infectious laugh.  The words had to be written. As did..

“I love your nights and I love your days.”

Any time I am with Kerrie, I feel alive.  It’s not just a “brand new love, giddy silly” alive.  It is that “look who I am and who I am with” feeling of being alive.  It is the culmination of having believed for so long that life was grander than what I had been living.

I change the first chorus from “You made me live again” to “You helped me to love again” in the second chorus.  The reason is simple. I feel alive, more than ever, and she helped me love again, the way I always dreamed of, but was scared of trying for.

“You save me” was the perfect ending to the chorus, because to me it was very apparent.  Kerrie had saved me. She opened up my life to things I had only dreamed of, and fooled myself into thinking wasn’t possible.

I don’t say those things to complain about my past, or my ex-wife.  I say it because of what had become of me through my own decisions.  

Kerrie really did save me.

From me, mostly.