"The Falalala Song" (A Song About Christmas)

“Were not our hearts burning within us?"
     ~Luke 24:32

Come and sing a song about Christmas
One about the lovely baby Jesus
Who came with light to pierce
Through all the darkness

Bright stars and shining angels
Wise shepherds, ordinary people
Guided by a thrill of hope 
To a humble stable

That one day we might join Him at His table

Hallelujah 
Jesus is brought to us this day
So with the Heavenly Host 
We sing His praise

Fa la la la. fa la la la-la-la
Fa la la la. fa la la la
Fa la la la. fa la la la-la-la

Our hearts were groaning within us
For the dawn of Light at Christmas
This is the morning 
That would change everything

Peace and goodwill to everyone
Bought by the one Begotten Son
Fa la la la
Fa la la la-la-la!

----------

Credits:
Vocals, Guitar, Toy Whistle, Production - John David Lawson
Upright Bass - Stephen K. Donnelly (Canada)
Baritone Sax - Dabido (Canada)
Accordion - Ratko Pavlovic (Germany)
Drums - Mario Ibarra (Zacatecas, México)
Conga, Maracas, Güiro, Cowbell,  - Alejandro Pérez Morales (Colombia)
Additional Percussion - Andres Linares (Argentina)
Clarinet - Stasys Makštutis (Lithuania)
Background Vocals - John David Lawson, Giuliana Benedetti (Italy), Jim Snedeker (USA)
Artwork generated in collaboration with DALL-E 2.0

Change log:
2022-11-17 drums and extra guitar added, chorus extended

"The Falalala Song (A Song About Christmas)", music and lyrics © 2021 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

The Falalala Song (A Song About Christmas)

The Falalala Song

Hey, Banjo
Words and music by John David Lawson

Hey banjo
Can you give me a happy tune
Isn't that what you do
If I could learn to play you
Would you tell truth?

I could whistle
Toot on a pennyflute
Strum two chords on a uke
Maybe those things would sound cute
If they weren't so cruel

My piano 
Gathers dust in the studio
Harmonica just blows
Cello is far too mellow
Accordion bellows

Hey banjo 
Can you help me with my head
To write again, at least try
To forget what a friend had said
Hoping it was a lie

'Cause someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen ohh
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
The rest you know

Hey banjo 
Guess I got played by you
Got taken in by your tune
And if I never hear five strings again
That would be too soon

-----

Credits:
Vocals, piano, guitar, banjo, harmonica, accordion - John David Lawson
Photo by Morgan Lane on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/wlY66otjq28

"Hey, Banjo", music and lyrics © 2023 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

Hey, Banjo

I wrote this after a series of dream sequences, and some conversations I had with a girl I was seeing at the time. It was one of those peeling back the onion type deals, where I was probing some sense of loss that the dreams conveyed, that I couldn't explain. The deeper I went, I got the sense of the loss of part of myself, that was ripped from me violently, leaving only the trauma, and the hole in its place and a scar. I had the sense that we all feel like this, that we're all walking around with this deep sense of loss that we can't explain. It was quite painful to write, and record.
After I wrote it, I got the sense that this sense of loss, was the loss of that part of ourselves that we feel when we experience birth

Feel the days dissipate like mist from a lake
See the light no longer shine enough to keep away the blind
I’ve been gone a long long time

I try to catch my dreams like webs in the breeze
I know I go there but I can’t bring them here
I’ve been there a long ling time


I walked with you for as long as I could I couldn’t carry both of our crosses
I’m still just a child in a way alone and screaming in the dark

I dreamed I was here years ago exactly the same
I dreamed I had a different life one I didn’t waste

I walked with you for as long as I could I couldn’t carry both of our crosses
I’m still just a child in a way alone and screaming in the dark

I had that dream again about you where we meet at our favourite place
Everything was right and good

You were perfect in every way when I woke up and told my lover
That she could never truly be mine and she laughed and she told me it was alright
I made her breakfast and played her some songs
And then I told her everything everything in my mind
And when she knew that she could never be mine and we laughed about it anyway
And went back to making love to the sound of Norwegian Death Metal bands

I walked with you for as long as I could I couldn’t carry both of our crosses
I’m still just a child in a way alone and screaming in the dark

I walked with you for as long as I could I couldn’t carry both of our crosses
I’m still just a child in a way alone and screaming in the dark

I walked with you for as long as I could I couldn’t carry both of our crosses
I’m still just a child in a way alone and screaming in the dark

I’m still just a child in a way alone and screaming in the dark

Birth

When are you going to change
When its too late
This is the final state
All hope is gone
This is the final state
All hope is gone
This is the final state
All hope is gone

All Hope Is Gone

Just for fun - making the transition to some new gear and checking out some preliminary results with a favorite song of mine - by Jason Isbell, as usual.

Maybe It's Time (Cover)

DESPERATE FOR YOU

If I was lost baby
I’d read your signs
And follow down the dotted lines
If I was a star, baby
I’d put you in my scenes
But I’m always somewhere in between

I need to get breathless every day
‘Tend to get restless every night
‘Don’t expect you understand 
But here you are with a desperate man
Yeah, I’m desperate

If I could pick the locks, baby
I’d show you everything
And ask what you wanted me to bring 
But here on the block, baby
We’re doing so well 
Yeah from all we can tell
We’re lucky as hell

I still need to get breathless every day
I get restless every night
Then I wake up in a scare
Gotta know that you are there
I’m reaching for your hand  
Are we all just tears and sand?
I guess you understand, ‘cause
You’re still here with a desperate man
Yeah, I’m desperate

So one of these days, baby
When we get old
You be my rock, I’ll be your roll

I still need to get breathless every day
I get restless every night
Then I wake up half a scream
Like it wasn’t all a dream
Then I’m reaching for your hand
Is it all just tears and sand?
Yeah I guess you understand 
‘Cause here you are with a desperate man
Yeah, I’m desperate

Desperate For You

Desperate For You (Studio)

The Young Apprentice Demo RuffMix 2

The kind of omnipresent, chronic anxiety that lives like a ball of molten lead in the pit of your stomach, telling you you're no good, saying you won't make it, and that bad things might happen.
----

Unspeakable dread busting down my door
What lies ahead, can't contemplate any more
Got to take a break
Catch a breath for heaven's sake
And just pretend to ignore 
Unspeakable dread

Unspeakable dread twists its dagger in my gut
Liquid lead... bloody red, flaming hot
Can't be what I'm not
Claw back the years I've lost
Or untangle the knot 
Of unspeakable dread

Fear wears many faces
Drives you through the paces
Lives in secret places under the bed, its name is
Unspeakable

Then they came, words that crushed my confidence dead
And the shame; absurd I trusted what they said
That all would be okay if I'd only learn to change
And kill the longings in my head
But I kept them instead

Acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocal: John David Lawson
Words and music: John David Lawson
Thanks to Andy Dolphin and Jim Barrett for suggesting tweaks to the lyrics

Unspeakable Dread

Don "Zorro of Sorrow" McCarthy– electric guitars
Nathan McCarthy– bass
David Partridge– vocals, acoustic guitar, keys
Words and music by David Partridge
Produced in Nova Scotia by David Partridge

THIS MORTAL COIL
VERSE 1:
This bus that I am on runs fine when the road is flat
It isn’t bound for glory or for justice– some other road must do that.
I’ve spent this journey staring out the window–
Churches and chain gangs and crows
Crowding the lines; this odyssey unwinds
And no one that I know knows.
CHORUS  A:
The brakes complain– they’re all but shot, the engine’s burning oil 
No comfort in this spent suspension
As  we bump on across this mortal coil.
VERSE 2:
The hue of this bus I’m on can change with a whim of light
As bright as a daisy’s eye in sun or dark as the ocean’s heart at night.
No stops for dancing, not a one for wisdom
No pause to feast or to pray
Smearing dreams pass, your temple on the glass 
As time slowly seeps away.
CHORUS A:
The brakes complain– they’re all but shot, this engine’s burning oil 
No comfort in this spent suspension 
But we bump on across this mortal coil.
BRIDGE:
No smooth ride– we’ve lashed out and lied
Put up with bruises ‘cause you’re by my side
Days grind by– as much as we we try
Tired of this bus but we dread goodbye.
CHORUS B:
The windows shake, the engine coughs, we roll downhill thru mist
No comfort in this spent suspension 
This mortal coil’s the very thing we’ve missed.
Our whole damned life’s the only thing we’ve missed.

THIS MORTAL COIL

A moody song, featuring Eric Wood on sax.  

Written by Mark Wheatley and Simon Gibson

Julia 

Julia told me something weird
Some bad news had travelled her way
You don’t wanna know or maybe you do 
She couldn’t breath as she told me all 

Julia she told me to listen hard
It was a moment of madness nothing more 
Do you wanna know what happen next 
She leaned forward and whispered in my ear  

Look at her tears falling down 
I see them hit the ground
You see everything how its all meant to be
And then you’re surprised when it hits in the eyes

Julia she wiped her face
She claimed she was the one for me  
I know it was a big mistake she said  
What’s for us in going back

Look at her tears falling down 
I see them hit the ground
You see everything how its all meant to be
And then you’re surprised when it hits in the eyes

Julia

Written on a retreat on location at the White Eagle Lodge Wales, winter solstice 2009. Recorded 2020 at home during lockdown.

Desperate For You (Studio)

hank49

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