Slow, somber cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams"

Dreams (Fleetwood Mac cover) [demo]

Music & Lyrics by Tim Messina (2022)

I know the cards that have been dealt
Have lead to a losing hand
You see the good things fade away
Like the desert's windy sand
I know you're trying very hard
To keep it all together
You need to know you're not alone
In all this crazy weather

Don't let the clouds conceal the sun
Always look for the light
The storm is not as crucial
As the path it opens right
So start the new day as if it were your birthday
So Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday

I know it's hard to really trust
The people all around you
You hear us say the things we say
Then see what we will do
I'm sorry for the things we do
We never meant at all to hurt you
You know we don't have your heart
But don't let us make you lose yours too

This too will pass, all will be well
In one way or another
Take a step across your fears
There is so much to discover
So you can start a new day as if it were your birthday
So Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday

You are the sum of all people and places
And actions that you've ever witnessed and done
So time's on your side, let us turn a new page
Let us open the door and let each other in
So start a new day as if it were your birthday
So Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too, yeah
I'm glad it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time

Happy Birthday (original mix)

Music & Lyrics by Timothy Messina
Performed by Timothy Messina
Lead guitar performed by Tom Messina

Screaming out with the top down
To an audience that’ll never hear
A blur of red on this side of town
The only one who couldn’t feel the fear
Rain couldn’t stop us moving
Everyone just get out of the way

Picking up the good vibes only
I’m first in flight in waves against the wind
Gravity can’t work against me
Only the sound can bring me down again
Amplified in pure emotion
Sitting in a bed of sunset green
I have to hold my eyes wide open
Just to make sure it was not a dream

I put my hand out the window
And watch the dragon fly with me
I put my hand out the window
And watch it all come back to me

Flipping off the river mansion
Every time we look across the bridge
Ahead we see the full expansion
Straight ahead to take us off the grid
The waves to rest my weary vision
The salty wind to cleanse my clouded mind
The moon to ease my indecision
The ride I want to pay you for in kind

(C) 2023 Timothy Messina

The Ride

Happy Birthday

Music & Lyrics by Timothy Messina (C) 2023

Just don’t say that word to me and I won’t say it too
I’m already being forced to see just how I’m attached to you
You pro’bly didn’t know that you would mean this way to me
Well that ship is sailing off to sea

I can’t help my heart from breaking
I can’t stop my head from aching
Cause my head says it’s not about me
But my heart will always tell my head that I should have done more

I’m always forgetting that arm’s length is so much greater
As friends and lovers always wedding make their lives a little greater
As happy as I am for them I wish I wasn’t vain
As I’m left to sponge the pouring rain

I can’t help my heart from breaking
I can’t stop my head from shaking
Cause my head says it’s not about me
But my heart will always tell my head that I should have done more

To make me irreplaceable and not end up erasable
I wish to do the same for you

I wish that I could say this to your beautiful face
But I bet that what you’re going through is harder in your case
It just keeps getting bigger the more I take away
What’s the price on the sticker that will keep you here to stay
So you never say that word to me?

That Word (Demo)

Music & Lyrics by Tim Messina (C) 2022

It's been a long time
Since you sang your song
Since we played all night long
So long
It's been a long time
Since we watched On Golden Pond
Since we made love till the dawn
So long

There's no picture but crystal clear in view
If I'm gone I can't guarantee it's true
But those memories keep me falling--

A Long Time (Demo)

Music and lyrics by Tim Messina (C) 2023

A broken plank drifting in the ocean
Wondering where the current runs
Burned and baked and waterlogged
The damage is already done
The waves have been the hardest master
Facing creatures, stars, and many suns
Paralyzed of all ambition
This has really only just begun

A part of the ship, a sense of purpose
Something beautiful to see
A carpenter who chose potential
The best that ship could truly be
Bought by the man who got away
Couldn't wait to be set free
Tracked by those whose cannon fire
Left to sink into the sea

Float away
Lift off once more
Float away
Waves lead to shore

You Need to Know You're Not Alone

Driftwood (demo)

Driftwood

Music and Lyrics by Tim Messina (C) 2010, 2023

The seasons are changing
The scenes are fading
The memories are aging on the bow
You seem a new person
A new role to immerse in
A blessing or curse in your ground
Just keep moving on

When nature meets a vacuum
It fills up all the black room
In spite of the track you followed down
With the thread that you’re laying
The sails you’re displaying
The creature wailing at your brow
On the way to redemption
You keep your direction
And wait for resurrection with your vow
Just keep moving on

Remnants of the ship
Are you still rowing
Or still, just echoes on the sound

Ship of Theseus - an early mixdown

Music and Lyrics by Timothy Messina (C) 2023

Let the needle fall, Guaraldi just calls
Like a fire inside the hearth
A cabin with a view, it seems to me that you
Could use a holiday from all that aches your heart
I will take you there whenever you care
To make all your childhood dreams come true

My holidays alone
The more I wanna spend them with you
Waiting near my phone
I wonder if you'd wait for me too

With my arms holding tight I hope this feels alright
Cause I'm happiest right here
And your color fades from winter snow to warmest jade
As we kiss away your fear
I wanna take you there, the only thing I care about
Cause I ache from being through from you

My holidays alone
The more I wanna spend them with you
Waiting near my phone
I wonder if you'd wait for me too
Winter in my bones
No wonder that I'm feeling so blue
Things I should have known
My holidays are over without you

Holidays Alone (Demo)

Music and lyrics by Timothy Messina (C) 2024
Electric guitar - Tom Messina

In need of a location
A quest to evil's bane
A fictional narration
Murmurs in my brain
A simple illustration
Was never really plain
Eyes in dilation
Coming back again

I'm moving with the moving picture
Flashed before my eyes
The frames arriving even quicker
Seared into my mind
Emotion swirling ever richer
Causing me to cry
The stars aligning so familiar
Touching me tonight

Seeking validation
Just to fill the void
Caught in precipitation
Impossible to avoid
A hand to reach salvation
The light through celluloid
A blanketing sensation
Fills this little boy

I wish the lens could capture
This sight the way my eyes do
For this memory won't last forever

Moving Picture (Mix 2)

Dichterliebe
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
To Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
Poetry from Das Buch der Lieder by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

XII.
Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen geh’ ich im Garten herum. Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen, ich aber wandle stumm.
Es flüstern und sprechen die Blumen, und schau‘n mitleidig mich an: sei unsrer Schwester nicht böse, du trauriger blasser Mann.

On a shining summer morning I go about in the garden. The flowers whisper and speak, but I wander silently.
The flowers whisper and speak and look at me with sympathy: “Do not be angry with our sister, you sad, pale man.”

Schumann - Dichterliebe: 12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen

“Lunge da lei … De’ miei bollenti spiriti” from La traviata			        	            Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave (1810-1876)
 
Lunge da lei per me non v’ha diletto! Volaron già tre lune dacchè la mia Violetta agi per me lasciò, dovizie, amori e le pompose feste, ov’ agli omaggi avvezza, vedea schiavo ciascun di sua bellezza. Ed or contenta in questi ameni luoghi tutto scorda per me. Qui presso a lei io rinascer mi sento, e dal soffio d’amor rigenerato scordo ne’ gaudi suoi tutto il passato.

De’ miei bollenti spiriti il giovanile ardore ella temprò col placido sorriso dell’amor! Dal dì che disse: vivere io voglio a te fedel, dell’universo immemore io vivo quasi in ciel!

When she’s far from me there is no pleasure! Three months ago my Violetta gave up for me comforts, luxuries, loves and expensive parties, where she was used to homages of all who were enslaved by her beauty. And now she is happy in these charming places where she forgets everything for me.  Here beside her my soul is born again, and I am rejuvenated by the breath of love forgetting the delights of the past.

Of my passionate spirits and the fires of youth she tempers with the placed smile of love! From that day she said, “I want to live faithful to you, forgetful of the universe, I live as if in heaven!”

Verdi - La traviata: Lunge da lei... De' miei bollenti spiriti

Words and music by Timothy Messina
"La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf and Louis Guglielmi
Performed by Timothy Messina

Lyrics:

You've come too far
For far too long
Just to see your fairy tale
Come to end this way
Your life in rose
The petals blown
The wind won't bring them back
The movie that you saw in color
Turned out to be in Technicolor
You wake to see it all in black and white

Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tous bas
Je vois la vie en rose
Il me dit des mots d’amour
Des mots de tous les jours
Et ça me fait quelque chose
Il est entré dans mon cœur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause
C’est lui pour moi
Moi pour lui dans la vie
Il me l’à dit, l’à juré
Pour la vie
Et dès que je l’aperçois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon cœur qui bat

Rose-Tinted Life

I post mostly songs/pieces that I have written and recorded demos that will hopefully be rerecorded and mastered. Trying to be more productive in my songwriting, so I hopefully will be posting more on here in the near future. I also have my senior classical voice recital from college posted on here. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!

Timothy Messina

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