I didn't do direct demos for many years, and this is the last one I ever committed to 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜. This track was mainly about trying out an atypical drum pattern, with sounds and a style I'd never come near before. I didn't have a title back in 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟓, so now, nearly two decades on, I've had to re-examine what it makes me feel.

I've always thought it reasonably uplifting, even in this fragment-only form, and I hear a kind of clarion call in my chords and playing style. So, given the particular brand of obfuscated times we presently live in, where reality and fantasy, truth and lies, and right and wrong may be harder to tell apart than ever before, I decided to go with something cautiously optimistic. One day, I'll develop this further into a proper song.

Better Days Are Coming

This is among my earliest recordings on the 𝐅𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐱 𝐗-𝟐𝟖𝐇 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫, possibly the very first I tried to do on my own, after inaugurating it with a couple of things with a friend in the late summer of 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟒. I must have put this one down in 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫, and it's just as primitive as you'd expect a beginner's work to be. But I love this song so much, and it means so much to me, that I had to give it a shot, even knowing it could only contrast how wonderful 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥'𝐬 original is.

I was very insecure about adding my vocals back then, so I never ventured it. Now, almost 𝟑𝟎 years later, I finally decided to sing on it. It may be that I had to get to this age before I could do that with a semblance of conviction. My heart was relatively unscathed then. Now it's been out there and found out what life can do to it.

As for the recording itself, I played the keyboard rather unevenly that night, so matching my singing to it now was a challenge. It's the kind of song that needs to be sung as it's played. It lives outside of regular time; it needs to be immediate and felt. I didn't quite nail it here. Maybe I'll try again someday.

And So It Goes

I wrote this song about what I thought would be my first serious love affair. I never got to play it for her, though, because it wouldn't be that long before she gave her heart to someone else. Unbeknownst to me, even as she and I were growing close, he had been working hard to win it.

That's one of the reasons I've left it alone since trying it out in the fall of 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟕. Another is that I was under the somewhat unfortunate influence of 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐠𝐨'𝐬 catchy-but-treacly "Will You Still Love Me," one of the songs this girl had shared with me during our romantic phase. I kept going up at the end of certain lines, as 𝐉𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐟𝐟 did on several lines from that song (e.g. "Take me as I a-am"). I was aware of it happening and it irritated me, but I couldn't stop myself. An earworm in action, let's say.

That said, I was quite sincere about the song, and though the lyric isn't anything to shout about, it was heartfelt and naïvely hopeful. On balance, I feel it would be a shame to throw it away. Some new words from a slightly wiser man might bring it up a notch as well.

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓
𝘣𝘺 𝘙𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘬𝘬𝘦

We met some time ago
never knowing what was there
Then we came to know
and to realize we cared
in a way we never had before

You were cautious then
but I sensed that you were strong
I remember when
I told you how I longed
in a way I never had before

Whatever the future brings I know this for sure
I'm in love with this moment
Baby
I look at tomorrow like never before
and hear the message that your heart sent

Now we've come so far
there's no turning back, I know
In your eyes are stars
and they've just begun to glow
in a way they never have before

Whatever the future brings I know this for sure
I'm in love with this moment
Baby
I look at tomorrow like never before
and hear the message that your heart sent
and hear the message that your heart sent

© Rikard Bakke 1997 & 2024

Time to Fly

This Moment

Music is a friend, a playground, a way of life. To dabble is satisfaction; to improvise is freedom; to please is joy.

These are my fledgling musical "sins," most of which go back several decades.

And So It Goes

Trecathlus

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