Entry for /r/songaweek Week #1 of 2025 - theme is "Passage of Time"

I tried to get a real early-eighties feel for this one, using Cherryaudio emulations of the Jupiter-4 and Polymoog synths, as well as their reverb and echo emulations. I also used different mixing/mastering plugins - sticking to vintage/tube emulations and a tape saturation module.

The lyrics I nicked then adapted from various different English translations of Rabindranath Tagore's poem "Taj Mahal". The Shah Jahan created the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his late wife, and even though the passage of time has removed all other traces of his empire, this one thing still remains...

Lyrics:
-----

Life and youth
Wealth and glory
Swept away
Down the river of time

Imperial thunder
Fading like the
Sunset’s splendour
In the grieving sky

An empire vanished
The throne lies shattered
Minstrels sing no more

Yet one thing
A solitary
teardrop hangs
on the cheek of time

A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
Forever

A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
A teardrop on the cheek of time
Forever

Teardrop on the Cheek of Time

Key 13