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Description
Final words are so potent. This is a song about such a moment. When deathbed words are unexpected. Just after the doctor left the room, explaining that it was now a matter of days, this old man of faith and conscience and absolutely no regret (or so I thought) said, "This is it"? and then, to me, "Do it differently." Without bitterness, perhaps slightly bemused. It became a moment of freedom, him letting go and giving me license. And so the music is happy, not melancholy, not melodramatic, but simply freeing.
The saxophone represents the dancing spirit of my father, flying in and out between the lines. In the coda, the solo becomes a trio as it joins the dance with his wife and his daughter (my sister) who preceded him in death.
Played by some of the same players as Pilgrim of the Return. Photo is my father walking up the stairs to his first home / birthplace.
Other songs featuring Woody Mankowski:
A Promise
Windowshade
River Runs Through Me
Pilgrim of the Return
This track was remastered and appears on my 2007 release, A Bit Of Light, available through CDBaby.
The saxophone represents the dancing spirit of my father, flying in and out between the lines. In the coda, the solo becomes a trio as it joins the dance with his wife and his daughter (my sister) who preceded him in death.
Played by some of the same players as Pilgrim of the Return. Photo is my father walking up the stairs to his first home / birthplace.
Other songs featuring Woody Mankowski:
A Promise
Windowshade
River Runs Through Me
Pilgrim of the Return
This track was remastered and appears on my 2007 release, A Bit Of Light, available through CDBaby.
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Lyrics
Looking out the window, so hard to recognize.
(The gardens and the family tree are labors that don't lie.)
Final moments. The white room all around.
It's hard to think of things to say when you're never coming home.
"This is it. This is it," you say,
"So don't you waste a day."
This is it?
Never sadness in your eyes. No lines of regret.
And yet you turn and tell me to be different than you.
"Do it differently than me."
What do these words mean from a father who will always be my saint?
"This is it. This is it," you say,
"So don't you waste a day."
This is it?
Hold a mirror to your face.
Help you comb your hair in place.
Father, son and ghost embrace.
You look up and you say you're happy.
Don't know why, but I understand.
Bo du du ba ba di do do di
Bo du du ba bo.
Wish you wish me
Wishing for the other
If you if me
Wanting only to be...
(The gardens and the family tree are labors that don't lie.)
Final moments. The white room all around.
It's hard to think of things to say when you're never coming home.
"This is it. This is it," you say,
"So don't you waste a day."
This is it?
Never sadness in your eyes. No lines of regret.
And yet you turn and tell me to be different than you.
"Do it differently than me."
What do these words mean from a father who will always be my saint?
"This is it. This is it," you say,
"So don't you waste a day."
This is it?
Hold a mirror to your face.
Help you comb your hair in place.
Father, son and ghost embrace.
You look up and you say you're happy.
Don't know why, but I understand.
Bo du du ba ba di do do di
Bo du du ba bo.
Wish you wish me
Wishing for the other
If you if me
Wanting only to be...
Suzanne
what a great arrangement and sound, and what a great song! i love the almost James Taylor sense, like new age folk. the soprano sax makes me imagine exactly what you described that you wanted. (but you didn't tell them that you cut and pasted the ending soprano sax to create the trio out of different takes...) i didn't expect the tenor sax section, but it really works, and those cool notes they play under your later stanzas are very inventive, like tone poems. this is maybe your best work yet. so full of life, just like your father. (you have a very good bedside manner. thanks for sharing this personal moment.)