Forgiven

Here is another song which is based on the old English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh ballads. I've just penned this song distracting myself once again from uni work. The song speaks about someone who has been left by their lover (traditional subject), the original feeling of betrayal (verse 1) has been replaced by forgiveness (Chorus 1). They then urge their lover to return back to them (verse 2) before they die (Chorus 2). The final part of the chorus suggests that no matter the circumstance even if their lover doesn't return they shall still forgive them for leaving in the first place. The normal font is the verse, the build is italics and the bold font is the chorus.
The concept of the song is that the moon shines its light depending on the mood of the narrator, for example when the moon is bright the narrator is happy, when it has a petty glow the person is sad, in this case when the light shines through a cloud there is a ray of hope and when the moon doesn't shine the narrator has passed.

Verse 1
I thought I cut you out my life a long time ago,
When I threw stones at the stars in the sky and hoped they would fall
'Cos I wished on many a star, hung my heart on the moon
Even though you're so far, I still wish for you.

Chorus
I sometimes swear the moon shines on the mood I'm given,
Right now there's a break in the cloud which shows that you're forgiven,
Come back to me and I'll make your life worth living,
I threw the stars in the sky again to show that you're forgiven

Verse 2
When you left I thought the world would die but the sun still sets,
So I'll send the ships at high tide for you to collect,
I don't want no gifts or jewels, what would I do with them
I've only asked for you that's all, darling don't forget

Chorus
I've always said the moon shines on the mood I'm given,
So when the moon forgets to shine you'll know I'm no longer living,
And if I ever go before you have made the decision,
I'll send a star to you far below to show that you're forgiven.

Karl Smitherman © 2012 published 2012

My Heartache Rings Across the Floor

Walking round work today I had the title in my head 'Forever Gone'. Instead of using that as a title I decided to use it in the chorus because I was just listening to some country standards in the bath which inspired me so I wrote the majority if the song there...in the bath. The song is meant to be a standard country song, simple yet absolutely heart wrenching. It speaks about being left by the one that you loved, as you may have noticed is a common trait throughout my songs. This song probably has one of the darkest lyrics I have wrote about there being a bullet through my brain, I felt that was a very manly lyric so for once thought I'd surrender to my masculine side.

Chorus
My heartache rings across the floor
Cos you don't live here anymore
Forever is too long, I can't believe you are forever gone
While my heartache rings across the floor

Verse 1
I cried to sleep last night
Not the first for you I've cried
I'd be better of somedays
With a bullet through my brain
When I'm reminded of you dear
I so wish that you were here
but my heartache is left ringing on the floor

Chorus
My heartache rings across the floor
You can't hear cos you're too far
Forever is too long, I can't believe you are forever gone
While my heartache rings across the floor

Verse 2
No bird could ever sing
And cure the awful sting
Of a one-sided love
I fell in love with you too much
So while I'm all alone
And the house is not your home
I can hear my heartache ringing on the floor

Chorus
My heartache rings across the floor
Cos you don't live here anymore
Forever is too long, I can't believe you are forever gone
While my heartache rings across the floor

Karl Smitherman © 2012 published 2012

The Mile

I dug this song out from an old folder, I wrote this when I was 18 years old. I got the idea for the song when walking to college one day and in that time my mind would just race away. It seemed like the perfect time to collect my thoughts and straighten (no gay jokes please) my head the journey in total took around half hour to walk. I remember racing back from college in storms and snow, I always loved walking in the rain there is something cleansing about it. The song was my opinions at the time. I can’t say they have changed much but have, perhaps matured. The chorus speaks about escaping the realities of life and hoping for peace, I’m not sure if at the time I had Heaven in mind when writing the song, but I hope that Heaven is just as peaceful as I imagine the mile to be.


Verse 1
The mile is a place which I invented in my mind,
Where flags of freedom freely wave to the lonely kin of time,
Where mistakes are left in the past, the people do not lie,
A home for both the rich and poor and money is no desire.
A long stretched out road where fields are to be fields
And never will be rearranged by some man made drill,
Where gays are accepted and blacks walk with the whites
And everyone is more than welcome to walk the mile.

Chorus
Do you know friends of mine
When you go home to your men and wives
I choose to walk the mile
When I get home there's an empty bed
There I'm the only one who's slept,
So I think I'll choose to stay here awhile.

Verse 2
Where there are certain words that no one dares to mention
Like murderer or outlaw or even the recession
Where heaven is the house next door, happiness is what we cry
And if I choose to shoot a man he'd just come back to life.
Where peace is what we'd sing and love is what we'd chant,
Blood is never spilled from the strength of our hands,
Time is kept well in balance cos it don't exist,
The mile's just too good a place for you to resist.

Chorus 2
Do you know friends of mine,
Whatever you do with your time,
I choose to walk the mile,
No one seems to wanna know
That for too long I've been alone
So I think I'll choose to stay here a mile.

Chorus 3
If you choose to spare a moment,
Come down to my second home and
You are free to roam the mile,
At this rate I'll die by myself,
I pray that I don't go to hell
Would you like some company a while
Or would you rather I walk the mile.

Karl Smitherman © 2008 published 2012

Failing to Breathe

I have decided to take three hours of my valuable time from writing my dissertation to writing this song. To sum up the song it speaks about having faith in the times when you are in doubt. Faith is a wonderful thing to have when you have it, it should be treasured, preferably in gold cloth, however finding it can sometimes seem almost impossible. People say that loss, love or just about any other heart breaking thing are some of the hardest things life can throw at you, but life overall is hard!! I cannot tell you how much I have struggled with faith and the acceptance of who I truly am recently, still I don't know the answer, but I know if I stop looking for it then I wont find it.

I've recently wondered if God sometimes puts us in these positions so that we can find ourselves again. If I was always happy and content then I'd probably have too big an ego and would not talk to God much because I'd think I wouldn't need him. Sometimes being at rock bottom is just the start of the mountain and there is nowhere to go but up. I believe having your values shaken and everything tested in life brings you to God exactly as he wants you, he wants us to be humble in life like a child, where we are not afraid to cry, to confess our feelings and to believe that all are equal. I also believe life is a journey and we have to experience as much emotion as possible, good and bad. If I had to go through life without pain and suffering I think by the time I got to Heaven I would take it for granted because I would have known bliss all my life. I would rather learn everything I can on this Earth so that by the time I entered Heaven I could collapse at my creators feet knowing that I have left the world a stronger and different person.

Verse 1
If I step alone I’ll be sure to fall I know
I can’t do this, can’t do it on my own,
But the world has its scope of troubles let them float
Up above, onwards up, where there’s doubt there is hope

Build
On failing to breathe, what’s the worst that can happen to me?
Sent to a home where I’m not depending on what I cannot see

Chorus
Raise me up, Raise me up,
Let the Heavens open up above
In our pain lies victory,
Even when drowning,
You should never feel like failing
Failing to breathe, breathe
Failing to breathe, breathe

Verse 2
If your faiths not in his hands, you're a living dead man
When the soul, has turned cold, and the bitterness has grown
You can say you love him, but what does it mean
Before the test is put to rest, we can either swim or float

Build
On failing to float, there is still a ray of hope
Cos when you’re at your end, that is when God will then
Prop you up, with his love

Chorus
Raise me up, Raise me up,
Let the Heavens open up above
In our pain lies victory,
Even when drowning,
You should never feel like failing
Failing to breathe, breathe
Failing to breathe, breathe
  
Mid 8
Sometimes I float, sometimes I stumble,
Sometime I hide, sometimes I seek
Sometimes I’m proud, sometimes I’m humble
Sometimes I don’t want to be me

Chorus
Raise me up, Raise me up,
Let the Heavens open up above
In our pain lies victory,
Even when drowning,
You should never feel like failing
Failing to breathe, breathe
Failing to breathe, breathe

 Karl Smitherman © 2012 published 2012

Prettiest Thing in Town

I think this song was one of my first truly personal love songs in which the melody was constructed at the same time as the lyrics. In fact I remember sitting in my old house with the guitar writing this song. It was originally never meant to be a love song but a song about artificial beauty against natural beauty, and how the person with the artificial appearance was comparing themselves to the natural beauty. However amongst one night of utter despair and depression I penned this song. It talks about falling in love with someone who does not love you back, in fact that person is admired by many other people in town, and you (probably with you artificial beauty) are far far far back in the queue, you make countless promises to show this person that you will be true to them forever (verse 2) BUT this does not work in today's society, so you're better off performing sexual favours!! JOKES!! DON'T DO IT...keep your pride foolish youth (I'm laughing to myself so hard right now). In all seriousness this song was a true heartbreaker for me. In fact the narrator in the song is trying to save the person that he loves, he is telling them that the countless acts of (maybe) sexual favours and constant drinking is ruining the purity within their soul (verse 1). The song always comes back to haunt me, even two years later I can sing this song and find that the meaning has reawakened. I suppose that is one of the true beauties of songs, they can last a lifetime.

Verse

Diamond in the rough is what they call you

Oh what a name to hold
You’re too good a person to turn them down
But the damage that it’s doing to your soul

Build
And I, I run to you
To find a lonely room

Chorus
How’s it feel being the prettiest thing in town?
To have people fall before you like ragdolls to the ground
And when it comes to choices I’m a number in a crowd
How does it feel to be the prettiest thing in town?

Verse
You’re just a one week stand to any other
But to me you’re a life time guarantee
A kingdom of false hearts is all you gather
But you’re the strong and the silent victim’ee

Build
It’s just a passing thought
But who knows we just could work

Chorus
How’s it feel being the prettiest thing in town?
To have people fall before you like ragdolls to the ground
And when it comes to choices I’m a number in a crowd
How does it feel to be the prettiest thing in town?

Mid 8
Hold me close a little while,
Love me like it’s out of style
Whisper words like it will be alright

Call it love, Call it lust

Call it wrong if you must
I cant leave I’m not that strong,
until, until it feels wrong, wrong!

Build
And I, I run to you
To find a lonely room

Chorus
How’s it feel being the prettiest thing in town?
To have people fall before you like ragdolls to the ground
And when it comes to choices I’m a number in a crowd
How does it feel to be the prettiest thing in town?
How does it feel to be the prettiest thing in town?

 Karl Smitherman © 2010 published 2012

Between the Sun and the Moon

I’ve always thought that if you had someone or something that you knew would last for absolutely ever the importance of that thing would soon fade. I believe God plans to gives us things for a short time in order for us to learn something from them and to perceive a stronger emotion from the experience. This may sound morbid, but knowing that someone you care about may soon be leaving whether it is to another country or to heaven makes you cherish every moment you have with them. This is another song freshly written tonight (please forgive me if it’s terrible, I can only tell after a certain amount of time) the song is about two people, one of them has to leave and one of them has to stay, there is only a matter of time in which they can spend together. The romantic facade that the moon and sunset posses soon fades as the two people know that with each one passing they have less time together...

Verse 1
And with the setting of the Sun
There goes another day
Another hour in which I am with you
You were so hard won
Darling won’t you stay
Tell me now before the peaking of the moon

Build
How long will it be
Before you’re just a memory
There I go counting down the days

Chorus
There goes my everything
Sinking with the Sun
Ambling all alone
With a worn out heart that proves
That you weren’t made of stone
Though often I thought so,
Now I feel you slipping away
Between the Sun and the Moon

Verse 2
I know God heard my prayers
But just because He hears
It doesn’t mean they all will come true
Don’t remember me like this
Where my tear replaces the kiss
That I hoped would be from you

Build
Don’t stop me from crying
At the time of goodbye
We both knew it would turn out this way

Chorus
There goes my everything
Sinking with the Sun
Ambling all alone
With a worn out heart that proves
That the love you had was real
Though your silence was of steel
I feel you slipping away
Between the Sun and the Moon

Mid 8
Just a matter of days
And a handful of nights
And a lifetime of you
Present in my mind

Chorus
There goes my everything
Sinking with the Sun
Ambling all alone
With a worn out heart that proves
That somewhere in your mind
It’s me that you may find,
Though I feel you slipping away
Between the Sun and the Moon

Karl Smitherman © 2012 published 2012

The Distance

This song I have literally whipped up in the last 30 mins. The song speaks about the gap between two people whether it be your love, God, or just about anything else. There's not much I can say about a song when I've just wrote it, the emotion is too raw, and the situation has yet to be overcome and understood, so take this song as it stands.

Verse 1
There's a shadow on the path
stretching as far as I can see
but I know the space between
lies the distance between you and me

There's a lantern way up high
which sometimes lets me know you're there
when your face comes to the light
there's no sign you ever cared

Chorus
So I am measuring the distance
Seeing how much lies between us
though deep down we're not so different
the distance is too great to trust,
There's a spirit in us both
which is not bound by the flesh
so when I reach for your deliverance
do I feel only the distance

Verse 2
If my soul were to travel
to the arms of who I love
I guarantee no devotion
no tenderness in their touch

But to tell them would betray
every inch of faith I own
and the distance would double
if ever they were to know

Chorus
So I am measuring the distance
Seeing how much lies between us
though deep down we're not so different
the distance is too great to trust,
There's a spirit in us both
which is not bound by the flesh
so when I reach for your deliverance
do I feel only the distance

Mid 8
My silence is a sign
that something's not quite right
as long as we think inwards
there will always be the distance

Chorus
So I am measuring the distance
Seeing how much lies between us
though deep down we're not so different
the distance is too great to trust,
There's a spirit in us both
which is not bound by the flesh
so when I reach for your deliverance
do I feel only the distance

Karl Smitherman © 2012 published 2012