I've been working on this song recently with a friend, the usual process when writing a song is that I write the lyrics and basic chords and then some magnificent musician gets creative and makes the song sound bliss. This song has been a hard one to capture we've been battling between piano and guitar in trying to find the right sound which we think we may have found by settling with the piano. It's funny because I have always been a guitar person who likes the subtle sound of the finger picked strings over what I thought was a dominant piano, but recently I've found the piano to have a soft solemn sound which is perfectly captured in this song. I remember a while before working on the music for the song the musician helping with it once read the lyrics and didn't like the final verse so when they decided to arrange it I had to quickly whip up in ten minutes another two verses, one of which was an alternation of the original.
As I wrote this song based on an old folk song I've been trying to work out what the song means for me. The conclusion being that the sparrow is a symbol for freedom as it can take off whenever it wants to, in verse 1 it flies home for comfort, in verse 2 it snatches its lover a flies away with it. Verse 3 finds the sparrow searching the world (with no thought for money) for their lover and the final verse is slightly different in that it addresses the listener and warns them against the person who once mistreated them. The narrator addresses the sparrow by asking them to send a message to their loved one letting them know they are alive, is this because the narrator wants the lover to know that they can survive without them? or are they praying for the lover to return and spare a thought for them? what do you think??
If I were a little sparrow I would fly south,
I would roll in my Mama's arms and rid me of this hell
But I'm not a little sparrow and neither can I fly,
If I loved you better would you still be mine?
If I were a little sparrow here's what I would do,
I would wrap you in my arms and fly away with you
But I'm not a little sparrow and I loved you more than true,
I loved you more than needed but you needed someone new.
If I were a little sparrow I'd fly away o'er the hills
And if I couldn't find you I'd search until I will
I'm not a little sparrow and I cannot fly home,
Now that you have left me there is no skin to my bone.
If I were a little sparrow I'd warn you not to be fooled
By the eyes that say they love you 'cos they don't love you at all
So flutter in flight little sparrow, take off away to the sky
And if you see my loved one would you tell them I am alive.
Karl Smitherman © 2012
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