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Written by: Rob Roper (© 2006)
Performed by: Rop Roper

The lyrics for this song are about a friend of mine, who had lost his
sister.  We were at the Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado,  in August
2005, and decided to trade stories, and each write about the other's
story.  This was a songwriting method we had learned from Paul Reisler
during the Song School in Lyons, which precedes the Folks Festival every
year.  We sat down on some rocks along the St. Vrain River, which runs
alongside the festival ground, notebooks and pens in hand.  He told me
the story, and I took notes.  I had noticed he had not been himself, and
after he told me what had happened, I understood why.

The music--the basic chord progression, that is--actually came to me
several months earlier.  I get music ideas fairly easily, but most have
been forever lost.  At some point I started recording them so I could
come back and use them later.  For this song, I initially had a
different musical idea, but after going through my library of music
ideas, I heard this one, and thought it was perfect for the song, in
terms of mood, so I discarded the original music.  I went for a walk
around my neighborhood one Saturday or Sunday afternoon, in the
beautiful Denver fall, with my mini-cassette recorder in hand.  I came
across the melody and chorus during that walk.  All that was left was to
write the verses.  I say "all" satirically, because it took dozens of
hours over two or three months to finally get the verses to the point
they were good enough for me.  By April, 2006--eight months after
starting work on the song--I was satisfied that it was done.

The song was a challenge for me to sing.  It's at the edge of my range
vocally, and with some big interval jumps that are tough for me.  I
tried different keys, but nothing sounded right except Am.  I decided
that, I'll just have to work on my voice and do it in Am.  Then, I tried
changing the way I sang on this song;  I tried singing in a different
style--a more hushed, gravelling style.  I recorded it and played it
back, and liked it.  Actually, that was the first time I've ever liked
my vocie.  Aha!  Maybe that's how I should sing *all* my songs!  So that
was a cool discovery.

I recorded this demo of the song in my basement, and sent it to my
friend.  I was glad to hear that he liked it, and I'd like to think that
it helped him deal with his grief and confusion, even though I provided
no answers--and couldn't.

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