From the recording Sighing Skies Above Your Eyes
The melody for this song was inspired by hearing a jazz singer do some scatting. (Scatting occurs when the singer improvises by singing rapid riffs of nonsense sounds.) I decided to take a scat riff: g/a\f#/g\e/f#\d/e \c/d\b/c\a/b\g (here "/" indicates that the next note is higher while "\" indicates lower) and, instead of scatting, turn this riff into the main melody. Since it was scat-inspired, the melody is sung somewhat quickly. The lyrics to this song came about because I am quite worried about a cousin of mine who has a serious drug addiction problem. For those unaware of drug culture, here are the meanings of the drug-related slang terms in the song: Blow, coke, crack, rock, snow and stardust refer to cocaine. Black tar, brown sugar, horse and smack refer to heroin. Echoes, ecstasy and speed are methamphetamines while bluebirds refer to barbiturates.
Lyrics
SIGHING SKIES ABOVE YOUR EYES
Michael Dyer
© 2010
I can see the sighing skies above your eyes as stardust flies alight upon your nose. Stabbed elbow. Hot liquid flows.
As the sinking sun now goes below white powder blows,
Through webs that weave, lost leaves that grieve.
Pull up your sleeves. You will reveal the scars that hold back all your stars.
You're leaning back, way back in bars, backseats of cars.
Scratched skin, black tar, old smoke and CPR. You hem and haw.
Bruised and abused, you lie, outside the law.
Steel locks you've pawed and clawed, inside their walls.
You'll soon fall off that horse, that speeds and snorts without remorse.
Drown down bluebirds. Rocks, crack, and smack will break your back.
Don't take that bet 'cause just the fortunate will get,
To live, to have regrets.
Can you cover all the lines that find the vines that prick and bleed?
Behind your veins, the blood that stains.
Through all your games, brown sugar reigns, with coke in tracks and trains.
No hope remains, of lost refrains.
You lie, in Ecstasy, upon the lawn, in early dawn.
You've come and gone; come and gone, so many times.
Echoes and snow, next time, might not be fine. Won't be lucky.
Don't take that bet 'cause just the fortunate will get,
To live, to have regrets.
Smell the urine that you're in, that gags and swells and tells of times,
In hopeless hells, white padded cells.
Either on the nod, dilated reddish eyes, you're twitching or sedated.
Run naked though the morning dew.
You lie, in Ecstasy, upon the lawn, in early dawn.
You've come and gone; come and gone, so many times.
Echoes and snow, next time, might not be fine. Won't be lucky.
Don't take that bet 'cause just the fortunate will get,
To live, to have regrets.
I can see the sighing skies above your eyes as stardust flies,
Pull up your sleeves that now reveal the scars that hold back all your stars,
That once were ours; that once were ours; that once were ours; that once were ours.