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"BREATHE THE SAME AIR" LYRICS & STORIES
"NIGHTLIGHT" LYRICS & STORIES
PHOTO BY KERI-ANN LAURITO / WWW.KPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
CINEMATIC-I have always wanted to capture those elusive "movie-moments" in song. They tend to sneak up on me and all of the sudden, everything plays like it's been pre-planned or rehearsed. The word "cinematic" just struck me as a huge-sounding title, and launched me into an attempt to pin down that larger-than-life energy. Kurt came up with the chorus chords and melody saying "hey, wouldn't that be great for that cinematic thing?" I loved it and we nailed down the song's framework over Christmas holidays in Illinois. The lyrics, however, are a different story. I was feverishly writing them in the studio in Nashville while we worked. As soon as I had them committed to paper, I had to jump on the mic and sing them. I think that gave it the extra sense of urgency the song needed.
CINEMATIC Life
fades into view Everyday
landscapes shift and skew Here,
unknowing we move We
step into place and take our cues Glow
electric and high Spontaneous
stars in sweeping skies Chills,
the light seems to rise The
moment explodes before our eyes Cinematic,
set the scene Automatic chemistry Grand
dramatic destiny Plays
on and on and on and on… We
swagger and sway Dancing
slow-motion in the rain Close
in focus, in flame And
suddenly we fall into frame Cinematic,
you and me New
romantic revelry Slow
dramatic symphony Plays
on and on and on and on…. Oh-after
the light goes Where
does the moment go? Oh-After
the high lows Where
does the wonder go? Oh-after
the time slows Where
does the feeling go? Cinematic,
set the scene Automatic chemistry Grand
dramatic destiny Cinematic,
you and me New
romantic revelry Slow
dramatic symphony Plays
on and on and on and on…
©
2005 Brooke
Fox/Albina Music (ASCAP) & Kurt Gellersted/Gellersted Music (ASCAP)
* * *
AND I WILL-Originally this song was written for a musical theater work I've had on the back burner. This song is the sweet, first-kiss moment in the story. It just so happened that I was falling in love with Kurt at the same time as I began to write the lyrics. I actually modified the original verses slightly to fit our situation and its scary how well it tells the tale. Musically speaking, the chorus melody line came first and waited patiently until I paired it with a musical idea I had floating around which needed a home. The result oozes with gushy loveliness.
AND
I WILL Here
we are again friend Another
cold November night The
wine has gone to our heads The
sun is starting to rise And
in your eyes In
your eyes I see myself Staring
back And
I will Be your love if you let me I
will If you only take my hand I
will Be your love if you let me It
seems I’ve spent a lifetime In
this winter here with you Such
a beautiful soul Such
a strength I never knew I
never knew And
your heart shimmers and shines Like
the stars And
I will Be your love if you let me I
will If you only take my hand I
will Be your love if you let me Just
let me Say
the word And
I will Be
your love if you let me I
will If
you only take my hand Please
take my hand And
I will Be your love if you let me Just let me And
I will ©
2001, BROOKE FOX
/ ALBINA MUSIC (ASCAP)
* * *
BREATHE THE SAME AIR-The first time I laid eyes on my husband's childhood room, which seemed to be frozen in its boyhood bliss, I became obsessed. I scanned the books, posters and mementos for hours. Sometimes, I would slip in by myself and leaf through old school papers and things he had no interest in revisiting, but I thought they were pure magic. The title "Breathe The Same Air" had been written down on an otherwise blank page in my journal for years. After rediscovering it, I thought it was a perfect way to describe that unique feeling.
BREATHE
THE SAME AIR Breathe Breathe
the same air Where
the first days of your life Turned
to long winter nights tucked in Here Here
in this room Reading
your comics by flashlight Guitar
by your bedside And
I shouldn’t be here Leaning
in closets and sifting through things Running
my fingers through layers of your life Letting
myself in Breathe Breathe
The Same Air I
put on your favorite sweater I’m
sure it hung better on You Everything
you I
find a scrap of your poetry Whisper
it softly And
I tiptoe and spy Creeping
around like a thief in the night Hoping
the floorboards won’t give me away Fearing
my fool heart just might (Instrumental
Verse) Breathe Breathe
the same air Finding
your past piece by piece Of
the puzzle, the man to be Now Now
you make sense Lay
out the edges and corners The
picture comes clearer And
I shouldn’t be here Leaning
in closets and sifting through things Running
my fingers through layers of your life Letting
myself in To
everything you Everything
you Everything
you ©
2003
BROOKE FOX / ALBINA MUSIC
* * *
CHANGE ME-This song is not about me....and yet is has become my anthem. It began as a reaction to the Andrew Wyeth painting "Christina's World". After researching the life of the woman in the painting, Christina Olsen, I discovered she grew up in Maine around the turn of the 20th Century and lived with a mysterious and untreatable degenerative muscle disorder (which explains her crawling to the house in the painting). I read further and discovered she had a young love affair with a man from Boston who "summered" in her area. The love eventually turned cold and Christina went on pose for the now famous painting. I imagined her looking back on the whole experience and "Change Me" poured out of me. While writing, it became clear that this song was sent to me to both tell her story and serve as a way for me to finally connect with my own experiences with disability. Thanks, Christina. :-)
CHANGE
ME Here
I stand I
am folding and refolding his last letter In
my hands Trace
the corners of the past The
summer’s gone And
the beauty of our days together fading Like
the sun A
little earlier every day Hey,
you sentimental heart of mine You
always go astray, but You You
can't change Change
me When
I collapsed Something
died in him that day he looked down on me Bruised
in black I
guess I thought he’d understand It’s
this disease I’m
a lot of truth to handle when my legs Can’t
find my knees Just
looking for a place to land Hey, if you want to hold my hand You’ve
got to take me as I am, ‘cause You You
can't change Change
me Sometimes
I dream of Boston where your words all come to life And
I’m dancing down the streets you call your own You
pass right by and you wonder why you’ve suddenly gone cold Darling,
I'm your ghost You You
can't change Change
me
It’s
who I am It’s
what I’m for I
was built to weather storms Like
a rock That
meets the sea You
can’t change me You
can’t change me ©
2001, BROOKE FOX /
ALBINA MUSIC (ASCAP)
* * *
THE YOU IN ME-This song was a ton of fun to write and record. I ended up playing all the electric guitars on the track, which made me feel like a rock star. The lyrics sort of had an identity crisis: happy, sad, happy, then finally back to real life heartache. The bridge section was actually a whole different song idea I had that worked great once I inserted it into the song.
THE
YOU IN ME Welcome
to my world gone you Tangled
and tormented by the “we” that I once knew Scenes
of us together flash wherever I go Dylan
keeps playing on the radio Lost
in what we’d never be Your
face, your grace is all I see The
you in me won’t let me be This
history is killing me I
can’t shake it I
can’t break it The
you in me won’t let me be It’s
everything It’s
all I see The
you in me
Big
love, new city, downtown craze You
took my hand; pulled me through the maze We
ran like lovers on the avenue Now
every corner turns to you
The
you in me won’t let me be This
history is killing me I
can’t shake it I
can’t break it The
you in me won’t let me be It’s
everything It’s
all I see The
you in me Get
out of my head and go home Find
a soul of your own Leave
my lonely alone The
you in me won’t let me be This
history is killing me I
can’t shake it I
can’t break it The
you in me won’t let me be It’s
everything It’s
all I see The
you in me ©
2005, Brooke Fox/Albina Music (ASCAP)
* * *
NOT ANOTHER MIDNIGHT-This song was largely a Kurt creation, written with Will Brumley for our musical theatre project in development. The lyrics arose out of free form poetry that Will brought us and we shaped. Kurt had most of the melody and musical ideas. It's definitely a song I would never had come up with on my own, and I love it for that. It's different, not so predictable in its form. At this moment, the main character in the play is deciding she will declare the feelings she has for the boy she just met and take charge of her life in the town she has just moved to.
NOT
ANOTHER MIDNIGHT
12:01 Not
another midnight gone Far
from sleep Got
the TV on, I’m not alone I
can hear The
humming of the pale streetlights Dark
town Are
there any
signs of life out there tonight? Drawn
to my window Not
another midnight alone Framed
in moon glow Not
another midnight alone Will
he see Hidden
in the margin spine Page
23 Tucked
between his plans are words of mine Will
he spare me From
another midnight alone Does
he even care for me? It’s
another midnight alone Not
another midnight, no oh This
town will see The
clock is ticking for them too With
every word I’m
writing them right out of their own news They
can’t hold me To
another midnight alone No
they won’t hold me To
another midnight alone Not
another midnight, no oh Not
another midnight Not
another midnight Not
another midnight, no oh! ©
2003 BROOKE FOX (ALBINA MUSIC) / KURT GELLERSTED (GELLERSTED MUSIC) / WILL
BRUMLEY
* * *
BEND-Way back in Nashville, I sat down at the piano to write with Dave Spak while we were both on break from our work at the studio. (He was putting up drywall and I was answering phones). We ended up with this chorus which I later joined with a verse idea I had been kicking around. The lyrics outline a true moment in my life, when I finally decided that the relationship I had been "talked into" was most definitely over. I think that's one of the hardest things anyone can face up to.
BEND Guess
I never thought it through How
many ways I lost myself with you As we slowly let the world around us Disappear I
can’t be that girl no more That
shadow of myself that you adored Now
that I have found the will to leave My
head is clear I
won’t bend No,
I won’t bend For
you anymore Guess
you think I’m gonna crack At
3:06 AM I’ll want you back I’ll
fold silently into your arms Just
like the last time and the time before But
I’m past the point of weakness dear All
your poetry and reverie can’t reach me here I’ll
get through those winter nights without you Alone
and pure I
won’t bend No,
I won’t bend I
won’t bend No,
I won’t bend For
you And
I know you’ll be the one Who’s
heart is gonna break But
I won’t bend No,
I won’t bend I
won’t bend No,
I won’t bend For
you anymore ©
2001,
BROOKE FOX (ALBINA MUSIC) / DAVID SPAK (IZIT MUSIC)
* * *
UNTOUCHED-This is a document of that lovely six-month period of my dating daze with Kurt when I never seemed to sleep at home. I much preferred crashing on the tiny dorm-size bed at his Grad student apartment in the heart of Greenwich village than on my queen size bed, which was waiting for me out in south Brooklyn. Every few days, I'd make it out to my apartment, collect a few items and scurry back to the city. For someone who likes to be surrounded by her precious junk, I mean, things, I had no problem living out of a suitcase if it meant I could wake up next to my sweet. Awe.
UNTOUCHED Been
days since I've been home Things
are scattered in standstill As
I left them before
Untouched Life
left frozen Untouched
Untouched Slip
into bed and light a candle Watch
the flicker dance and dim It
shines on trinkets and treasures Meant
to remind me of me But
I’m just not myself without him Untouched Life
left frozen Untouched Untouched Can’t
seem to warm up in this lonely place When
somewhere close my lover waits for me And
it’s not like me. I’m not the kind To
let my drunk heart lead me blind But
oh, this time I think I’m falling… A
pink moon is rising And
I can’t take it any more Close
my eyes and count the minutes Untouched
Untouched Life
left frozen Untouched Life
left frozen ©
2003, Brooke Fox/Albina Music (ASCAP)
* * *
THERE IS NO OTHER-Kurt was playing this beautiful chorus on the guitar and I stopped short-"What is that?" I loved the moody chords, they seemed to transport me. We became obsessed with finding a verse that would give you the feeling that the chorus took you to a different place, so that it captured that feeling I had when I first heard it. It just became a very indulgent song for us, our own little mood capsule. We layered and layered and layered all kinds of percussion and mood tracks on the recording. When we went to mix the track, we were overloading pro-tools with the sheer number of tracks we had. We set the "most tracks" record for Jim, our engineer, on this song.
THERE
IS NO OTHER What
sickly sweet What
trembling taste of love Has
raised me from my sleep? Whose
quiet hands Like
whispers on my skin Are
washing over me? I’m
dreaming There
is no other There
is no other for me There
is no other There
is no other for me La
la la la… There
is no other for me I
wake to find I’m
wrapped up in your arms, warm No
sound except your heart Don’t
let me go I’d
turn to dust without you Simply
fall apart I’d
crumble There
is no other There
is no other for me There
is no other There
is no other for me Past,
present, future flash before our eyes We
radiate a love alive from deep inside I
am enchanted I
am hypnotized And
like a mantra beating Four
little words They
keep repeating There
is no other There
is no other for me There
is no other There is no other for me ©
2002, Brooke Fox/Albina Music (ASCAP) & Kurt Gellersted/Gellersted Music
(ASCAP)
* * *
O CITY-There is a long story on this one as far as making the record is concerned. It was cut from the track listing many times. Originally, it was a guitar-driven production, and it really wasn't adding much to the overall scope of the project. Then, we had the idea to try a "confessional piano" version. Well, immediately I thought of adding strings but I was nervous that the whole record might get too string heavy. On our second trip down to Nashville, I decided to have Jim call his friend Chris to play. I sat in the conference room while Jim mixed in the other room, and wrote out the arrangement with Kurt's assistance. It really made the song come to life. I began to write the song while living in Nashville in 2000, so I guess it's fitting that it sort of "came to rest" there five years later.
O
CITY O
city, if I close my eyes I can see him clear Standing
on the corner in the rain Letting
all your light and life blur into him Take
hold of him Letting
him go was he hardest thing Now
I know it’s your world he needs But
I’ll promise you this Someday
I’ll come back to claim him But
until that day Keep
him warm Keep
him safe O
city, keep him for me O
city, keep him safe for me O
city, send a message on your wire for him tonight ‘Cause
I’ve tried every number, every lead But
every trace of him runs cold and faint So
I just wait And
surely you’ll see what he means to me Can
you kiss the air he breathes? But
I’ll promise you this Someday
I’ll come back to change him But
until that day Keep
him warm Keep
him safe O
city, keep him for me O
city, keep him safe for me Wrap
your avenues around him Like
a mother to a child “Cause
he was born to bear your witness He
was born to walk your mile But
I’ll promise you this Someday
I’ll come back to claim him But
until that day Keep
him warm Keep
him safe O
city, keep him for me O
city, keep him safe for me ©
2001
BROOKE FOX / ALBINA MUSIC (ASCAP)
* * *
TIMEFOOL-One of the central themes that seem to run through my writing is time: the passing of, the suspension of, the power of, etc. So, after I finished this song, I remember I declared myself "Cut Off’ from any further time references…. The intro riff was the first thing to surface musically and the majority of the so |
