BROOKE FOX: NightLight

 

"BREATHE THE SAME AIR" LYRICS & STORIES

 

CINEMATIC

AND I WILL

BREATHE THE SAME AIR

CHANGE ME

THE YOU IN ME

NOT ANOTHER MIDNIGHT

BEND

UNTOUCHED

THERE IS NO OTHER

O CITY

 

"NIGHTLIGHT" LYRICS & STORIES

 

TIMEFOOL

SAVE ME

ECLIPSE

SWITCH IT OFF

GYPSY

HERE AND GONE

SEAMLESS

DON'T FALL BACK

JUMPER CABLES IN THE RAIN

KISS OF ME

ONE LOVER TOO LATE

 

 

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)

 

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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, I will , I will 

Be your love if you let me

I will, I will, I will 

If you only take my hand

I will, I will, 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, I will , I will 

Be your love if you let me

I will, I will, I will 

If you only take my hand

I will, I will, 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, I will , I will

Be your love if you let me

Just let me

And I will

 

© 2001, BROOKE FOX / ALBINA MUSIC (ASCAP)

 

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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

 

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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 me

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 me

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 me

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)

 

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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)

 

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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

 

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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)

 

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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

  Turn the key
Lean into the door

Been days since I've been home

Things are scattered in standstill

As I left them before
Hope they like living alone


Cold hangs in the air
Window's ajar
Been letting the rain in for weeks
Fine dust everywhere
Cobwebs in the corner
I don't even come here to sleep


Untouched

Untouched

Life left frozen

Untouched

Untouched
Life left frozen
 
 I turn down the sheets

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

Untouched

Life left frozen

Untouched

Untouched
Life left frozen

 

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…

2 AM

A pink moon is rising

 And I can’t take it any more
Think I'll catch that train

Close my eyes and count the minutes
Just 15 stops to his door

Untouched

Untouched

Life left frozen
Untouched

Untouched

Life left frozen

 

© 2003, Brooke Fox/Albina Music (ASCAP)

 

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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)

 

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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)

 

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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