“Forgotten” - a song about memories
When I am hiking in mud, I try and find footprints of people that have the same shoes as me.
Story Pairing
As I was pulling this one together, the voice memo was from 5 years ago… 5 years! 2017 is when I started to realize that the band I was in at the time was drifting apart and that I was going to be left without music in my life.
That was a massive motivation for me to pick up a guitar and learn to play my own songs. Up to that point I had really only written lyrics to someone else’s progression. I had a guitar in college, but I was your standard owner… I could play Wonder Wall (poorly), and the snickers song about chocolate waterfalls or something… and really had no clue what I was doing.
Sitting with a guitar with the goal of trying to understand and learn what it can do and how it can give voice to your feelings is a completely different animal. It was daunting, I hated it, I sucked, my fingers hurt, I sounded like trash, I was embarrassed, angry, sad, and so much more. All of that morphed into a sort of circular flow and it kept bringing me back to the instrument. I slowly started to chisel my way out of the stiff rock chrysalis that is a new student. **Now I still have so much to learn, but those first months are rock climbing a sheer wall vs. hiking a steady incline.
Listening back to the old voice memos (below) is a pretty humbling and nostalgic feeling. It takes me back to when songwriting was so raw and new to me. An exposed nerve taking it’s first breath of air. It’s a little funny to hear my fingers stumbling about, but it also makes me proud of my younger self for sticking through it.
It also makes me think about all the steps of life I’ve experienced since then. Anytime I look back at a past anchor point, I can’t help but think of the ribbon that connects then and now. It’s amazing to make these waypoints planted throughout my existence, and be able to step back to them. They really are priceless. (I strongly challenge others to start journaling or creating art of some sort to start generating their own points along the line). Not to get too preachy, but a standard American life has a heavy amount of autopilot on. Day’s filled with comfort and distraction or the pursuance of both. It’s nice in the moment, but days/months/years start to fade into a blur when those are the daily goals. Maybe I am different, but I can’t catch a memory from a day where I didn’t make something or share an experience with someone. I never look back and be like “man, that day I watched TV all day and stayed warm and well fed… what a great memory”… anyway, I digress…
I am beyond lucky to fill my days making and sharing with you. I believe in the artist and the muses around us all. I’d love to see us all make a thing that moves us and share it as much or as little as we want.
The same way you come here and support and believe in what I am doing, I want to be that for you. Please connect with me if there is ever a conversation around creating you’d like to have, or if there are any tools or thoughts I can share to make that first (or next) step a little easier.
Song Structure
This was written the first year I was really learning guitar…. so G chord baby!
I remember this being one of the first times I added an ole trusty Am to the progression and I felt like a regular bad ass.
Progression:
Verse - G/C/G/D/Em/C/G/D/G
Chorus - C/G/Am/D/G/Am/D/G
Voice Memos
No Notebook Page
July 2017
Lyrics
So she's gone and I stayed
So she's gone, always knew shed fly away
I never tried to claim her, and I knew I never could
So she's gone and I stand where she stood
Heaven send a strong storm down
Help me wash bitter words from my mouth
The same wall that held back, my "farewell please don't go"
Kept me silent as she faded down the road
All you left was a footprint in the mud
And the memories I never will return
So go run into the rain, on a dirt trail where we met
You won't look back I won't forget
My last breath is coming soon
Caught the end like and old mans known to do
I filled a box with pages, pictures all of you
They take me back to that girl just passing through
All you left was a footprint in the mud
And the memories I never will return
So go run into the rain, on a dirt trail where we met
You won't look back I won't forget
So go run into the rain, on a dirt trail where we met
You won't look back I won't forget