I've been proofreading the CD insert and decided to post the lyrics to one of the songs I wrote that will be on the new album. Quite honestly, I am in love with the way this particular song sounds -- it has string quartet and everything. I love also what it says about love and self-love, vulnerability and resilency.
The images, the characters, the poem, the melody and the music for this one came quick. It alludes to four female artists that have had a huge influence on me. In my mind, they all have a very similar feminist, erotic, piercing yet sensitive quality about them. I am also attracted to what I see as a dangerous kind of strength. They are - Georgia O'Keefe and Virginia Woolf, and also two 20th century South American poets (who coincidently had a friendship)- Juana de Ibarbourou, and Alfonsina Storni. These women came together quite easily for the song, maybe because they had been sharing space in my head for so long...
A few years ago I was at the Boise Art Museum to see a Georgia O'Keefe exhibit. In the back, they were showing an incredibly documentary/interview in black white that someone had done with Georgia. It's set in her home in the New Mexican desert. I was completely enchanted. If you can find it, watch it and you'll understand.
I did my first major literary analysis on Viriginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway." I hated it at first. After studying about the author and the book itself, I absolutely fell in love.
Woolf and Alfonsina Storni both commited suicide by drowning themselves, which is where the first part of the second verse comes from.
The rest of the second verse references Juana de Ibarbourou's poem "Rebelde" or "Rebel." I analyzed this poem my first year of University and have never forgotten it. I love the way she describes herself on the River Styx with Caronte/Charon, who in Greek mythology collects souls from the river bank and carries them in his ship to the after-life, or the other side.
It begins, "Caronte: I will be be a scandal in your ship" - while the others pray, moan and cry, she paints herself as a lark, singing as they float along the river.
05 GEORGIA O’KEEFE 6:03
/// EMILY BRADEN/MISHA PIATIGORSKY
Misha Piatigorsky–piano
Rudy Royston–drums
Boris Koslov–acoustic bass
Carmel Raz String Quartet
you, you’re gonna miss me
once i’m gone
once i find my way around
your broke down charm
you, you’re gonna wish you’d
held on tighter
once i find myself in someone
else’s arms
like georgia o’keefe painting flowers in the backseat
under the new mexican sun
you can imagine me that way
here it’s dry but this desert is mine
i see blue skies through the hole
of a sun-bleached pelvic bone
you, you’re gonna miss me
once i’m gone
once i find my way around
your broke down charm
you, you’re gonna wish you’d
held on tighter
once i find myself in someone
else’s arms
like hundreds of lovers
with bricks in their pockets
headed straight for the ocean floor
i will not go down that way
but if some strange face lures me from the shore
i’ll be the lark that sings
around the bend
a rebel on the river in
the ship of charon
you, you’re gonna miss me
once i’m gone
once i find my way around
your broke down charm
you, you’re gonna wish you’d
held on tighter
once i find myself in someone
else’s arms
like georgia o’keefe painting flowers in the backseat
under the new mexican sun
you can imagine me that way
here it’s dry but this desert is mine
i see blue skies through the hole
of a sun-bleached pelvic bone
emily braden
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