SATURDAY MORNING (Back-story, Lyrics, and Link to Song on YouTube)

SATURDAY MORNING (Back-story, Lyrics, and Link to song on YouTube)

 

Back-story:

 

As I see it, taking some time out for reflective thinking is one of the key ingredients to living a happy and fulfilled life.  I innately adopted this process years ago, and I highly recommend it to those who see value in rejuvenating themselves.  Identifying what has worked for me, realizing what is working for me now, and speculating what will work for me in the future restores my spirits, and it gives me the juice to keep going!

 Although I practice this exercise privately, it took on a new dimension in the early 1980s when I met Siobhan.  From that point, in addition to having my own time for reflective thinking, we developed a time for reflection and dialogue.  The only difference between the two is obvious; the reflection and dialogue sessions contain conversation.  These talks have no boundaries.  Some sessions can simply focus on planning out our day, while others can drift into some deep philosophical discussions, possibly resulting in us making some major changes to our lives.  Nevertheless, we often usually emerge from these talks refreshed and ready to go with the day.

 

When our day-jobs came to an end in 2006, these reflection and dialogue sessions became a daily event, but back during the years when we were teaching during the day and playing music at night, they primarily took place on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  In the winter months, we would sit in the comfort of our living room and sip coffee as we bounced ideas off one another, but once the nice weather rolled around, we moved our sessions to either our front porch or our back deck.  Both were great spots, but we tended to favor the deck because it was protected from street noise, and it overlooked some woods and the back yards of our neighbors, a much quieter and more peaceful setting.

One Saturday morning late in the spring of 2000, I put on the coffee and went out on our deck to sit with our dogs, the real gurus of reflective thinking.  As I sat facing the south, the sun started hitting my neck as it broke the horizon in the east, and all of Nature’s finest started greeting the day.  The birds chirped, the insects hummed, and Mick and Riley sportingly gave chase to a few squirrels who invaded their territory.  Along with this, the soothing aroma of coffee drifted out on the deck from the kitchen, and as I absorbed all this imagery, the seeds of the first verse of “Saturday Morning” were planted.

 

 I got my first cup of coffee, and as I sat sipping it, I played around with some imagery and rhyme schemes, searching for a melody that would reflect the ease of a Saturday morning.  It eventually came to me, and I hummed the first verse repeatedly in my head.  When Siobhan joined me for coffee, I put the song on the back burner.  As with all my songs, I knew if it was a keeper, it would easily return.  Siobhan and I sat quietly taking in the day, and then, slowly, as usual, we started bringing up ideas that entered our minds.  I can’t remember everything we talked about that day, but I know our music was one of the topics because it appears in the second verse of the song.  The lyrics suggest we discussed new ideas for our music, which is often one of the major focuses of our discussions.

 

 When the coffee pot was empty and the sun was high in the sky, we concluded our session and started getting into the day.  I retreated to my computer because “Saturday Morning” came back into my mind.  I wrote the second and third verse, a recap of what just had occurred on our deck, and then I concentrated on the chorus.  Since the reflection and dialogue meetings always allowed me to be completely free and totally me, I depicted these thoughts in the chorus, and brought “Saturday Morning” to fruition.

 

“Saturday Morning” is pure Americana.  It is a free-flowing upbeat tune describing an approach to life that will enrich it.  The song encourages you to take some time out for reflective thinking, a process of assessing your past, present, and future.  Such a practice will rejuvenate your soul and give it the juice it needs to keep going.  In addition to promoting reflective thinking, the song also reinforces the importance of sucking the marrow out of every possible moment you can.  The more you can do this, the more fulfilled your life will be.  Siobhan and I recorded this song without the help of any studio musicians.  In addition to our basic sound of the guitar, harmonica, vocals, and bass, I gave the recording some depth by dubbing in some additional harmonies, an electric guitar, and blending harmonicas.    Big thanks to Rich Cooley, a friend and neighbor who recorded us in his home studio, and big thanks to Siobhan for mixing and mastering the song and doing the artwork for the album.

“Saturday Morning” was initially inspired by the setting of the back yard of our old house, and our current home has similar ingredients to encourage reflective thinking.  The backyard setting of the current home continues to let my imagination develop thousands of possibilities, especially   with the arrival of the pandemic in March of 2020. The reflection and dialogue sessions Siobhan and I enjoy have taken us down some new and rewarding paths.  We play fewer shows, but we record more in our little home studio.  A concert series we hosted at a couple of local restaurants has moved to our back yard because of the arrival of Covid-19.  Right now, it is our goal to continue to develop our own music, and in addition to showcasing our contemporary songwriting friends, we have our sights set on some of the younger players who have taken the music baton and are running extremely well with it.  Hope to catch up with you at one of the concerts in our back yard or at one of our shows.  If you are a long-distance friend, you can stream our songs online.

 

Lyrics:

Verse 1

Saturday morning out on our deck

Warmth of the sun hits the back of our necks

Shades of green make a living room floor

Who could ask for more

A gentle breeze ripples leaves on the trees

Birds and bees hum their sweet melodies

Smell of coffee drifts through the back door

Who could ask for more

Chorus

It’s Saturday morning

A time so easy and free

It’s Saturday morning

A time just for me to be me

Verse 2

We sip some coffee, start to reflect

Let out our troubles, and then reconnect

Refine the dreams we’ve talked of before

Who could ask for more

Cross the country in a little van

Spread our music throughout this land

Share our lives with the rich and the poor

Who could ask for more

Chorus

Instrumental Break

Verse 3

The morning fades and we must go

Time for us to get on with the show

But now our spirits have been restored

Who could ask for more

Here is something I’d like you to do

Set some moments aside just for you

Life will be much less of a chore

You won’t ask for more

Chorus, twice

Instrumental

 

Here is a link to the song on YouTube.  It’s an auto generated video created FOR YouTube by CD Baby, our distributor.  If an ad appears when the link opens, click to dismiss it, and the song will start.  Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRotsJJ9Y4s&list=PLmaM3h4AoHN-pRSCzG9xMGkJuCeDDLaf4&index=9

If you Prefer, you can stream this song on all the major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime, etc.