LENNIE
GALLANT – WHEN WE GET THERE
Notes
on the songs
(Print
in pdf format)
THE
GYPSY WIND
I
think of this song on two levels in a way….In one sense,
parts of the song are drawn from an ocean passage I made as
part of a crew on the schooner Avenger. Three of us sailed this
ship, captained by my friend Tom Gallant (very distant relation)
from Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia to the Caribbean by way of Bermuda,
where Tom would charter it for the winter months. I helped him
sail it down a couple of times, then I’d fly back up to
the real world of the Canadian cold front again. We had a few
adventures (including breaking a foremast after a gale), several
storms, one hurricane, and a few strange occurrences. One night
while we were south of Bermuda, at about two thirty in the morning,
I was doing my turn at the helm and I heard what sounded like
a choir singing (it sounded a bit like about 30 Neil Young’s
singing the first 4 notes of “Helpless” over and
over again.) I lashed the helm and went looking for the source
of the sound but could find nothing to explain it. When Tom,
the captain, came up to relieve me at about 3 AM, I asked if
he could hear anything, and he replied it sounded like he could
hear a choir. We both sat there rather mystified and listened
to that sound for a while. The scene shows up in a line in the
song about a choir sounding like ghosts (of the “triangle”)
who had been here before...
On another level…I kind of see the song as a metaphorical
thing describing one’s departure from a kind of fear,
polarization, or an inability to move forward (or move on)....whether
that fear is of the unknown, or of something like failure (oh
gawd!) or just trying something you don’t know anything
about …I leave that to the listener to interpret. It seemed
like a good song to start with on this journey. (This is the
only song that I previously recorded in French on “Le
Vent Bohéme.”) - Lennie
SEVEN YEARS
When
someone told me it was seven years since I had released a studio
album in English, I almost fell off my chair. I “have“put
out a couple of albums since the last studio effort, one in
French and Live album so I certainly have felt busy, but the
time is due for this one and given the time line, this song
had to get on there….I even toyed with the idea of calling
the album 7 years except that it turned out my good friend Pamela
Morgan (of Newfoundland) had called her beautiful album of a
couple years ago by that name. I wanted to get kind of an autumn
feel with this song...haunting, stark, slightly chilled and
lost, and yet warm at the same time. – Lennie
I
WANT TO SAVE THE WORLD FOR YOU
This
is the first single for the album...As a new father of a little
girl named Amelie , 21 months this September, I must admit I
think a lot more about the environment and what kind of place
we are leaving behind for our children. Scientists the world
over are not being listened to as they are watching dramatic
indicators spelling out the environmental crises looming ahead
if we don’t take drastic measures now. I know no one likes
to be preached to, especially in music, so I thought if the
song could be lighthearted and a bit playful, maybe it might
hit home where a more serious approach would fall flat….hope
it helps make people think a bit....Amelie likes it anyway.
She danced to it the first time she heard it! I hope she can
enjoy it in her old age! – Lennie
PIECES OF YOU
This
song was originally recorded on my LIVE album with 2 acoustic
guitars only. I had so much response from this song that I wanted
to record a band and studio version of it. I am hoping to eventually
release it as a single. I wrote the lyrics on an airplane while
heading to Newfoundland to write with my friend Chris Ledrew.
I had already written the melody at my apartment and we thought
perhaps we could write the words together. I found that couldn’t
wait though and finished it on the way there …when the
muse shows up he/she takes no rain checks……sorry
about that Chris…we did write others together though...on
the Lifeline album. – Lennie
47 ANGELS ON HER FRONT LAWN
I
think this song may have been inspired by catching too many
episodes of Six Feet Under, the only TV show I like to watch
these days. A strange tale I came up with while driving by a
concrete lawn ornament factory one day. I think I was listening
to a hard luck story on the radio at the time and so... –
Lennie
THIS PERFECT KISS
This
is a rough one…..My good friend Tara MacLean lost her
younger sister Shaye in a tragic car accident a few years ago.
She and her boyfriend were driving to Montreal together…they
were very much in love…and I believe, rather at one with
the universe at the time. Shaye pulled over to the side of the
road to give her boyfriend a kiss when someone driving on the
same road was distracted with the radio or something, went onto
the shoulder as well, and hit them from behind… taking
her life (he survived.). At the very moving service, Tara and
I were talking about how some people live their whole lives
without experiencing what Shaye was probably feeling just before
the impact…and the song came from that conversation. (Tara’s
band is named after her sister.) - Lennie
IF I COULD MAKE YOUR MIND UP
As
I am a Gemini I’m not sure if I wrote this about someone
else or about me, as I have been known to believe I knew exactly
where I was going, only to wake up the next day and want to
head in the opposite direction as I knew “for certain”
that that was how it should be. It’s the damn stars you
know…have mercy on us! – Lennie
A DAY WITH YOU IN PARADISE
This
is a summer song that is a bit of an amalgamation of several
days on that perfect beach…I’d like to tell you
where it is, but, …sorry…there aren’t many
places left like this. I can tell you there is a lot of PEI
in this song…My favourite place on the planet. –
Lennie
ELEVEN ROSES
Song
inspired by showing up at the flower shop 85 cents short…This
song has been kicking around for a while. I tried recording
it for the Lifeline album, but it didn’t sound right.
When we laid it down for this one it seemed to work better,
especially when we dropped the tuning a half step and played
it in f# instead of G major. It still felt like it needed something,
I have been a fan of Denise Djokic’s cello playing for
some time and asked her if she would play on this one. Her performance
on this song never fails to move me no matter how many times
I hear it. – Lennie
I'M LEARNING HOW
(To Fall In Love With You Again)
I
used to run across broken ring songs when playing in a traditional
music band years ago (my favourite was “Germaine”
by a group named Garolou.) They are usually quite ancient beautiful
songs of 2 lovers torn apart, usually because of some war. As
these wars often lasted many years each lover took a half of
a ring as a symbol of their undying love, (and possibly a way
they might recognize each other when they next met as these
wars could sometimes go on for many years, and you know they
didn’t have eyeglasses and hearing aids back then…)
All
kidding aside, I have relatives who have lived with the aftermath
of war and sometimes the person who comes home, never gets to
be the person he once was, ever again.
I
can only imagine what kind of adjustment someone coming home
from the hell in Iraq must make these days hopefully, someday,
our leaders will be more farsighted...I wrote this song as a
modern take on this old theme. Sean Kemp must be mentioned for
the very cool violin section on this piece. He is a big part
of my live show. His wife Isabelle Fournier also plays on string
parts. She is with the Nova Scotia Symphony. – Lennie
THERE MUST BE ANOTHER SONG
My
favourite guitar is my 1954 Martin 00-18, and I play it on this
song. It’s the one I mostly go to when I’m writing
and it has given me many songs. Sometimes when composing it
seems it’s really the guitar that’s doing all the
creative work. A good friend of mine cared for and repaired
this guitar for me for many years. I had him over to dinner
one night and he talked about his life in music and the people
he had crossed paths with, worked for, or played with over the
years (including Lenny Breau and Gordon Lightfoot.). When he
left around midnight I sat down to write a song based on what
he had told me, but as I started, the song seemed to want to
write itself and suddenly I realized it wasn’t about him
at all anymore but this “other” story came out.
Since he had been the original inspiration for the song, I wanted
him to be the first to hear it anyway and sent a rough recording
to him the next morning. He sent me a message back ….asking
how I could have known that story. - Lennie
WHEN WE GET THERE
I
kind of think of this piece as the sequel to my song The Fisher
King from the Lifeline album…as long as we don’t
have all the answers, we need the questions to remind us how
little we know and how important it is to look a little further
than we have in the past...treat each other with understanding....take
care of each other and believe that someday it will all make
sense when we get there. - Lennie
THE INNKEEPER
I
got a call from a friend, Ann Marie Martin, who was going to
do some work for me south of the border and who asked if I had
any Christmas songs as she knew a high profile singer who was
about to cut a Christmas album. “Not today" I said,
“but I will Tomorrow.” Amy and I had been threatening
to work on something together and as we were in a Christmas
mood we chose to work on this one. I remember the story of the
Innkeeper from the traditional Christmas story and how it always
struck me as so hard hearted, his turning pregnant Mary and
Joseph away. Suddenly it seemed like the obvious way in to this
story …whatever happened to that guy?
The
singer never recorded it as I think she was looking for something
a bit brighter and I don’t think she thought of it as
a song for a woman to sing. I’m kind of glad about that
as I got to sing it first… I have always felt Christmas
as a time of redemption………Thanks for the call
Anne Marie.
It
should be mentioned that the gorgeous choral/angel choir voices
on the song were provided by Michelle Campagne, who possesses
one of the most beautiful and ethereal voices I have ever encountered.
Considering the story, and one of the main character’s
condition, it should also be mentioned that Michelle was 8 months
pregnant when she sang her parts, which possibly helps account
for that “something extraordinary” quality they
have. - Lennie
