But Not Before We Say Goodnight

Music & Lyrics by Jeremy Yew & Betty Chen(2007)


You can tell me stories ‘bout your quiet little life
Share with me the deepest secrets that you hide inside
We could lie like this forever ‘neath the starry sky
But not before we say goodnight.

Lying here beside you makes my heart feel so alive.
There’s no fear to fight, the stars are shining oh so bright
(And) We could talk forever till the sun creeps up the sky
But not before we say goodnight.

Holding on to Time
Never let it out of sight
For we’ll never know when Fate is kind.

We could spend our lives together, (that would be so nice)
Spending each and every night, (just list’ning to your voice)
Then we’ll fall asleep contented, (I am yours, you’re mine)
But not before we say goodnight.

(Presented in entirety on SSC 4th, 27 July 2007)


Music composed by Jeremy and presented during 1st session of Songcraft Songwriting Circle (April 2007).
Before presenting the music then, Jeremy told us the title (as above) and the first line which he thought of,
"You can tell me stories about your quiet little life"

I liked the music immediately upon hearing it.
Thought it was rather Musical a tune.
And I thought the first line falls nicely with the tune.
(It's such a sweet line, dontcha think?)

Pity that was it - melody for the 1st verse and the first lyric line.
Jeremy never continued with the tune.
Much to my surprise (disappointment too, heh).

We both mentioned about a collaboration some time ago.
I thought of this tune one day.
Expressed my desire to fill in the missing words.
So I started work on the lyrics and Jeremy started work on the music.

*

I decided to keep the first line - since it fits so well, why not?
Then I thought of all the little things that lovers share with each other and thus the second line.
Suddenly a scene from a movie - Before Sunrise, appeared and you could say it was an inspiration for I started thinking along that direction.

Thus the "lying here beside you", "underneath the starry sky", "sun creeps up the sky" phrases in the verses.

Since it's a song about two people, I decided to make this a duet, giving the second verse to the female. Not sure if you noticed, but the second verse is more emotional - "makes my heart feel", "no fear to fight" and
feminine - "talk forever".

*

By this time, Jeremy came up with the Middle8 section.
I thought it was a nice tune for the two characters to sing so I wrote lyrics that express what both were thinking.

Initially I was stuck on the last 2 lines because I already thought the first 2 lines were too cheesy to go on.
(Sorry if this offends anyone who's written love songs with lines similar to mine, please ignore me. My tolerance for Cheesiness is VERY low)

The previous lines were

For we'll never know
When's the next time

Which doesn't really fit nicely and grammatically.
But I couldn't think of anything else so left it as it is.

*

The third verse is quite a funny situation for I could only think of the first part for each line.
Just when I thought I couldn't go on, a thought came to mind (perhaps from listening to many Disney duets?) and it hit me that it'd be nice to have the male and female take turns to sing. Therefore the words in brackets for the female.

I like to think of it as the female interrupting the male in her excitement :)

*

Since Jeremy suggested the singing arrangement and harmonisation, I gave further thought to how we could bring the execution to a higher level.

Thought humming would be nice because it gives the feeling of being relaxed and comfortable.
(However in the recording we sang in "da" cos humming wouldn't be heard clearly in that setting)

Tinkled around on the piano and came up with the harmonisation.
Female harmonises 3rd and 4th line of the verse-melody rather than take turns with male cos I thought having the female continue after her higher line (3rd) would be nicer.

Don't like a whole verse being harmonised therefore only the last line of the Middle8 section is harmonised.

*

While typing the lyrics to send to Jeremy (but still feeling dissatisfied with the cheesy last Middle8 line), I had a brainwave and thus the finalised line.

(A cheesy one, may I add... Sorry again, anything that talks about Fate is cheesy for me)

*
Veryvery pleased and satisfied with this song.
And greatly encouraged by the comments made by the group (someone commented it's very Disney!) but what struck me most was That Look they had on their faces after we finished presenting the song - touched by Magic.
Disney Magic, perhaps? HAHA.

This is one song which I definitely want to do a proper recording of.
Partly cos I wanna hear how the humming would sound like.

Listen to the recording of this work here.