Week 3 - SAC Songwriting Challenge - Time to Experiment

Week 3 - SAC Songwriting Challenge - Time to Experiment

Half way though our songwriting challenge: this week we're to identify our songwriting ruts, and write a song that breaks out of our normal routine.

This one was a little more difficult for me. When it comes to song forms I've written in both verse, chorus style, and AABA type songs. So song content would be my focus.

I've never written a patriotic song before (actually it was my co-writers idea); and I wasn't sure that I wanted to....that we could say something relevant or different. It was my first time writing with him. He had composed some music that he thought would suit, so we decided to explore it. I told him a story about the first time I crossed the border from Vancouver into Blaine, Washington. There was a flag flying at half mast in Blaine. When I inquired at the local store about it, they said that one of their boys had died in Vietnam. So that American flag became the focus of our song. We would weave a story around it of a young man coming back home. 

https://soundcloud.com/midnight-mama-music/that-old-flag



That Old Flag
© 2014....John Condrone,Lucy LeBlanc,

VERSE
Rounding the corner by Bingham's Hardware store
Three years and nothing's changed since I was here before
And there's that dairy queen where me and Ricky hid
Right after we threw those cherry bombs on top of that old dumpster lid
Across the street is the school where we used to go
the stars and stripes are hangin' halfway down the pole

CHORUS
That old flag is standing lonely
against the Grey Georgia sky
It keeps speaking to me
And my heart just wonders why
It seems like time is standing still
And the years have come and gone
But, that old flag keeps waving on and on

VERSE
Head on down the street beside the railroad track
all those childhood memories are quickly coming back
Down by the river, across that one lane bridge
I just passed that cottonwood where I got my first kiss
Turn down that dirt road that leads to Daddy's home
There above that picket fence half way up the pole (Chorus)

CHORUS
That old flag is standing lonely
against the Grey Georgia sky
It keeps speaking to me
And my heart just wonders why
It seems like time is standing still
And the years have come and gone
But, that old flag keeps waving on and on

BRIDGE
Daddy threw his arms around me
tears welled up in his eyes
he said Ricky won't be coming home this time
thats when I realized



CHORUS
That old flag is standin' tall and proud
Against that grey Georgia sky
and I hear every word it says
My heart fills up with pride
When the battles over and the dust is almost gone
That old flag keeps waving on and on