Mark Shepard: Singer Songwriter

Summary Of An Ending-Song 022

September 17, 2010 By Mark

“Life In Song” #22: Summary Of An Ending – I had had the deepest crush on this girl named Jackie who had several other guys also interested in her…eventually I “got” that it wasn’t gonna happen and this song is about the letting go and coming to terms that the other person was a good person but the romance was not meant to me. Since this song is in a tuning that I haven’t used anywhere else, it kind of slipped away. I remembered the basic melody and mood but I had to recreate the guitar part from scratch. This is the only recording of this song. Once again, this is the underlying purpose of “A Life In Song”, to preserve and share the songs that otherwise would disappear…
I particularly like the image of:

“You used to make me feel like the 4th of July
Like carnivals, parades and rockets
Lately I’ve been feeling like the uncounted change
Forgotten in the depths of your pockets…”

Can you relate?

PLEASE! Use headphones or decent speakers to listen to this instead of your tinny little computer speakers. It’s recorded in crystal clear digital sound and the headphones really make a difference!

Video:

Audio:

To get a downloadable mp3 file for your personal use Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project.

Lyrics:

Summary Of An Ending | July 1978 | Song #22

Speaking as if across a room
Of never touching people
What you say is lost between the lines
Hidden behind all kinds of signs
Back in our beginning
We were never really sure
How much of each other
We wanted to explore
I soon thought you were my valentine
But you had other things on your mind
One of them was traveling
The other was lack of time

Refrain:
So I feel like a stranger
With the one I thought I’d known
I’d heard tales of this kind of thing
But this time it hit home…

You used to make me feel like the 4th of July
Like carnivals, parades and rockets
Lately I’ve been feeling like the uncounted change
Forgotten in the depths of your pockets

So I’ll sing the hymns of the asphalt
And I’ll close the book of you
I’ll read the pages of someone else
And she can read my pages too

Refrain:

Well it’s time for this song to be over
And I have no regrets at all
I think I finally realized
We’ve climbed different garden walls
I sincerely wish you the best
With what the future may send
I honestly hope your traveling
Has a happy end

Refrain:

Tuning: EBDGBE

“Summary of an Ending” by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
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Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project as well as the many CD’s I’ve recorded over the years that few people have heard either…

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Adolescent Blues-Song 021

September 16, 2010 By Mark

"Life In Song" #21: "Adolescent Blues" is a humorous look back on childhood and early teen experiences from the perspective of the soon to graduate high school senior that I was in 1978. The 1st verse refers to my childhood friend Mike McTygue. The 2nd verse describes a bit of what it was like at my grandparents house in Western NY (the source of many bug phobias). And the 3rd verse make reference to a certain girl who introduced me to...um...let's say "several new experiences". "Hester's Pearl is a reference to "The Scarlet Letter" which we all had to read in 9th grade...

PLEASE! Use headphones or decent speakers to listen to this instead of your tinny little computer speakers. It's recorded in crystal clear digital sound and the headphones really make a difference!

Video:

Audio:

To get a downloadable mp3 file for your personal use Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project.

Lyrics:

Adolescent Blues | May 1978 | Song #21

Chorus:
I got those Adolescent blues
The time in life to choose
Between religion, women and booze

But let’s put that aside for a while
And go back in time
To me and Mikie on the dirt pile
We had our match box cars
Never dreamed of hopping bars
Oh no, no, no, no
We had our share of playground fights
Hot summer nights,
Hide and go seek with flashlights
And our cowboy hats
Went well with baseball bats
As I remember….

Chorus:

And it ain’t so long ago
We’d go to grandma’s a lot
Be it rain, sleet, hail or snow
There were fields of cows and wheat
And plenty of good things to eat
Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmm, mmmmmmm
There were varmints all around
Creeping and crawlin’, crawlin’ all over the ground
Caterpillars and bees
Seemed to have an affection for me that continues
To this day…

Chorus:

And as I squint back through the haze
Of courtship clichés
Locker steaming high school days
I can see one wild girl
Surely she was Hester’s Pearl
Uh, huh, huh, huh
My voice was changing at the time
She said her heart would break if I dumped her…
When she dumped me I broke mine
Well I’m ready to enter the world now
I just need someone to please
Tell me how…

Chorus:

Tuning: Standard

"Adolescent Blues" by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
.
Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project as well as the many CD's I've recorded over the years that few people have heard either...

Filed Under: Funny Songs, Life In Song 1970's

Born To Dance-Song 020

September 13, 2010 By Mark

"Life In Song" #20: Born To Dance is a lot of firsts. It's the first significant love song I wrote. It's also the first song that really opened up what I could do on the guitar accompaniment. This guitar part is light years beyond anything I'd done before. I was smitten with a young lady named Jackie Lieberman who was also being pursued by a couple of other guys. Hence the idea that I had to wait my turn to dance. I think ultimately the girl was less important at that time than the idea of being in love. I was lonely and socially awkward. I was constantly put into the "friend zone" by the girls I wanted to date. In other words the same story as a gazillion other guys in high school (and life) who weren't "naturals" with women. Anyway, I sang this song for my girlfriend the other day and all these years later it still conveyed exactly the right kind of emotion. Hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed playing it.
PLEASE NOTE: There is a BONUS early studio version of this song in the Back Stage Pass members area so join it if you haven't already.

PLEASE! Use headphones or decent speakers to listen to this instead of your tinny little computer speakers. It's recorded in crystal clear digital sound and the headphones really make a difference!

Video:

Audio:

To get a downloadable mp3 file for your personal use Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project.

Lyrics:

Born To Dance | May 1978 | Song #20

I am a part of the darkness
Of the dust and of the ice
I travel to you from that great unknown
They call poetic device
I’ve walked the tightrope of social acceptance
And I found that it wasn’t for me
So I learned to journey into myself
And my choreography

I was born to be a dancer
I do it all the time
I dance in the upstairs room
Where my words don’t have to rhyme

I see by the way that you move
That you are a dancer too
Perhaps we can share a few of our steps
And the joys of risking anew
And although I want to be near you
I don’t want to step on your toes
So it would help if you’d softly tell me
When I’m getting to close

Your were born to be a dancer
I see it all the time
You dance in the open air
Where your words just naturally rhyme

I feel like I’m drowning in contradictions
‘Cause I sometimes can’t dance without you
But I know that if I ever held you too tight
Our love would not be as true
And I want to be able to give to you
Without asking a thing in return
So if someone else asks you to dance
I’ll try to, try to, try to, wait my turn…

We were born to dance
Come on let’s do it one more time
Let’s dance inside and out
With or without the rhyme

Tuning: EADGGD

"Born To Dance" by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
.
Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project as well as the many CD's I've recorded over the years that few people have heard either...