“Dance of Paradise” has a very short life span compared to many of my other pieces. I had recently re-attached my guitar cables, and in the course of confirming that the recording equipment was working on an instrument-by-instrument basis, I decided to throw down a drum beat, and island-inspired dance beat, and see if I could whip up a commercially viable piece of music in a relatively short time period. This was in May of 2021.

I’m pleased to report that it took three days plus another to come up with everything you hear on what I eventually titled “Dance of Paradise.” First–if it sounds like that old Six Flags commercial, that’s not a coincidence. It’s supposed to have that appeal. I tried to structure it so it had sections that would fit together as 15- to 30- to 60-second chunks of music, like you wanted to use it for a commercial for something, or for the closing credits of something, or even the opening theme song to something.

The first day was recording and then quantizing the drum track. The bulk of everything was tracked on day two. Day three involved re-recording the violin and then mixing. Day four, which came months later, involving overdubbing acoustic guitars and adding a conga track (to double the bongos track, for some extra rhythm groove goodness).

Its two original working titles were “Plains of Marathon” and then “Plains of Abraham.” At one point, I devised an amusing partial lyric wherein the protagonist met a lovely Quebecois woman at a pub in historic downtown Quebec City, but her boyfriend didn’t show, and he found himself escorting her across the Plains of Abraham. But eventually, the name of “Dance of Paradise” won out.

Here it is, accompanied by its Winamp EQ, “Dance of Paradise.”

The post The Story: Dance of Paradise appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

Well, I’ll get the lyrics part out of the way first:

(I want) a wonderful time
(To be) going on
I want a wonderful time to be going on (repeat)
I want a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time (repeat, etc.)
[and at one point:]
I want a wonderful time to be going on
I want a wonderful time, good God, come on!

As for the recording of the piece, it occurred to me on a lark one morning in July of 2020. I’d thought of something: what happens if you try to play the melody of “Wonderful Time” as if the song is in B minor? So that the chord progression just goes Bm, E, Bm E, back and forth, such that the chorus now becomes I and IV in B minor as oppposed to II and V in A major?

That’s where “Wonderful Time, Part 2” comes from. I came up with the piano part based on that idea. And then, not long after that, I thought about what to do for a second verse, and I decided to see if I could teach myself the same melody and harmony on classical guitar.

That’s where “Wonderful Time, Part 2” comes from. Then I got the idea of writing out all the orchestration as software instrument tracks and keeping it around as a demo for about a year and a half after recording the first few base tracks. It’s actually very easy to tell what was recorded when: I started growing my current beard in the Fall of 2020, so anything where I’ve grown a beard is from sessions that took place in the Winter of 2021. Those sessions took place while I was recovering from a particularly bad knee sprain and was receiving workman’s comp. (It was the most pain I’ve ever felt.)

Here’s me playing most of the instruments on “Wonderful Time, Part 2”: drums, timbales, bass guitar, synthesizer, classical guitar, piano, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, and trombone.

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This one’s kind of interesting, because it brings up a whole big, personal phenomenon in the development of my songwriting. At a point in my early twenties, it occurred to me that the emotional content of my expression seemed excessively negative, and at its worst, whiny.

I had a feeling that eventually I’d start getting my act (shit) together, so I told myself I’d just hang on to song stems as they occurred to me, and I wouldn’t get too married to any kind of lyrical meaning attached to the musical idea, unless it represented something which I knew would be worth keeping (i.e. would be good) in the long run.

This one came along in about 2010 or so, but might have had seeds dating back to 2008. I think I wrote it on my father’s Martin acoustic in its first guise, in terms of its tune and instrumentation–I wanted it to be something I could play solo with just an acoustic and vocal.. I was having a hard time there just now, remembering how it came to be, but I see now that I didn’t write this in its fullness until after I completed Essence of Being Mastery in 2016. That was when I first starting giving myself permission to write again.

This was written to be beautiful and uplifting, and I don’t know if it requires much in the way of explanation, other than to say that we’re all here on our own, special, challenging life journey, and the goal is to get better.

Verse 1:
The road it twists and turns now
But with each bend you learn how
To be even more of who you are
And I believe in you
And you’ll pull through
And there’ll be times when it gets harder
To keep going farther
But I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
And you’ll find your way back home

Verse 2:
The path it looks so dark now
But deep within your heart now
I know there’s a light that shines so bright
‘Cause I believe in you
And you’ll come through
And there’ll be times your heart gets wounded
But you’ll make it through it
‘Cause I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
And you’ll find your way back home

Bridge:
And on this road we’re walking
The wind it blows so cold
I’ll put my arms around you
And give my hand to hold
‘Cause I believe in you
And you’ll pull through
Just keep your eyes on the path of love

Verse 3:
We’ve come a long, long way now
And there’ll be another day now
When we reach the end of this long road
‘Cause I believe in you
And we’ll come to
A new world that’s free and giving
Where true love is living
I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
And we’ll find our way back home

Coda:
I believe in you
I believe in you
Just keep your eyes on the path of love
Just keep your eyes on the path of love

Here’s me recording the original vocal on the track, “I Believe in You,” from 2022’s Self Confidence, with lyrics subtitled.

The post Story & Lyrics: I Believe in You appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This one is actually a rather old song of mine. It originally had a completely different set of lyrics, oriented around the chorus hook, “easy for you,” and that’s what it was called, “Easy For You.” I wrote it in January of 2000 while smoking a lot of weed, on a Vox Jaguar organ stationed in my family’s TV room with a manual typewriter on top, on which I wrote its first set of lyrics and chords. It grew out of messing around with chords on the organ.

By the time 2020 rolled around, I had another idea–what if this happy-sounding tune had nice lyrics, like where the guy actually wants to end up with the girl? It happened that there was a very lovely young woman around at the time that made me want to say things very much like these lyrics to her. Sadly, because of reasons related to my own mental health challenges and post-traumatic stress disorder, I didn’t get to say these things to her, and it died an awful, uncomfortable death.

But before it did, I really did feel like saying these lyrics to her. I also feel like I owe her a crazy huge apology.

Verse 1:
You’ve waited around when you don’t really need to
So I’ll call you up ’cause I want you to speak to
Just tell me you want my time
And I’ll make you feel glad you’re mine

Chorus 1:
‘Cause tell you what I want
To be there with you
Be there with you

Verse 2:
There’s something about you my heart wants to tell me
There’s something about you that seems to compel me
To make you my only one
And make love when our day is done

Chorus 2:
‘Cause tell you want I want
To be there with you
Be there with you
Be there with you

Chorus 3:
Tell you want I want
To be there with you
Be there with you
Be there with you
I’ll be there with you

Chorus 4:
Tell you want I want
To be there with you
Be there with you
I’ll be there with you
I’ll be there with you

Here’s Daniel playing all the instruments on “Be There with You,” from YouTube.

The post Story & Lyrics: Be There with You appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This song is quite special to me, personally. The tune and chords for the verses and chorus were “given” to me–basically channeled to me–in the summer of 2018. The feeling at the time was that the summer was winding down, and grown up time was about to begin. The original vocal hook I had in my head for the chorus was: “It’s been a hell of a time / But it’s over now”.

But I didn’t write this one until January of 2020, and by that time I was in a very special place in my personal spiritual development. (My apologies to the “rationalist-skeptic” types out there, but I do experience channeling-type things you wouldn’t be able to experience yourself and therefore couldn’t know about.)

This is one of those ones where I’m not going to explain very much other than to suggest two themes: one, the Law of Attraction, as taught by Esther Hicks, and this notion–that I had so many things visible before me that it was overwhelming and it was going to take some time even to just gather together what it was I needed to do first.

The line “Another thing that I want, and I’ll take some more time / Dreaming of a lifetime waking, and I feel so good” was channeled to me. I received that whole section, and “knowing I could” just slipped right on to the end as the perfect button in response. I had left it dangling at “Someday, I’ll see…” and Source responded immediately with those lines. It was beautiful and amazing.

The lyrics:

Verse 1:

I’ve got something inside and I can’t deny it
Everything I want is coming and I know it’s good
I know that I should
And there’s another one there and I can’t decide it
What’s it gonna take? I wonder what it’s going to be
Here within me

Chorus 1:
I want a wonderful time
To be coming on
I’ve got a lot to do
And I’ll see it through
I want a wonderful time
To be going on

Verse 2:
And I see where I am and I see what’s coming
Everything I see will happen if I see it through
What will I do?
‘Cause I can look so far and it makes me wonder
Where’s it gonna lead to? When’s it gonna all come true?
I’ll say it to you

Chorus 2:
I want a wonderful time
To be coming on (There it is again)
I’ve got a lot to do
And I’ll see it through (I’m in love again)
I want a wonderful time
To be going on (Here I am again)

Bridge:
Dreams I have I see them coming true
And I see more coming
Seems to be the way I want it to
And another comes, and another one’s coming

Verse 3:
And I know that it feels like it takes a long time
So I’ll just be happy knowing that it comes to be
Someday I’ll see
Another thing that I want and I’ll take some more time
Dreaming of a lifetime waking and I feel so good
Knowing I could

(Chorus 3 and 4)

Here’s video of me recording the original lead vocal of “Wonderful Time,” with the lyrics as subtitles.

The post Story & Lyrics: Wonderful Time appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This one has a weird history. Its genesis was a hot July afternoon in 1999. It was one of those instances where I’d decided to set out a challenge for myself: how fast could I compose and record a song completely from scratch, using 12-string guitar, banjo, bass, drums, vocals, and tambourine?

The answer was 90 minutes. That’s how long it took to complete the original version of this song, which was originally a different first verse, and the verse that is now the first verse was the second verse. There was not yet a bridge, just a brief instrumental break on the banjo where the vocal bridge would eventually reside.

I re-recorded this version with the 2000-01 batch of re-recorded songs, and then I dreamed up a new demo with an added bridge sometime during the period 2003-04, a demo recording which I have since lost. That demo was turned into a lo-fi produced version from 2006’s compact disc, Fit for Consumption.

This new version came about during my spiritual upgrade period of early 2020. I added a new second verse, and adds another layer to it. The lyrics “someone else has got the same weird fun as you” were channeled from Source.

The lyrics:

Verse 1:

Hearts beat out of time
I’ll tell you the meaning, if you wanna know
Fire just cannot light, and nothing is pleasin’
But then you find that crimson rose
Standing out in a field of grey
You find a way
And then you try again
And all the walls just crumble down
And the dust clears out to stay
You found a way
To do it again

Bridge:
If you wanna know
What makes the world go ’round
You’ve got to find your way
On your own ground
And every day
You do it again
And do it again
And do it again
And do it again

Verse 2:
Life keeps passing by
I’ll tell you the meaning, if you wanna know
Somewhere deep inside, a light there is beaming
And all around you, someone else
Has got the same weird fun as you
It’s what we do
And so you try again
And then you’re back up on your feet
And your life’s brand new today
You found a way
To do it again

Here’s me recording the original vocals with the lyrics as subtitles.

The post Story & Lyrics: If You Wanna Know appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This is a weird one. It has a very weird origin. The first batch of songs I tried recording made it to digital multi-track audio in summer of 1998. Later that year, during the Christmas break from school, I had borrowed a keyboard from my high school, and it occurred to me to set out a challenge for myself. I had recently read Richie Unterberger’s book, Unknown Legends of Rock ‘N’ Roll, and I had read about how Alexander “Skip” Spence had emerged from Belmont and recorded all the instruments and vocals for his 1969 album Oar in one week, and that the album had a “spooked-out, bare-light-bulb-in-a-room” feel to them.

With that, I set out of a mission for myself–I would record a complete album in one week, or at least, before I had to return the keyboard to the high school, so I could use the electronic piano sound on it. The first track was recorded on December 25, 1998, and the final track, an overture comprised of pieces of the other tracks, was recorded on January 1, 1999. There were three instrumentals, seven vocal songs, ten tracks in total, about forty minutes long. I mixed it without reverb so it would have a very sparse, lo-fi sound to it.

The songs turned out to be this emotional bildungsroman, with an emotional story arc to them, and this song, “Holiday,” represented a period where the protagonist was admitting that his current period of self-indulgence was admittedly an avoidance of responsibility for one’s self as well as one’s responsibilities towards others.

I re-recorded this one in 2000-01, then again in Fall 2018-Winter 2019, and then again in March, 2020, and I finished that version in May, 2020. That’s what’s on 2022’s Self Confidence. The chords have evolved slightly over the years. If I ever get the inspiration to re-record that teenage bildungsroman album as a weird lo-fi project, I’d be re-doing this one with its original rock band arrangement, with electric piano and organ, and heavy on drum fills.

The lyrics:

Verse 1
The days have almost reached that time of year
And when that time is coming near
It feels like all the things I feel will soon be gone
That feeling I get, it’s one of a kind
It’s as if I’m about to find
All the required peace of mind to carry on

Chorus:
I’m going on a holiday and everyone can come
I’m going on a holiday and everyone can come

Verse 2:
It seems just like a sentimental dream
Inside which everybody seems
To be replenished and redeemed all by themselves
The smiles on the faces all around
And all the happy, laughing sounds
A place where nobody is down or needs my help

(Chorus)

Bridge:
I’ll fall asleep in the sunshine
I’ll play in the snow
The weather’s always perfect
No matter where you go
There may not be perfection
But this is close enough
Whatever dreams are made of
I think this is the stuff

Verse 3:
I almost hate to think this time will end
Because there’s no better way to spend
A lifetime with no pains to mend or soothe or heal
For time here seems to drift off into space
Because there’s something in this place
For which I can’t seem to erase the way I feel

(Chorus)

Here’s a video of “Holiday” with the lyrics as subtitles, and with Winamp’s EQ as its display.

The post Story & Lyrics: Holiday appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

I wrote this one in two pieces, basically… I remember having the Em main guitar riff and the hook “What’s Her Name,” first, and I had that as the stub sometime when I was fifteen years old. I finished it when I first took a stab at recording rudimentary lo-fi demos in 1998, when I was eighteen. There was a clean version recorded on what would become 2001’s compact disc, Teenage Songs, Vol. 1, which was intended to have a second volume, but never did.

Nothing really special about the writing of this one to me, other than I figured it would only ever work if I had a good backing band that could do good things with the instrumental breaks. It was never written about anyone in particular–more like all of them in general. That one or that one or that one. I was not good back then.

The lyrics:

Verse 1:

What’s her name
What’s her name
I see her walking by every morning
Occasionally I see her smile
Her eyes never seem to look around
But she can see me staring all the while
There she goes
There she goes
She’s always trying to look like she don’t notice
All the eyes that always stare her way
I talk to someone, trying to get to know her
But their answer always is the same, they say,

Chorus:

“What’s her name, you know I’ve seen her before,
“As she walks on by, I wish I could know more,
“Where’s she going, in all her hurried grace,
“Though she’s come and gone, I’m almost satisfied
“Just to see her face”

Verse 2:

There she stands
There she stands
Her eyes staring in her own direction
They don’t see me as I walk her way
She’s got no use for making conversation
As I speak she slyly turns away
There she goes
There she goes
I feel grateful for our brief encounter
But still she leaves me unfulfilled
I keep hoping that she’ll turn around
But something tells me that she never will

(Chorus 2)

(Chorus 3)

Here’s video of me tracking all the main instruments on “What’s Her Name,” as recorded on my 2022 debut album, Self Confidence. I do harmonica, vocals, guitars, organ, bass, and drums.

The post Story & Lyrics: What’s Her Name appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

So much so, that I hereby completely disown the old version of this song, and I know there are recordings of it out there and I don’t care much for that fact. The big reason is that the old one was a cryptic-poetic downer, like a real, real, downer, about how I hated having to put myself out there as a creative despite being told by naysayers that I’m not as good as people who are better than me. And I really didn’t want to sing that anymore, so I came up with something new.

I decided to go for a juicy love song, and now that I’m not married anymore, I can be honest about the source of the inspiration for this song. I was with the woman I’d marry, living with her as my girlfriend and life-partner and future fiance/wife, but across a crowded lecture hall, there she was–this absolutely gorgeous brunette with whom I was instantly captivated. And just to make it extra juicy–she looked right back and seemed to be affected, enough that she tried to get near me on the way out.

I’m of the disposition that I cannot cheat on my partner/wife/spouse/mate because I cannot live with a situation where there’s a woman out there who could honestly tell my live-in, “I fucked your boyfriend.” So I never, never spoke to this girl, because the only reason I’d be speaking to this girl is because she is so goddamn incredibly gorgeous and I’m meant to love her to the ends of the earth, or something like that. There was one time she ended up right across from me on the 5C West Hamilton bus. I kept my headphones on, but, man on man, was she ever beautiful, and she’d been eyeing me for some time now. But I was no cheater.

A few years later, I’d see this beautiful young woman on CP24 doing TTC updates. Her name was Jessica Martin, and she was eventually the Communications Lead for the Toronto Transit Authority, and she was a transit-traffic reporter for years. And I swear–she’s prettier in person than on TV or in photos. I mean it.

Anyway–I decided to conjure up a nice, idealistic version of that moment when I elected to write new lyrics for this song. Here they are.

Verse 1:

Well you were there across the room
And I knew that I was seeing someone special
I couldn’t believe it
And then your eyes looked back at mine
Could it be that you were trying to see who’s looking?
And it happened
And there it was I saw the sign
That very soon would come the time
That I’d be saying, “Nice to meet you,
“Care to join me for a while?”

Chorus:

We can fall in love right here tonight
We can fall in love and feel so right
And I know I’ve seen the light
Now you and I are lovers at first sight

Verse 2:

Well now we’re here and wouldn’t you know
That there’s a magic kind of feeling here between us
Like it’s easy
Like there’s nothing to pretend
And we can’t believe the hand that life could deal us
Hearts and diamonds
And here it is, I see the sign
That very soon will come the time
I’ll see you smiling, and I’ll know that
We’ll be making love tonight

(Chorus 2)

Bridge:
There you were across the room
There and all at once we knew
There you were and know I now
I’m meant to be right here with you

Verse 3:
Well now we’re here and time has passed
And I find that I’m still moved each time I see you
I can’t believe it
And as I build a world with you
I know it’s going to be the two of us for always
In love forever
And as our lives go on I find
That now and then there comes a time
I’ll look into your eyes
And fall in love at seeing you again

(Chorus 3)

Here’s video of me recording the original vocals, with lyrics as subtitles:

The post Story & Lyrics: Lovers at First Sight appeared first on Daniel Butterfield Music.

This song dates back to a real-life incident that took place, I’m quite sure, in 1995, when I was fifteen years old. I’m on my way to a high-school baseball game, and I’m in the front passenger seat of the car. At a red light, a car pulls up, and there’s a pretty teenage girl inside, and she gives me a big old smile.

A few seconds later, the light turns green, the car pulls away, and we continue on. Later that night, I wrote down the verses, with chords and lyrics. I had played the guitar for about a year at that point, so it was pretty easy to generate.

There’s one significant difference in this new version I’ve recorded–instead of:
A / / / G / / / A / / / G / / / / for the verses, it now goes
A / / / Bm / G / A / / / Bm / G /
and just for fun, I decided to keep the melody the same. It creates a temporary sense of dissonance (or non-resonance, or odd-resonance, or unresolved-resonance) until the B minor chord kicks in at the end of the first line of each verse.

I first recorded a grungy demo of this song in 1998, and a clean version in 2000-01. I tracked this one in the fall of 2021. I re-wrote the lyrics in this new one to reflect a sense of hopefulness. The old lyric in the chorus was “I write down these words / That’s the closest I’ll ever get to her.” At least in this version, I know there’s a cute girl around town somewhere and I might run into her at a bar or somewhere. Far more hopeful.

The lyrics:

Verse 1:

Driving down the street
In the passenger seat
I look out my window I see your face

Catching your eye
I think I’m gonna die
I’m caught staring helpless in your gaze

I break out a smile
I wish that we could talk for a while
I’d take your hand
And hope that soon I’d be your man

Verse 2 & 3:

Green light drive away
So much for today
My dream moves on like the evening sun
So soon I’ll forget
The girl I’ve never met
At least that’s what I thought ’til the day was done

She’s still on my mind
I wish there’s a way her I could find
So I’ll look around
I know there’s a love for me here in town

The lyrics video, with vocals, keyboard solo, and guitar solo:

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