FAWM: "To the King"

To the King

NSFW Skirmish: History Project (@dudachris) Challenge: MORSE CODE

Liner Notes

Combined a skirmish and weekly challenge.

I have a cassette of my grandfather doing Morse code from decades ago. I sifted through endless beeps to find a few rhythmically fun things that I made into the riffs of this song. I don't know what they mean, I don't know my letters. But the rhythm is from my grandfather who left us over a decade ago.

The story in the lyric is his story serving in WW2. With a bit of his brother's story sprinkled in.

A challenge to write and even more challenging to play. I'll need to.practice this one a lot.

#morsecode #challenge #skirmish #acoustic #rock

Lyrics

Barely grownup
Going on 43
Thrown in a hammock
And pushed out to sea

A gun and a sack
And a picture of mom
Going to fix things
Will i come home?

The birds don't sound the same
Cant hear them for the planes
Going over seas to rain down flame
In the name of the king

Props and motors
Oil and electricity
Wax then down
They’ll fly top speed

other flyers
They stop on by
They like to shoot at our windows
They're not nice guys

These birds don't sound the same
You can't hear them over the screams
over the sea to rain down flame
To defeat our King

She had my eye
But that night
Her cold eyes
Weren't right
When she looked out
They shot the light

The birds don't sound the same
Even now I can hear them clearly
This goddamn war brings nothing but pain
There's no queen. I have no king.

Comments

@dudachris 1w

Dude this is a greatly improved take. There's a lot of impressive things happening here, I think the quality of the progression and playing on the chorus "birds don't sound the same" is particularly strong.

@blindkiwi 1w

Love the back story. My dad was a wireless operator on Lancaster bombers during WW2. There is so much of his experience coming through in hearing your grandfather's story retold.
Thanks for this one, nicely done 😎

@tseaver 1w

Nice write, and a great response to the Morse code prompt! The use of the birds to set the scene works really well.

How fortunate you are to have that recording as a memory of your grandfather.