In order to try to impose a greater discipline om my efforts to write song lyrics and not being a musician, I thought I would adapt an existing song so that I had to follow a clearly defined rhythm and form. I found this enormously difficult but I think it has clarified how distinctive and difficult it is to achieve a genuine integration of lyric and music. In this case for example I found that simple number of syllable beats was not enough, as the emphasis shifts to different syllables when sung as opposed to spoken. I suppose great lyrics e.g. some of Dylan's, work in both forms.

An experiment therefore which I hope you may find interesting. Ideally I would have picked a song which you could listen to on one part of the net and look at the lyrics at the same time. But I wanted a song for which an adaptation made sense - and this was always a powerful song with a real relevance to contemporary affairs. (It is also unfortunately a song with a pretty complex rhythm). I had the two laid out side by side in a table but that does not appear possible for posting so they are in series here. Only italicised lines are adaptations, the rest are as in the original.

Soldier Blue (Adapted)

I look out and I see a land
Young and lovely hard and strong
For 50,000 years we've danced her praises
Prayed our thanks and we've just begun
Yes, yes

Yes this is my country
Young and growing
Free and flowing sea to sea
Yes this is my country
Ripe and bearing miracles
in every pond and tree

Your spirit now walks God's country
Bringing death to all men
And hating a religion you don't know
Blinds you to their story
Shooting and burning
You bomb babies that you just don't see.

I now see a sacred hill at dawn
Death all around me
Feel it surround me

Soldier Blue
Can't you see you cannot shoot ideas
Or blow up conviction
Claiming that you're there to save them

Ooo
Soldier Blue, Soldier Blue
Can't you see that there's another way to love her.

Yes this was my country
And I sprang from her and I
used to trust and count upon her
Now lies masquerade as true feelings
They disgrace us and our
Honour truth and love of justice.

When the news stories get me down
I take a drink of freedom to think of
North America from toe to crown
But it is not long before
I know we just don't belong there.

Soldier Blue. Soldier Blue
Can't you see that there's another way to love her.

Soldier Blue - Original


I look out and I see a land
Young and lovely hard and strong
For 50,000 years we've danced her praises
Prayed our thanks and we've just begun
Yes, yes

Yes this is my country
Young and growing
Free and flowing sea to sea
Yes this is my country
Ripe and bearing miracles
in every pond and tree

Her spirit walks the high country
Giving free wild samples
And setting an example how to give
Yes this is my country
Retching and turning
She's like a baby learning how to live

I can stand upon a hill at dawn
Look all around me
Feel her surround me

Soldier Blue
Can't you see her life has just begun
It's beating inside us
Telling us she's here to guide us

Ooo
Soldier Blue, Soldier Blue
Can't you see that there's another way to love her.

Yes this is my country
And I sprang from her and I'm
Learning how to count upon her
Tall trees and the corn is high country
Yes I love her and I'm
Learning how to take care of her

When the news stories get me down
I take a drink of freedom to think of
North America from toe to crown
It's never long before
I know just why I belong here

Soldier Blue. Soldier Blue
Can't you see that there's another way to love her.

Zettel