Something Like A Rainbow

Something Like A Rainbow from Something in the Air

This is Something Like A Rainbow, my first Orchestral Pop song.

It’s only a string section, not an entire orchestra. But what sets this apart from anything that I’ve ever done before is that, in addition to writing the chord progression, the guitar and bass parts and the lyrics, I also wrote the string part. That’s a new one for me.

And I didn’t just write something on guitar and then transpose it for strings. Instead, I wrote it the way a classical composer would.

To do this, I had to draw on the part writing rules that we learned in music theory class in college, something that I thought I’d never actually use. It was a long time ago, so I feel sure that I broke some of those rules in various places but remembering the basics (no parallel 4ths or 5ths, etc) got me through it.

Something Like A Rainbow

Lost and alone and wandering
Finding a true friend there, in the rain
Hold fast, together
Warmth in a lover’s arms
Loving each other heals the pain

A soft and gentle light, to lead the way
Something like a rainbow

So many things we were told we’d see
Most of them never came to be
But no one can explain the redeeming grace
That shines from the light in your face

A soft and gentle light, it leads the way
Something like a rainbow

And it shines into forever
Walk in its light, into forever

So many things we were told we’d see
Most of them never came to be
Still, no one can explain the redeeming grace
That shines when a smile is upon your face

A soft and gentle light, it leads the way
Something like a rainbow
Soft and gentle light, it leads the way
Something like a rainbow

And its light goes into forever
Ride the light into forever


All music and lyrics ©2022 Kevin Trent Boswell, from the album Something in the Air

Something in the Air by Trent Boswell
Something in the Air – Music by Trent Boswell

Support This Work:

Magus72 on Patreon
Magus72 on Patreon

Special Thanks

Much appreciation goes to the people who provided video footage:

Mikhail Nilov

cottonbro

Anna Shvets

Anastasia Shuraeva

Miguel Á. Padriñán

PNW Production

Mikita Yo

Marc Onana

Alex Kad

Zuzanna Musial, Stefano Barbieri

Get Yourself a Dog

Everything crumbles, fails and breaks
All of it in shambles, all in due time
Crushing, the endless slew of heartbreaks
Before that long nap we take in the lime

One plan works out and we give many thanks
Success, daring us to dream more grand
Shedding tears, when another one tanks,
Going not-at-all how we’d imagined or planned

Through all of the ups, downs and plateaus
At the end of each, long, tired day
There’s some place that each of us goes
Where to rest, our heads down, we do lay

Some sleep in luxury, like kings and queens
Lovers in silk sheets, fathers and mothers
With children nearby, in comfortable means
Dreaming of futures, brighter than others’

Those on whom fortune never gives a call
More than just some, a much larger number
In hovels, which are hardly homes at all
In cars, shelters or alleys, they slumber

Each type faces their own, unique struggles
Days, a mix of good and bad, one discovers
Either one goes down easier with snuggles
With a little love, one more quickly recovers

Turbulent, these unplanned ups and downs
Coming home, victorious or beaten by the fight
Smiles are always more welcome than frowns
But not everyone thinks you’re such a delight

People are critters possessed of great capacity
For cruelty, murder, greed and deceit
But a dog is a true friend and lacks the ability
To ignore you, to lie, betray or mistreat

A puppy is always ecstatic to see you
When you’re gone for minutes or many an hour
And there’s very few things one can do
To cause their opinion of their master to sour

Get yourself a dog and to it, commit
Good food and walks, like clockwork
Never hit it or neglect, the least little bit
Remember well that dogs don’t speak Jerk

Every day, that dog, you have to be earning
Their kindness, something we don’t deserve
Train yourself, lots and lots of learning
How a happy, healthy dog, to preserve

Get your lazy butt up, take it on a walk
Read everything you can find about training
Give it routine and real love, not just talk
When they misbehave, your anger, restraining

Don’t try to reason with a dog, silly human
Learn their language, don’t angrily assume…
It doesn’t speak English, you have to illumine
You have to be the adult in the room

Pay no attention when they do naughty stuff
Lavish them with praise whenever they do right
Patiently teach them, never yell or be gruff
And you’ll know in the end, it was right

Because days… you’re going to have all kinds
Tragedies and celebrations, galore
Friends come and go and lovers lose their minds
But a dog will adore you now and evermore

Where we humans go, when our lights go out
Is a thing that we hotly debate and discuss
But all dogs go to heaven, without any doubt
Because dogs are far better people than us


©2021 Kevin Trent Boswell

No Rules

Grief possesses no blueprints
There is no schematic
For how to remember
Or to forget

While walking the gray path of
All the scattered leaves and ash
Of what was

There is no rhythm
To which you might match your steps

No beat
To keep time

There is only the labored,
Slouching forward,
Whenever one’s strength allows;
Coming and going as it does,
In sloppy, uneven, hot flashes

There is no wrong way to lament

There is no proper sequence
For when to laugh,
To cry or to sleep

There is no cutout pattern
For your sack cloth

No clock chimes,
Letting you know that it is now time
To rend your garments,
To rub dirt in your hair

Anyway, time itself is mourning,
Right alongside you

Put your ear to the clock,
Listen closely…
You will hear it quietly sobbing

But time is only an illusion
And being an illusion,
It can only mean that…

Time…
Is nothing more
Than you

So, like you, time is
Absolutely beside itself with sadness

All formalities have fallen by the wayside

It flops, impotently, like a fish
One that miscalculated its angle,
On the jump for a mosquito;
It has now managed to strand itself,
On a parcel of ground

No idea which way it should
Violently spasm,
That it might get back
Into the good, wet stuff

Time grieves with you,
Throttling too quickly
In this

Grinding clumsily along
In that

Fortunately,
Since time is nothing…
Nothing more than you…
It is always the
Perfect time to do
Whatsoever your
Stunned spirit
Feels like doing

Sleep
Or do not

Eat
Or wait for a while

Wail
Or be silent

Work
Or linger in lethargic stupor

Laugh
Or find joy in nothing

Do whatever is best
Or worst

And the rest will wait

There is no hurry

For, in the end,
There is nothing
That we can do
For the dead

They all wait,
Patiently, quietly…
To be us

And we,
Them


©2021 Kevin Trent Boswell


Photo courtesy of Ekaterina

Support the creation of more poetry, music and madness by Kevin Trent Boswell at Patreon:

Magus72 on Patreon
Magus72 on Patreon

The Weight

This is my cover of the song “The Weight” by that excellent group known simply as The Band.

“It consisted of four Canadians and one American: Rick Danko (bass guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (keyboards, drums, vocals), Robbie Robertson (guitar, vocals), and Levon Helm (drums, vocals, mandolin, guitar).”

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Band

I’ve had a deep love of this song for as long as I can remember. It’s got a fun, upbeat vibe to the music but the lyrics (as the title suggests) are very heavy.

It’s a song about loneliness, disappointment and suffering. It’s about asking where you turn when all your best laid plans have fallen apart.

When I do a cover song, I usually try to reinvent it to some degree. I try to put something of my own mark on it. In this case, it didn’t feel right to completely reshape the song. There are really only two ways that I’ve wandered away from the original.

One is that I had to somehow fill up the empty space left by Garth’s piano playing. I chose to do that with harmony guitar parts, because guitar is my instrument and I gave them a simple and slightly somber quality, to accent the lyrics.

The other is that I shortened the chorus and used heavy effects on the vocal harmonies. I’m doing all the vocal, guitar and bass parts on this. The drums are by Stinky the Robot, my computer-based drummer, who is even more difficult to work with than a real drummer, if that’s even possible.

Gratitude

Special thanks to the following people for providing the evocative video footage that helps bring to light our social problem of the lost and disenfranchised. Homelessness and mental illness are entirely too prevalent and much more needs to be done.

We can’t be a healthy society unless we take care of our own and that means everyone, however unpleasant it might be to look into that chasm and think “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” We must do more… much more.

If you have the means to do so, please donate your money and your volunteer time to one or more of the many quality organizations that offer help to the homeless, the mentally challenged and to stray animals. Most of the people and animals on the street got there by bad luck and they deserve a second chance.

MART PRODUCTION

RODNAE Productions

Mental Health America (MHA)

Anastasia Shuraeva

Support the creation of more music, poetry and madness by Trent Boswell, at:

https://Patreon.com/Magus72

Home At Last

Need something happy, bright, optimistic and hopeful? Well, I got somethin’ for ya.

If you’ve watched more than a couple of my music videos, then you’ve probably already figured out that I’m not exactly the go-to guy for upbeat, happy, cheerful stuff. No, I tend to gravitate towards a gritty type of realism that often steers drunkenly over the white line, into the oncoming traffic of blatant nihilism.

But I do have my occasional moments of peace, love, joy, the ultimate beauty of life and the universe… you know, all that happy, sappy shit. This is one of them.

So, get it while it’s hot, because I don’t usually serve this particular, gourmet dish in my joint. My greasy spoon typically sells cheeseburgers and beer, with a side of kick in the groin.


From the album Flagship by Trent Boswell. Full album and individual songs are available for streaming and/or purchase, at iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify and other music services.


Trent Boswell – guitar, vocals

Words and music by Trent Boswell


Lyrics

Home At Last

Butterfly squadron, airborne children
Sweet love and flowers, rain from above
Tadpole navies trade guns for babies
There ain’t no death here, no lies, only love

I’m in the fields of forgiveness,
To the left of the sea
Towering castle awareness,
Summoning me

Butterfly squadron, airborne children
Sweet love and flowers, rain from above
Tadpole navies trade guns for babies
There ain’t no death here, no lies, only love

World is awoken; all are attending
With apologies spoken,
All wounds are now mending
High in the sky, we can see
What we’ve strived for…
We’re finally free

I’m in the fields of forgiveness,
To the left of the sea
Towering castle awareness,
Summoning me

Ocean spray wonderful
Freedom to laugh
We’re in the land now
We’re home at last

© 2021 Kevin Trent Boswell


Support the Arts

Support the creation of more music, poetry and madness by Trent Boswell, at:

Magus72 on Patreon

https://Patreon.com/Magus72


Immense Thanks!

Many, many thanks to the following, for the images in the video. You may or may not like the music but if you like the video, the credit for that is all theirs.

I truly appreciate what they’re doing because I wouldn’t be able to make these videos, without their help.

Super Lunar

INNORECORDS PhotoVideos

Pavel Danilyuk

Nomad Nation Videoproduktion

Taryn Elliott

ROMAN ODINTSOV

Ambient_Nature_Atmosphere

Ruvim Miksanskiy

Matthias Groeneveld

Kelly Lacy

Pleasant Stroll

From the album Flagship by Trent Boswell.

Album available for streaming at:

iTunes

Amazon

Spotify

Or get a signed copy of Flagship at:

ConjureWork.com


Trent Boswell – guitar, vocals

Ed Kopp – bass guitar

Brett Waress – drums, hand percussion

Words and music by Trent Boswell


Lyrics

Walking down that road
With your hand in mine
This world will be ours
Just give me some time

Walkin’ toward the sunset
No, they haven’t beat us yet
We will watch the sunrise
From the other side

When our time is done here
Then we will walk on
To where we will meet God
To teach us a new song

Everybody’s Happy
You know that everybody smiles
The road that we are walking
Is measured not in miles

© 2021 Kevin Trent Boswell


Support the creation of more music, poetry and madness by Trent Boswell, at:

https://Patreon.com/Magus72

Magus72 on Patreon

There are several tiers of support, each one with more benefits than the last, starting as low as $3 per month.


Many thanks to the following, for the images in the video. You may or may not like the music but if you like the video, the credit for that is all theirs.

Marian Croitoru

Maksim Goncharenok

Adrien JACTA

James Liškutín

Kindel Media

@cottonbro

Kampus Production

Pavel Danilyuk

Taryn Elliott

Also: Tim Samuel, Gustavo Fring, Ketut Subiyanto, Keira Burton and swb1891 s