Song: "Ghost Colors"

[ng_moonmoth]

By way of working on my composing and arranging skills, I asked ysabetwordsmith in a recent Poetry Fishbowl for something that could be set to music. "Ghost Colors" was the result. The melody and chords, which I offered to publish in trade for the poem being published, appear below.

This post contains a lyric sheet with chords, a studio track of an arrangement I sequenced and a bitmap copy of the sheet music. I will be happy to send PDFs of the sheet music or lyric sheet to anyone who would like them.The song felt like it needed a bridge stanza, so I wrote one. Those words show up at the end of the sheet music.

Cm
Astin flies a junker
  Cm
Between galactic arms,
Fm               Cm
Trading news and cargo
 G7         Cm
Among the algae farms.

C              G
Scavenging the wreckage
     F         Bm7     C
Left where the war has gone,
Fm              Cm
Xe picks up the pieces –
    G              Cm
Someone must carry on.

Cm
Nebulas are lovely,
   Ab        Fm     Cm
Ghost colors in the sky;
Gm7             Cm    G7
Astin smiles to see them
                  C7
Whenever xe flies by.

F
They are loose and fluid
            Am7      C
And not set in their ways;
F                Bb
Astin feels just like them,
  F       C7       F
Reflected in their blaze.


Arms are prim and proper;
They're over-organized.
Astin doesn't fit in
The boxes they devised.

Xe is sick of lying,
Maintaining a facade --
They don't like xyr nature?
Well, take it up with God!

Then the war is over,
The traders left adrift
Gasping from the changes,
Nowhere to catch a lift.

They hear the Lacuna
Now lies between the Arms,
Full of funny people
But not without its charms.


Astin goes to meet them
In hopes of making trade;
They may be peculiar,
But all their bills get paid.

Contracts come together
As nebulas contract --
Who knows what new chances
Ghost colors can attract?

Astin starts to wonder
If they might not prefer
Paperwork more honest
Than saying “him” or “her.”

They are more than willing --
Perhaps a little steamed --
And a box marked “Other”
Is everything xe dreamed.


Soon the jumpships join in,
For they are Others too,
Human pilots happy
To write down what is true.

Here and there another
Announces their own truth;
Validation streams out
From every record booth.

Some folks think Lacuna
Is crazy as can be;
They doubt it will last long,
Too fragile to stay free.

Traders beg to differ,
And Astin's only one;
They'll help people stay here
And keep what they have won.


BRIDGE:

C                        Fm
Docked at Sargasso Base, Astin's dressed
        Eb            Fm     Gm   Bb
In soft hues from the starry dome.
Cm7             Ab       Fm
Even a wanderer can find rest –
      Db                Eb   G7
The Lacuna's become xyr home:


Astin goes out drinking
To celebrate the host --
Raise a glass in honor
Of those who won the most.

Dash starts mixing liquor
And makes in nothing flat
Cocktails called Ghost Colors
So they can drink to that.

Space is unexpected --
Adapt or surely die;
Gravity's release here
Has freed all souls to fly.

Though Lacuna's fragile,
Its culture will endure
And the stranger people
Will hear of its allure.
                                                                                                                                

Comments

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have linked this.

Re: Yay!

[ng_moonmoth]

Thanks for the boost!