Songwriting Carousel

Carousel originally started as a New Year's Eve song, dating back to December, Two Thousand and Twenty One. Thinking about the Christmas songs that we are used to, I wondered about New Year's Eve as a genre. There were certain songs with lifting melodies and soft tempos that have always reminds me of New Year's Eve such as "I Know" by Freddy Cannon.

Over the years, it became a song comparing life to a Carousel, with the Carousel resembling the years as the earth revolves the sun, opportunities that pass by, different perspectives you view at different times, the "Ups and Downs" of life as the horses also move on a carousel, the different saddles and positions we all sit, people sitting on the inside or outside and so on...

The song is told through the older person handing down information to the younger. In the end, one revolution of the Carousel is not a year but an entire generation as we're all part of a wider experience of common life outside of a definition of time. Being a song handed down to the younger I wrote this as a soft lullaby.

The music starts in "A Minor Melodic" and has a descending tone changing to the key of "D" in the second and fourth line of the verse and resting each phrase there. This is what gave me the New Year's Eve lift in the music.

Months later I notated the melodies down and noting a pattern to expand on by staying in the key of "D" for the pre-chorus raising up to chords "ii" and "iii" and changing key once again for the chorus to "B Minor Melodic" using the same verse changes. As the key changes up one tone, the melody actually falls one tone as the vocal melody now sings the lower harmony line to the verse melody. This gives the definition of the chord "IV" in the chorus and also lays the melody to resolve on another change to the Key of "B Major" at the end of the chorus.

The joining of the chorus to verse, happens through stepping forward and back into Major and Minor varitions. From the final chord of "B Major" in the chorus we start the cadance with "E Minor First Variation", back to "B Minor Second Variation". Now using "B Minor" as chord "ii" we can move to "A Major Sixth" and finally onto "E Major" ready to jump back into the verse with "A Minor

Music and Lyrics

Am, E/A, Am7, D

Sing me a song of hope for the young

F/A, Em, Asus4, D

Time of trouble with fortunes won

Am, E/A, Am7, D

Go Break the hearts who live by the gun

F/A, Em, Asus4, D

Rich with youth, your time has come

Em, A, Em, A

Ups and downs, minutes for pounds

D, Em, F#m/A, F#m7/A

Crowns of glory worn with frowns

Bm, F#, Bm, E

Sing me a song of your Carousel

G6, F#m, F#madd4, B

Songs of greeting sung with farewell

Em/G, Em, Bm/F#, Bm, A6, A6/F#, E

Circles of promise we learn to blame

Saddles ridden by every name

But in the end it's always the same

A gift of pleasure, a gift of pain

Ups and downs, minutes for pounds

Crowns of glory worn with frowns

Sing me a song of your Carousel

Song of greeting sung with farewell

Sing a song of your Carousel

I'm glad that this is the first song I released. I knew it would take years to find the words to capture as much as I could within two verses as it is only a short lullaby. Being a soft song, I'm quite conscious of the vocals being a challenge for me, trying to reach the low note on "Greeting" with such a complex melody and instrumentaion. If I can remeber this was take Twenty Seven of Twenty Nine, all performed at different volumes. Of course this was made using the 68' Gibson J160, 65' Vox AC100 and a C414. Equiupment to compliment the songs main inspiration,

Dick Van Dyke.