AMR MUSIC MONTH: “Rebecca True & Charlie Kind”
Click to hear “Rebecca True & Charlie Kind,” by Mark Fullmer
Context: I was driving home from this sushi place–I don’t know, probably the only one in town–and I had my radio on the local NPR. Really local, if you know what I mean. It was Mexico music hour, apparently, and I fell in love instantly. Playing was one of those slow ballads with the guitarron plucking away at a lullaby walking bass. It really transported me, I mean really. That’s where the feeling for my song came from, anyway. The kernel of the lyrics came next, and then a rough version of the melody, which straightened itself out as I figured out the precise words. Having completed the song, I really like how the melody makes use of a single note, G-sharp, first functioning as the major 7th of the A chord, then as the 3rd of the E, and then as the added (and raised!) 4th of the D in the chorus. Listen when you’re in the mood for nap time.
Lyrics:
In fourth grade math
In august sunshine
In a town of angels
They sat knee to knee
They shared a lunchbag
They played piano
They traded moonbeams
All in angelic memory
Rebecca True
Charlie Kind
Their names carved in a wooden sea
They caught the lamplight before it shined out
Lost in a childhood melody
On the playing field
On August third
On wings of childhood
He hit a moonbeam just for her
Within a diary
Within a tree house
Within a moonbeam
She cried a tulip just for him
Before seven summers
Before seven skylines
Before seven angels
Rebecca turned into a tree
And he town of angels
And the august moonbeams
And Charlie True
Thanked god for gotten memory
Posted on 12 March 2010 at 5:05 pm
Holy crap. This could have been a Jens Lekman. you sound EXACTLY like him in this song.
Awesome!
Posted on 16 February 2010 at 5:09 pm
AMR MUSIC MONTH: "Rebecca True & Charlie Kind" http://bit.ly/9vs6Ot