Take Her Hand

So this is a song that I’ve been working for the last few months.  I’m finally satisfied enough with it.  And as usual, my initial  lyrics bear only slight resemblance to the final product.  The first lyrical sketch was extremely introspective, a sort of existentialist piece about the importance of acting on one’s emotions. It ended up being really wordy, but I did glean a few good lines.  I’ll share the first stanza:

At sixteen years old,

I watched the world go

rush into their romances,

slip into these slow dances.

Aah, emo angst.  Anyway, I tried stuffing all those lines into a melody, and it was just a jumble of words.  So I reworked the whole thing.  Instead of writing the song in first person, I decided to use second person narrative.  That had the bonus of making the song a bit more universal and a whole lot more optimistic.  But it still morphed into this biographical song of sorts.  In essence. it’s what I’d tell my fourteen year old self if I could jump back into the past.  I imagine I’d walk up to my short nerdy self at the punch bowl line and hand him the lyrics on a crumpled napkin.  Then I’d transport back into my own time, like Hiro Nakamura.

Anyway here is the mp3, after the lyrics:

Take Her Hand

by  Jared Ong, 2009

Verse 1

Sixteen year olds
make the world go
watch all their romances
join all their slow dances

Part of you knows
most of its show
Boys wear their old spice
and girls wear their highlights

Chorus

But don’t analyze too much
Don’t look aside too much
Don’t wait around too much
Time ain’t free
Someone will talk to her
Someone will walk with her
Someone will dance with her

Take her hand
And see

Verse 2

In this carousel

of these coats and curls
make your  own way
to find your own space
Let yourself be free
Let serendipity
help the real you
start to shine through and
she will love you

Chorus

Take her hand

and see
what’s meant to be

Bridge

And in the darkness you’ll be
two stars in the night
And in the darkness you’ll see
two stars

Verse 3

Sixteen year olds
Make the world go
round in their slow dances
Watch all their romances
Join in your chance too

Chorus

Don’t analyze too much
Don’t look aside too much
Don’t wait around too much
Time ain’t free

You get to talk to her

You get to walk with her

You get to dance with her

Take her hand

and see

Take her hand
and see

What’s meant to be

Download:  Take_Her_Hand_-_Jared_Ong