Memories (They Run Over You)

I wonder if we could find Troy this outfit to wear again?

My partner and mentor in music, cousin Troy is turning 50 in the year 2020.  I struggled for a while to figure out what you could get an individual that has meant so much to you from a creative perspective (also, who has enough money in his coffers to buy anything he wants, much like any other 50 year old out there).

Of course a song was in order but I don’t like to push these things.  Forcing a song to appear does not always produce the greatest results.

But if while drifting off to sleep you happen upon a melody, you snatch that iPhone up and videotape you humming that melody a few times so you can listen to it in the morning.

With a melody in hand and with the help of Troy’s wife Connie, I pieced together the epic tale of Troy and his 50 years on this Earth.  Or at least the first 30.  I heard the term epic as I was listening to a Gordon Lightfoot concert the other day and how Ian Tyson referred to a few of his songs as ‘epics’ and I thought “That is exactly what I’m creating when I have a seven minute long song chronicling their life.”

Finding the time to record this with two kids in the house was a challenge and as it stands, I’m not nearly finished but for the time being, it will exist in this form until I have enough time to add a jazz flute solo.

Happy Birthday Troy!  Here’s to another 50 years of good health and laughs.

Recording notes

Lyrics, main and backing vocals, acoustic guitar: Ryan Palmer

Recorded in the basement over a few months of Pandemic Summer 2020

Recording thoughts: Not much to say.  I had a really fun time layering some backing vocals and I’m happy with the end part of the song.  I ran out of time to add a 12-string guitar over it and I was thinking of adding a french horn in there somewhere as that was Troy’s instrument of choice back in school.  I was also playing around with a simple drum beat but Logic Pro kept crashing on me when I started introduce this and I was getting upset by the problems with software and a deadline approaching.  Can I also say I was not impressed with Canada Post when the CD took another ten days to arrive after his birthday?

Package notes

I went all out with this one and made a neat little package for it.  Unfortunately I didn’t proofread the text and had to reprint nearly all of it and even the final product had to be sliced and diced on the lyric sheet because I forget to make it the correct size to fit on a piece of cardboard.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the project!

Front

Lyric sheet and inner packaging

Back with a not so true quote from Nanny Sybil

Click here to download the song.

Lyrics

From the land of porketta

Here’s a tale that I betcha

Have heard time and again

Of a man who played bingo

I meant getting stinko

In Big Nickel, along with his friends

Playing dungeons and dragons

While falling off wagons

It’s a wonder they’re not all all in the grave

With a twenty sided die

Came a big sigh

When the party’s lives were swiftly saved

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

In Gatchell he grew up

But he kept his head up

There’s always someone stealing his mitt

The thief he was found

Laid down to the ground

Along with a red first aid kit

Oh it made him quiver

When he thought of his liver

After a night at the “I” and the Frood

Night after night

Getting right tight

Throwing haymakers in a blood feud

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

Treading trodding trails

To stand at the rails

Of gods with six strings in hand

Thousands of shows

Through rain, sleet and snow

All to see his favourite band

Learned guitar from Renaldo

But the truth you should all know

The music, it spilled from his veins

The girls would shed a tear

The boys let out a cheer

When he sang, they yelled “Play it again!”

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

Men from mining town

Sometimes get down

With thoughts their life’s a dead end

But our hero went out

His luck came about

When he entered a town of Grand Bend

There he worked a bar

Where the suds were not far

Mama didn’t raise a fool…

He took stock of his life

Sitting on that old bar stool

The playhouse of Huron

Is where he got his act on

To impress a lady so fine

He asked Mr. Dressup

How his act could be cleaned up

But all he said was “Pass me more wine!” (and rye!)

Two summers later

No need to date her

He’ll just stay in London awhile

He packed up his axe

Followed the rail tracks

She opened the door and there was his smile

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

Along came the desert

Perhaps a few dress shirts

Where then they exchanged a vow

Like Stan sang with grace

Wants her smiling face

Forty five years from now

In Wortley they do stay

In pubs they do play

Cards while finishing the keg

But at night they return

For food needs to burn

Crack open the big green egg!

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

Fifty years gone

Lines on face are drawn

As a man sits and reflects

Of his life up to now

Wondering how

Of all the cause and effects

Take it all in

With a glass of gin

There are still many tales to be told

Fifty years is really not that old

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!

The memories, They Run Over You, boy!