Collaborations II: Jason Pillay & Dave Watson

If It’s You

Download If It’s You


(Saturday night: I think the TypePad service for playing mp3s must be down. I’ll leave the link there in case it comes back, but you might have to download to hear it.)

This was a song of mine from the 90s, which I’d tried at various times to record but never with any success. Dave Watson and I were looking for a song to pitch to some Nashville contacts and the Taxi song-pitching service.  Dave arranged it, got a friend to play pedal steel and we invited Jason Pillay ( formerly known on the open mic circuit as Nobody Jones ) to sing it. This was the result. We got quite good reviews from Taxi but no takers. Each crit suggested we change something different so we decided not to invest any more time in it.  I’m still inclined to have another stab at my arrangement, which is both faster and rougher than this, but this is a nice version. I think it’s one of my better lyrics so I’ve reproduced it below:

Well the spring’s in the gardens and the
summer’s gonna roll in soon

And the red tulips burn in the green of the
afternoon

And I’m driving home but I don’t know what
I’m driving home to

I need someone, I just don’t know if it’s
you

 

Well I think you’ve gone missing and a
stranger’s taken your place

Or maybe I was thinking of a fictional time
and place

You might feel the same but I don’t want to
ask if you do

I need someone, I just don’t know if it’s
you

 

You’ve been kind

I’ve been blind

Through all those maybes stretching back

 

Now a silence sits between us

a silence sits between us

a silence sits between us

Like some clergy

Dressed in black

 

So I finish my dinner and you pass me the
small talk

Now I’m feeling crowded so I’m going out
for a walk.

In the 
west it’s red; in the east it’s a deepening blue

I need someone, I just don’t know if it’s
you

 

Now I’m coming to bed and I’m looking down
at your face

You sleep like a child and there always
seems to be a trace

And a word is rising to my lips but it
doesn’t get through

And I need someone, I just don’t know if
it’s you.

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