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VC: vocals, Fender Precision bass, Fender Telecaster & Strat, Turner Renaissance guitar, Yamaha CS1 Synth (organ), drum programming;
The Story
This song has screamed “record me in the studio” since the moment I wrote it in a fit of Keith Richards inspiration after seeing the Stones at the Rose Bowl in October of 1994. It was in the waning months of my year and a half exile to Southern California while I got my teaching credential at Cal State Northridge. From late August to mid-October I went on a songwriting tear, completing seven songs all inspired by the nubile and teenaged Leigh who worked at one of numerous coffee houses where I performed during my L.A. stay. In my final semester at school I was doing some work for a temp agency where I substituted in both elementary and preschools all over town. It was one particularly hot and windy day when I found myself at a posh, private school in Pasadena. During my lunch break I sat in a comfy chair in the teacher’s lounge and began writing this song, finishing it three days later at home. I wrote about the parallels between the season and my feelings in what became a very So-Cal song. I was becoming very consumed by my music and when I began my final student teaching assignment I decided to purposely dial it back and curtail my gigging which surprisingly as it may seem, was at an all time high during my stay. I had a regular stream of gigs at venues like Highland Grounds, Common Grounds, Wednesday’s House, and the Cobalt Café. The coffee house was an alternative to clubs: it was haven to both the under 21 kids, and the AA crowd who wanted entertainment without the alcohol.
Even though I wrote the music on my Moserite and occasionally performed this solo, I always longed to bang out the rhythm on a Strat or a Tele and enjoyed the recording so much. I waited months while various guitar players strung me along to add lead parts until I finally gave up and tried it on my own. The harmonizing guitar leads gave it a very Eagles-vibe circa Hotel California which is most fitting.
Lyrics
They say that love blooms in the spring
When the roses blossom and the robins sing
When the snow melts and the rivers rush
The young eyes sparkle and their faces flush
But I was never one to be like the rest
I followed a different call
My heart is always at its best
When the summer becomes the fall
The days are getting shorter and I hear the call
The boys are gathered 'round watching football
The Santa Ana's blowing with such gall
While I brace myself for the fall
They say there's no real seasons in the golden state
No leaves changing color at a passionate rate
No cool autumn breeze and crisp clear nights
But there's a subtle change that I can't fight
Because my senses are so finely tuned
I always can feel it coming 'round
And a love arrives to heal my wounds
Sends me skyward and knocks me down
There's a harvest moon rising over the garden wall
The boys of summer have put away their balls
All my emotions are entangled in a lively brawl
While I brace myself for the fall
She slyly said she was a winter girl
Who could spend endless hours laughing in the rain
But she's fighting a feeling like the weight of the world
With only autumn and me on which to place the blame
The days are getting shorter and she hears the call
Of the harvest moon rising over her garden wall
That Santa Ana's blowing with such gall
So she braces herself for the fall...
We brace ourselves for the fall
VC
9/27,28,30/94
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