“Give Your Life Away” Monday, 07/27/2020
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Though I registered the copyright for the original version of "Give Your Life Away" in 1991, I began working on it while studying for my masters degree, possibly as far back as 1987 or 1988. The lyrics were inspired by a string-player who suffered from low self-esteem. He bounced from fairly regular, mildly irresponsible behavior to occasional episodes of self-inflicted drama that seemed solely designed to draw the attention of his immediate circle of friends and acquaintances. He spent what seemed to be an exhaustive degree of energy and time on 1) beating himself up with regard to his irresponsible behavior and 2) engaging with others about his plans to change.
He was a phenomenal talent who could have likely played any venue he chose, but he appeared to be more interested in an unnecessary degree of drama than in actually applying his talent/gifting to something of genuine benefit to himself and others. This song is specifically about a conversation he and I had in which I encouraged him to stop living for himself and for the attention of others. I prompted him to recognize his talent was God-given, that his family, who loved him greatly and was supportive of him, needed him to simply accept the opportunities afforded him as gifts from God. Live to honor Him.
The musical character of the original version of this piece eventually changed from that of a ballad-like patter song (similar genera-wise to “Look at the Birds”) to a jazz-influenced traditional verse/chorus/bridge format. I submitted the first version for review to a class of other composers and lyricists headed by Orlando Juarez. Based on a number of Orlando’s observations, I changed the piece to provide more word imagery and the verse was completely restructured to push gradually upwards melodically and drive harmonically more forcefully to the chorus. A bridge with key change was also added to heighten the meaning of the words and intensify the feel/emotion of the piece through to its conclusion.
I began performing the new version of the piece with a band called Promise around 1992 or 1993. That version with guitar, piano, bass, solo and background vocals has remained the same ever since. For project one only drums/percussion were added.