MidiMike

“Miracles In Your Hand”      (Down Uneasy) (c) 1981  MSK

A reason is such a small thing,

Can’t you give me one?

Seems to me you were holding out,

Were you really just holding on?

The things we did won’t mean a thing,

The memories drift away.

The things you said hang in the air,

Like a light that will not fade.

CH:  You’re alive one day with miracles in your hand,

Then you’re heading for a wall, drivin’ fast as you can.

I settled down uneasy, I’m just waiting for tomorrow to come.

When the answers seem so distant,

Questions lose their fun.

You thought that I was shutting up,

I was really just shutting down.

It’s time we found the meaning,

In the games we have made.

And a reason makes the difference,

When the last trick must be played.

CH:   You’re alive one day with miracles in your hand,

Then you’re heading for a wall, drivin’ fast as you can.

I settled down uneasy, I’m just waiting for tomorrow to come.

After a break-up some of these lyrics just poured out.  Seeing the same thing and coming to opposite conclusions.  Having an early exposure to poetry first, I try to keep those ideas reflected in many of the songs I write.  The chorus was an idea I had been playing with lyrically for a while and it seemed to immediately fit with the loss described in the verses.  What would you do if you held a miracle in YOUR hand?  What if that couldn’t save you?

This is a fairly early recording of this song.  The recording was low tech.  I have an Ovation 12-String acoustic/electric guitar.  This was so long ago I don’t remember which microphones I had.  But I don’t have any fancy microphones even now.  I took the guitar line out and recorded that on track one, and a microphone (Audio Technica ???) positioned at the sweet spot in front of the guitar and sent that to track two.  After recording the guitar tracks I played them back and used the same microphone to record the first vocal on track three.  Then I played all three tracks back (through headphones and in a different room, but more on that stuff later), and recorded the second vocal on track four.  I am now officially out of tracks, by the way.

For the mix I panned the guitar track one (electric jack out…) all the way to the left and the guitar track two (microphone) is panned all the way to the other side.  The 12-String is full by itself, but this separation on both levels tricks the ear into thinking there are more than one guitar performances being played.  At the other end the vocals are attempting to duplicate or double each other to make them sound full, but with one vocal track.

You can check out the rest of the album at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/michaelskennedy