Fall

• Composer: Ada Palmer
• Format: Three parts, duet, voice and guitar

Fall starts rather deceptively as an almost country song, before revealing its more fantastic subject.

Composer’s Comment: The bridge was the most fun to develop, and to perform.  The interplay of the two simultaneous voices is different from my usual, since I could have had one line be the speaker and the other the thoughts of the person the song is addressed to, but instead I gave two different voices to the speaker, hoping to get across the depth of passion and conflict in such a rich character.

Lyrics

Hey, you
And hey, you
Are you a cowboy?
‘Cause I was one once before the fall.
I would ride
I would ride
down the river
where the thunder hooves used to call.
And I had a friend
as stubborn as me
the last one to lose her store.
Could make bread without wheat
and bricks without straw,
but they don’t use brick any more.

And hey, you
And hey, you
Are you a angel?
‘Cause I was one once as I recall.
So tell me,
So tell me,
was there a reason
when we hung our wings on the wall?
‘Cause it hurt you know,
it hurt like Hell,
which is something we both should know quite well.
Swore I’d feel those wounds
for the rest of my days,
but I can’t find the scars any more.
And I had some friends
who followed me down
and I remember fighting for some bloody crown
but there’ve been so many fights
and so many kings,
and there’ve been so many changes
to the littlest things
and I’ve lost so many homes,
sure Heaven was one,
but the thunder hooves call as strong.

And, hey, you
And, hey, you
are you an angel?
‘Cause I used to know what angels were.
But I’ve known
But I’ve known
so many people
that the differences start to blur.
(that the differences start to mean so very little when we)
And why, why did I care
(try why did I)
so deeply for whatever cause it was?
(care so very deeply for whatever revolution I imagined)
I can still hear
(I can hear it there)
my younger self there preaching on. We tried,
(my vanities and fantasies and promises and prophecies and lies. I)
tried to create our own heaven here below and the secret is we did,
(thought we’d show Him our own heaven could be better than the one we left.)
but not only once
(I didn’t matter though since)
We’ve built heaven after heaven but the times still change and
(whether His or ours the times still change and)
season after season makes the homestead age, like yours.
(season after season gives us reason after reason to move on.)

And, hey, you
And, hey, you
are you a traitor?
‘Cause I tried to be, you may recall.
Or does He
Or does He
no longer bother
to remind young angels of the fall?
And if I crawled back,
to them pearly gates,
would they bother to lock them tight?
Or would a tired Michael wave me through
with no sadder smile than he has for you?
And could I walk those clouds
as freely as then,
with my face forgotten as the fight?

So, hey, you
So, hey, you
come and try,
come and try,
’cause I’ve found
’cause I’ve found
another river.
I could ride
I could ride
You could fly
You could fly
’cause the thunder hooves
and thunder clouds are thunder still while they last.
So, will you
So, will you
come with me
come with me
or go home?
or go home?
It doesn’t matter.
Not to Him,
Not to Him,
not to me,
not to me,
but it might to you
who gets to choose
which heaven you want to try.
Yes it does to you
who has to choose
before both heavens pass you by.