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I Miss You
Jun 15th
The first draft (lyric and chord progression) of this song was in 2005. It took me about 30 minutes to write… For the record, it was quite windy and cold outside. I was sitting by myself with nothing on… all I could hear was the refrigerator in the kitchen. I was waiting for my wife to come home. I think she was at a dance class that night.
A few years pass and one night I’m looking for something to record. So I put down a scratch track of this song, just me, guitar and a bad MIDI drum kit. I put it up on one of the Forum I’m a regular on to see if anyone wanted to add to the base track. I wanted to keep it relatively acoustic and laid back, ie no electronic keyboards or rock drums etc.
From my scratch track ‘dispelled_myths’ turned up offered a Piano track. Not listening to his track, another membery ‘Max Output’ recorded a Bass track for me. And then after a little nudge from a friend who I’ve worked with before on the site, ‘drmscp’ recorded a drum track.
Even though the Bass and Piano were tracked without listening to the other I think it turned out quite relaxed and nicely.. like we were all sitting together when in fact the Pianist is in Ontario (CAN), Drummer in Texas(US) and Bassist in Maryland(US) and myself in Sydney (AUS).
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Download: Daniel Porter – I Miss You.mp3
Lyrics:
I Miss You
When it’s cold and windy outside,
and your not here.
All I can hear,
is the refrigerator running in the kitchen,
the sound of my heart beatin’,
and the lonleness of you in my mind.
What are you feeling when your away?
Are you feeling the same way…. that I feel?
Cause I miss you,
yes I do,
yes I do.
The clock is counting the seconds,
of every minute,
of every hour,
that your not beside me and I think I’m
going insane the way I’m feelin’
Just missing you. Yeah, that’s what it is!
What are you feeling when your away?
Are you feeling the same way…. that I feel?
Cause I miss you,
yes I do,
yes I do.
I get a call from you to tell me,
your on your way,
and you miss me,
and you’ll be home just as soon as you can
because you missing me more than
I’m missing you. Hell, how would you know?
What are you feeling when your away?
Are you feeling the same way…. that I feel?
Cause I miss you,
yes I do,
yes I do
yes I do
yes I do
(c) Daniel Porter 2008
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If you do download this song, please comment and let me know what you thought of it.
Another new lyric – If Only
Apr 22nd
Ironically on the weekend I packed up my studio saying that I wasn’t going to work on any music for a while. That night I sat down at my piano (I usually play guitar) and started out with a C chord, then somehow my fingers moved to a Am7/F chord… well the next 30 minutes I came up with a new chord progression… It’s the first time I’ve done that in ages… and a song will come of that.
But the last week or so my son (2 1/2 now) hasn’t been getting much sleep of a night… I’ve been saying up late with him.
Today at work when I wasn’t thinking (ironically) a got an idea of taking a retrospective look at life.. and I jotted down a few lines, some made it in to what I’m posting below.
But would love to hear your thoughts if you like / hate the song.
I’m think I’m going to keep on writing first drafts for a month now and then go back at the end and see which ones I should record. But for now, here is “If Only”
If Only
Reading my diary
from the summer of 92
I was surprised at the things I said,
and all the things I used to do.
Well the world has changed a lot since then,
since I wrote those words with my pen.
Back then,
I didn’t have to worry about phone bills
And if I wanted adventure I got my fills
I did some stupid things I will say that
A few times I wore my dunce hat
But if only,
I knew then what I know now…
I had a girlfriend
Who I hardly knew
I wrote her letters everyday,
that ended with I love you.
Giving those words away freely then
Didn’t mean anything in the end
But back then,
I didn’t have to worry about paying the rent
I didn’t have to work for the money I spent
I’ve got my parents to thank for that
And they know one day I’ll pay them back…
But if only,
I knew then what I know now…
Bridge
Now the world hasn’t been the same since 9/11
When innocent people were sent to heaven
Cause we live now with a constant worry
And seem to travel everywhere in a hurry
Taking life a little to fast
We’re just another person in the cast
But back then…
I didn’t have to worry about a child
And now my days are over from being wild
All those speed humps that got in the way
Shaped me to be the man I am today….
Cause now, I know more than I knew then
Now I know more than I knew then
(c) Daniel Porter 2009
New Lyric – Summer Rain
Apr 21st
I know it’s been a while in between posts. In my life there hasn’t really been that much going on. The only big thing was a new spa… I’ll post the story about the installation at another day.
But this post came from a suggestion from a twitter ‘tweet’ by @RavenousRaven
“Get off Twitter right now and go and write a song! Go on – yes now! You have 1hr to finish the 1st draft. Go!!! 
”
Well I didn’t do it at the time, however I sat down for about 45 minutes and came up with the Lyric below.
My initial rambles which lead to the song were:
I want it to be fun.. not sad… positive song in this depressing world
happy thoughts – sunny days
Feel Happy again
Like standing in summer rain
The last line, actually the last two words gave me the idea for the song. And it then progressed in to what one of it’s first drafts. The first verse came out first, then the bridge and I wrote the other two verses after, one before and one after the bridge. Would love to hear your feedback through here or twitter.
I present the lyrics for “Summer Rain”
Summer Rain
Everything in this world seems to be getting me down.
Wether it’s the news or the economy
that’s all heading towards the ground.
All I have to do to make me happy again is think..
About standing in summer rain.
Don’t want to work but I need the money to keep me going.
I don’t like the job but to me it’s easy,
but I feel myself slowing.
But to make me feel better again I just think
About standing in Summer Rain
Bridge
Those warm drops of water, hitting my face
with rays of sunshine, shining through with grace
My arms wide open, welcoming it all
rain drops racing to the ground I watch you fall…
Sweet Summer Rain!
Instrumental break
I’m always the happiest when I’m home with my family
And even more so on Summer holidays
I’ll play in the backyard happily
And when it rains we’ll stand there with our arms wide open.
We’ll be Standing in Summer Rain
Standing in Summer Rain
Standing in Summer Rain
(c) Daniel Porter 2009
Another Wordpress theme….
Sep 5th
This time for my father’s website… bluesnoopy.com I had downloaded a theme which I used on my website when I first started to blog called ‘Simply-Blue’ (I can’t find a link to the authors home page as it wasn’t listed in the original template). My father really liked the look of it, however, for some reason it wouldn’t support the NextGEN Gallery lightbox effect that he wanted so much.
So about a month ago I found this great barebone template called ‘Starkers‘ which is basically the wordpress default theme with ALL css div elements removed from it, which give you a great base platform for developing themes from. You just need to grab the latest version of the comments.php from the default themes so it will support gravitars which was implemented after Starkers was created.
I migrated the Simply Blue theme in to it and it looks great and now his Next Gen Gallery works and IMHO looks even better in this theme than the old theme which he was using.
Flying
Aug 11th
Well in my current job I’ve done a fair bit of flying. There was a time for about 1 1/2 years where I didn’t go anywhere, however in the last couple of months I’ve been to Brisbane, Melbourne and this morning I’m flying down to Canberra. Today is different in the fact that it’s just a day trip and all I’m doing is packing up the office as we are closing it down.
I enjoy flying, so on that side I’m lucky. However being very much a familiy man, I don’t like being far away from my wife and son.
I haven’t posted much (as I always seem to say) because I’ve been too busy or I just haven’t had much to say.
I made a goal at the beginning of the year to record an album…. I want to get that done, however I don’t know if I will. I set a goal last month to write a song for a competition… I didn’t end up writing it.
I don’t know if it’s because i keep making excuses or if I dont’ manage my time right or if I’m not confident in what I do.
Anyway, QF803 is boarding for Canberra now so I had better end this post and jump on board.