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Take It For A Ride 3:45
1. Over The River Tonight
© December 13, 1976 by Gary E. Andrews
All Right Reserved for the Globe
Chords
Cadd9 ? X32O33
Em O22OOO
? XO2O1O
C/G (C with G bass) 332010
Gadd9? 5? 320033
(Verse I)
Ba-by, May-be, It's just a passin' blue,
But I love you more, Than ever before, Tonight.
Ba-by, Ba-by, You know, it gets to me too,
But darlin' I promise you, It'll be alright,
Long as I've got that summer breeze,
Blowin' up the creek at night,
The whip-poor-will a' callin' through the stillness,
Hick-ry trees bathed in moonlight,
(Chorus)
I'll be content, To sit right here,
With you right by my side,
To hitch this front porch to the moon,
And Take It For A Ride!
(Verse II)
Dar-lin, Don't you, Let it hurt your pretty head.
You know you can bet, That I won't forget, Tonight,
Long as I've got your sweet perfume,
To recall in my mind,
The solitude I get up in your room,
Your gentle touch to sooth me all night,
(Repeat Chorus, with variation)
I'll be content, To lay right here,
With you right by my side,
To hitch this front porch to the moon,
And take it, take it, Take It For A Ride
(Bridge, vocalized, without words)
(Verse III, repeated segment of Verse 1)
Long as I've got that summer breeze,
Blowin' up the creek at night,
The whip-poor-will a' callin' through the stillness,
Hick-ry trees bathed in moonlight,
(3rd Chorus)
I'll be content, To be right here,
With you right by my side,
To hitch this front porch to the moon,
And take it, take it, Take It For A Ride!
More Info...
"Take It For A Ride" Copyright 1976 by Gary E. Andrews.
All Rights Reserved For The Globe
The arrangement I play now cuts the 'scat singing' portion, only going a few bars through it, then finishing with the 3rd verse.
I got "Take It For A Ride" going one night and got stuck. The Rhyme-Scheme and guitar work were hard to duplicate for the 2nd verse. I was getting frustrated, killing the creative flow.
Now, you can force your way through a block like that, but you'll probably write something mediocre, uninspired.
I got "Leavin' You" started, what I later called a "Sister Song." It bogged down the same way and I went back to "Take It For A RIde" and got a little more of it. It bogged down and I went back to "Leavin' You."
By the end of the night both Songs were pretty much complete.
This 'Sister Song' technique has worked for me on other occasions too, keeping my interest up and the frustration down, letting me enjoy the crafting aspects of the creative process, where you have to study and think, as opposed to the magical gift of ad lib, letting words and Melodies and guitar parts just work from the Creative Flow.
This was one of only two songs you can hear on this site from my first "Out of the Woodwork" copyright collection from my fluke recording session.
YOU could have a hit with this rare, uptempo love song. Email: garyeandrews@yahoo.com
Here's an essay on this "Sister Song" technique:
In Aongwriting I'm generally strumming or picking something and a Line comes to me. That first Line of Lyric usually Hooks me. I'm the first listener. I have to be Hooked just like I hope others will be.
I had a guitar riff going and went into strumming. This Line came to me:
"Baby, Maybe, It's just a passin' blue, But I love you more, than ever before, tonight."
I sure was curious about 'her', the Love-Interest Character, bein' as how "I", the Singer-Character, loved her more than ever before, and tonight, which was right now. That immediacy of the moment the Singer-Character was speaking in, speaking directly to her, the Rhythm and Rhyme, Hooked me like a fish. I had to know more. But the Rhyme-Scheme, simple as it is, was hard to match for the next Line. I kept going over it, as is my technique, re-singing what I had, enhancing my familiarity with execution of the guitar part, polishing the prosody, getting the feel...and getting frustrated. 'Baby, Maybe, blue, more, before, tonight.' Man!
So I started strumming some of those same chords in a different tempo, and darned if I didn't get Hooked on another Line:
"Get out o' the way! I'm goin' home! That's what she said and now she's gone."
Well, I sure in hell had to find out what she was mad about! And whether I was glad or sad that she was gone. She kept talkin:
"I can't stand ya when you're stoned! The hottest nights you're never home! That's why I'm Leavin' You, Takin' my heart and Leavin' you, Behind tonight! I'm Leavin' You! Ya want me to stay and believe in you but even you know how hard that is to do! That's why I'm leavin'! That's why I'm Leavin' You!"
Well, now I needed to repeat that Musical Movement of that first Verse, with new Lyric advancing the story, and leading back into that Chorus with that early Hook, 'Leavin' You.'
But I got frustrated on that too. I, the Songwriter, still wasn't in the story, feelin' what the Singer-Character was feelin', knowin' what 'she', the Love-Interest Character was mad about and what else he or she might say. I wasn't on the Rhythm and Rhyme of the prosody yet either. So I went back to the first Song. I got another Line!
"Baby, Maybe, It's just a passin' blue, But I love you more, than ever before, tonight.
Baby, Baby, You know it gets to me too, And darlin' I promise you, It'll be alright."
That completed the first half of a Musical Movement and called for a Change of dynamics. To repeat it a 3rd time would have been monotonous. I got it:
"Long as I've got that summer breeze, Blowin' up the creek at night, The whip-poor-will a'callin' through the stillness, Hick'ry trees, Bathed in moonlight, I'll be content, To sit right here, With you right by my side, To hitch this front porch to the moon, and Take It, For A Ride."
I went into the guitar riff and turned and was ready for a Repeat of the whole thing with new Lyrics to advance the story...and that Rhyme-Scheme frustrated me. Instead of letting it kill the creative flow I went back to the 2nd Song, the 'Sister Song,' a fraternal twin, born at the same time, but different. That 'Sister Song,' technique that occurred naturally has been a tool I've used several times since. I don't always consciously think it, but it just happens. Rather than let a challenge I can't meet stop me, or worse, force writing something just to Rhyme and go forward, I often drift into something else, a Sister Song that keeps that rewarding (instant gratification) creative flow going.
"Darlin', Don't you, Let it hurt your pretty head. You know you can bet, That I won't forget tonight! Darlin', Darlin, You know I meant just what I said! Into this darkness, I hope we can shed some light! Long as I've got that summer breeze..."
Lyrically, they're stories. They need a beginning, a middle, an end. They need Characters, a setting, and interaction, and something the listener, me, can identify with, Hooking me to imagine myself as the male lead. (I often rewrite my songs for a female point of view to enable that part of the market to buy them too.)
Melodically, they're Musical Movements. They have to have 'enough' Repetition to give them Structure, and 'enough' Change to keep them from being monotonous. The Lyric dictates Melody, to some degree, voices emphasizing some words, going up in pitch or intensity when emotion goes up, plaintive if there's a complaint, pleading if they're begging, shouting if they're angry, all expressed with notes, punctuation marks on the written page, altering the pitch, the duration. Listen to people talk. You can hear the music. You can hear the story. You can imagine how it should have gone, could have gone, and you've got a Song.
Could be a hit for you! Call me!