Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded April 22, 26, and May 3, 2015. Mixed August 3, 2016.

 

Genesis: I wrote the music on May 4, 2003. In singing nonsensensical, placeholder lyrics for the melody the concluding line of the verse ended with “It’s All Over Now.” Nothing else survived when I wrote the lyrics on November 9, 2014. I revised the lyrics on April 30, 2015, just before I recorded my final vocal tracks.

The themes of aging, lost illusions, and lost dreams runs through the song. We all deal differently with these issues and change our points of view from time to time. If I were to write the song today I am sure I would be a little bit more hopeful… The line “In these last days of paper” came to me as I made the transition from printed books to e-books. When I retired from appellate court administration in 2011, the Minnesota courts were transitioning from paper to electronic documents, so that must have been an additional creative seed.

The arrangement is vintage singer-songwriter, keeping it simple. I had fun playing lead guitar.

 Production: Bass Guitar, Electric Guitars, Organ, and Drums.

 Lyrics

ALL OVER NOW

 Shoebox of photos

Cassettes, and keys

Resurrected moments

That have brought me to my knees

I can see those phantoms dancing

It’s All Over Now

 

Sleepwalked through changes

Both good and bad

Now I’m sorting out illusions

I never thought I had

I’m no Don Quixote

It’s All Over Now

 

Endgame is coming

With moves I’ve got to make

On the wrong side of something

My blinded heart can’t take

It can’t shake

 

Just down the hillside

I hear a speeding train

I used to race the moon

Now I can’t outrun the rain

The third act is the hardest

It’s All Over Now

 

I’m getting pushed

By the calloused hands of time

In a graveyard of dreams

Where remembrance is a crime

There is no time

 

Best of intentions

Are hard to carry through

Dark comes down

On whatever we must do

In these last days of paper

It’s All Over Now

In these last days of paper

It’s All Over Now

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved