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about

This is a song about ten seconds in a woman's life.

I think Guy Clark introduced his song "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere" with that line.

In my case, it's about ten seconds of grief that I witnessed of a friend in a bay side bistro on the Pacific ocean.

I'm always at a loss of what to say when I'm a witness of this kind of thing. But this experience stuck with me and about six months later I scribbled a few verses about it.

I think it was sometime in 2019 that I was in the Congress House studio. I had thought that we were going to do some backing tracks for previously recorded pilot tracks, but Mark wanted me to do something original. I didn't have anything prepared but I told him about this song and that I didn't have a chart or music for it, I only had a vague idea of a melody.

Mark cracked the whip and directed me to do a chord chart while he and Andre set up for the recording session.

So I sat at the Congress House Kitchen table with my guitar and the lyrics and put together a chord chart and we ran with it. It took me about 30 minutes as I recall.

I know several people who in the past several years who have lost children. I guess it's a symptom of me getting older, but you're never really prepared for it as a parent, or as an acquaintance.

This song is in memory of their children.

Steven
Lauren
Nathan
Brian

lyrics

Grief
Copyright 3/14/2020 Robert Lindsay Nathan

Intro: Am D Am D G

G Bm
If I could take the grief you feel
C G
And shoulder it as my own
C G
If I could make, with faith, a deal
Am D
And turn the grief to stone

If all the sadness in your heart
Could suddenly drain away
Would the spark of life that’s long departed
Return from shades of grey?

If I could take the grief you stave
And carry it for a while
Make the memory fade away
Of your dear lost child

If only for a moment then
Would it truly be your wish?
No memory, no grief, no pain
A soul that’s unnourished.

C D
Grief is dear, grief is near
G Em
Grief is your torn heart,
C D
Grief is closeness to the one
G G7
That's now a world apart.

Grief is dear, grief is near
Grief is your torn heart,
Grief relives the joy that’s dear
C D G
And now a world apart.
Bridge:

C D
Complementary colors
G Em
On the canvas of our lives,
F Bb
Heads is love and tails is grief
E E7
With unrequited ties.

A C#m
That clear Pacific winter day
D A
You wrote your daily tasks
D A
As tears rolled down you cherry cheeks
Bm E
Sounds of waves and sailboat masts

Defined it all so clear and pure
It pulled me like the tide
Empathic wind blew through my core
A force from deep inside

If I could take the grief you feel
And shoulder it as my own
If I could make, with faith, a deal
And turn the grief to stone

If all the sadness in your past
Could suddenly drain away
Would the pallet of life’s canvas
Return to shades of grey?

D E
Grief is dear, grief is near
A F#m
Grief is your torn heart,
D E
Grief is closeness to the one
A A7
That's now a world apart.

Grief is dear, grief is near
Grief is your torn heart,
Grief relives the joy that’s dear
D E A
And now a world apart.

D E
Grief remembers joy so dear
D E A
That's now a world apart.

credits

from Quantum Flux Connection, released July 15, 2022
Robert Lindsay Nathan: gut string guitar, lead vocals
Mark Hallman: drums, bass, acoustic piano, Mellotron, string orchestration

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Robert Lindsay Nathan Canyon Lake, Texas

Robert Lindsay (Bama) Nathan was born in New Orleans on September 24, 1952. He was raised in Muscle Shoals Alabama and formally educated in Texas (Gig 'em Aggies). He has been writing songs since the early 1970's and has circled the globe playing them.

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