March 2020 - Tu Vista

By this stage of 2020 I was in a zone of writing songs - I think I wrote 80% of the songs we went on to record between January and March - for whatever reason the songs were coming out of me (after a long time of doing very little songwriting) and I wasn't going to question it!

I wrote most of this song in one afternoon. I drove Jordan to the beach to hang out with a friend and, rather than drive the 30-40 mins home only to have to come back again in an hour or two, I took my guitar and notebook with me and decided to write a song. I think I already had the idea of writing something in the Son Cubano style, but with quenas playing the parts that would normally be played on some combination of flute, violin or brass. That afternoon I wrote and recorded the chords & lyrics on my phone, and over the next week or so I wrote the melodic parts on midi piano in Garageband. The final demo is pretty much what ended up being re-recorded on the album, with some nicer chord transitions courtesy of Cesar & Rick and with the world class rhythm section of Cesar (bass) & Steve Marin (drums, congas, bongos, etc.)

Lyrically this is a tribute to Marita, and specifically to the way she has changed the way I see the world (by teaching me how to see and not just look). It's just another way that she makes me a better person.

Cómo es que tu ves

Lo que a mi es elusivo?

Me dices decelera

No está escondido

Es una ceguera

Hecha de objetivos

Hace falta más que puro comer

Para estar vivo

Resulta que el silencio da

Algo más sustantivo

Algo que desaparece mirada

De frente, ilusivo

Y lo invisible no es

De valor transitivo (mira)

Si más bien ocupa

El puesto más querido

Al abrir los ojos

Me descubro estremecido

Con mi mano en tu brazo

El espejismo no se ha ido

Se ha transformado en oasis

Aunque nunca he creído

En un instante un creyente

A tu vista convertido

Translation

How is it that you see

What is elusive to me?

You tell me slow down,

It's not hidden.

Yours is a blindness

Made of goals,

It takes more than just rations

To truly live.

It turns out that silence gives you

Something more substantive,

Something that disappears

When you look straight at it, illusive.

And that which is invisible

Is not of transitory value,

Rather it occupies

The most treasured place.

I open my eyes

And find myself shaken,

With my hand on your arm

The mirage has not faded,

It has transformed into an oasis,

Even though I never believed,

In an instant I am a believer,

Converted to your vista.