“Give and Take” You Tube Video from the studio.

I know a couple who give and take.
They bend, but they don’t seem to break.
Some days are brighter it seems.
Oh, hold on to your dreams.

The game of love can’t be won by the toss of a die
And the best you can ever hope for is a tie.
One can’t win while the other is down
And both of you lose when one’s not around.

One or the other of us will discover
The apple and the snake.
In spite of it all; win, lose or draw
It’s give and take.

A ballad I wrote for my friend John Parish and his first wife. It’s an attempt to depict the bittersweet nature of an intimate relationship in crisis by someone who (ironically) hadn’t yet had one.

I originally recorded this song at Jack Chamberlin’s parents’ house during a party in something of a rush. I wanted to complete it as quickly as possible in order to send a copy (on cassette of course) to John who was living on the west coast of Florida at the time. I’ve since misplaced the original recording so I spent a little time in January of 2014 to re-record it in my studio in New Jersey.

The instruments are: strummed 12-string (Martin GPC12PA), finger-picked 6-string (Martin D15M), 6-string bass (Rogue) and MIDI drums with a simple guitar solo (Gibson ES-335). There are 3 vocal parts, but the harmonies are barely more than implied.