Composing standing with Stanley.

The initial stage of writing Standing with Stanley began when I had listened to some Dr. Seuss audio books. I liked the extra rhymes he could fit into lines without affecting the rhyming scheme and also his use of alliteration. The first part I wrote was the first line of the song however it began standing with sonny has seen me through some scenes. Although sonny is a friend of mine he is not as close as my friend Samuel (sometimes nicknamed Stanley) so I decided to proceed writing the song telling the story of our turbulent friendship and how, contrary to our collective states of mind, the friendship provides us with security. (Knowing we are not alone with the way we see the world.) I generally write lyrics a lot and I enjoy it so have become quite quick at getting ideas down. Once I had the subject matter I continued writing in an almost free form method, just having no regard for rhythmic or rhyming consistency, but being very aware of rhythm and rhyme while writing. I wrote essentially a heap of rhymes and lyrics with no structure or sections and left it. The following day I rearranged the lyrics into verses with some coherence both in subject matter and in phrasing and began singing to a single chord. I liked the relentlessness of the vocal section and the use of wrap around lyrics. This is essentially prosody as it creates a confusing and hard to follow structure which still never the less functions which is comparable to the way me and Samuel(Stanley) think an talk when we are together. I decided to make this a key feature in the song and only added one more chord to the verse sections. But then to contrast the fast paced verse lyrics and not over complicate the song I tried to make the chorus very long drawn out notes which is intended to give the listener a soothing break. This is another use of prosody the lyrics at this point are designed to be simple and reassuring to the future so the contrast in the phrasing mirrors the contrast in lyrical content. The only section left to write was the instrumental section and I decided to write a harmonica part to mirror the chorus harmonies. This is intended to continue the relaxed chorus feeling. This both reestablishes the chorus melody but also adds dynamic variation and leaves the listener with a whistle-able tune. The tune is very simple which is a reference to the childrens storys the original inspiration from Dr. Seuss. The staggered harmonies are influenced by 60s pop music most specifically The Beatles version of twist and Shout. Composing space-mans Lamen The origin of this song is in the first riff. I liked the calm finger picking guitar with the sudden change to heavy strumming. This gave me the idea of doing a song in a similar idea to Space oddity. This is because I decided to imagine the inner workings of an astronauts mind while losing his grip on reality. This is shown throughout the song in the musical changes and how it constantly changes from calm and dreamy to concise and direct. This can be

seen in the alternating lines of the chorus. The first and third line use a vocal slide on both voice parts while the lyrics are abstract and indirect. Thi is then followed immediately(by the 2nd and 4th lines) which are much more abrupt and the vocals step rather than slide between notes. These two lines are purposefully more serious the second line is a scientific observation of the first line showing the instability of the astronauts mind. The 4th line is an acceptance of both the situation the astronaut has chosen for himself and the person he has become as a result of the decision, which led him to the loneliness of space travel. Another reflection of the astronauts bipolar mindset is between the verse and the chorus. The verse reflects his heart and mind as a human but throughout the song I imagined him to be traveling further from the earth, leaving his humanity behind since without someone to recognize you as a human it Is easy to imagine yourself as a mind alone, or a concept with no real affirmation from outside sources. After expressing himself emotionally and logically referring to himself and his experience in a very personal way. After the second verse the humanity (and the pain that comes with considering what hes left behind) has been fully consumed. This is mirrored in the chromatic climb section with notes going in and out of key at all times and the climbing until its made a full cycle (musically a whole chromatic octave) this is another use of prosody as it shows the madness of the space mans mind while it devours what humanity he has left. Until finally resolving to the chord it began on leaving only chorus left to repeat in the song. Since this represents his happy but unbalanced side he has now entirely lost the concept of being human but he has also forgotten what he misses and so it is a twisted bittersweet ending since he starts of in a sad situation millions of miles from earth but by the end of the song no longer understands the concepts which made him sad to begin with and so now he continues to live dreamily in his no gravity little box floating and dreaming The instrumental section of the song is in 4/4 this was a conscious decision to emphasize the transitional madness experienced by the astronaut in this section, as the protagonists mind finally snaps.

Standing with Stanley verse Standing with Stanley has seen me through some scenes of obscene proceedings you wouldnt believe Im down on my knees reading believing naively conceiving things you cant see relieving appeasing our skewed sense of reason by walking and talking through more than we bargained for Great things we can adore Faught for and thought more for Sought for or bought or caught setting them free Chorus Oh its nice to feel young Were old but the damage isnt done Today we can look toward the sun Tomorrow we might have won Verse 2 Forming me boring me laugh uncontrollable fearing endearingly how do you see. My mind while unwinding The feelings of clarity Bare with me while I see If I agree When rhyming or climbing we share comic timing blindly deciding what we should be remarking embarking to parks after dark reliving and giving where I can be me. Chorus Instrumental chorus end

Space-mans Lament Verse Its been so long Since I saw your face Everyone has gone The whole human race Chorus Float freely Weightlessly So dreamy Ill be me Verse 2 Alone out here My minds gone wild Everything can disappear My only child Chorus Float freely Weightlessly So dreamy Ill be me Instrumental Chorus Float freely Weightlessly So dreamy Ill be me