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Way Of The Heart

from Coconut Culture by Allan Thomas

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about

Michael Ruff had written a melody back in ’92, and I really had fallen for it. This melody haunted me after hearing it only once. It was an introspective and moody ballad, and since he hadn’t written any lyrics for it yet, I asked him if he wouldn’t mind if I gave it a shot. He gave me the go ahead. It wasn’t that difficult finding a lyrical idea, for the music seemed to be leading in the direction of how the road of love was paved with positive and negative, light and dark, yin and yang; all part of the way of the heart. I over-wrote the lyrics with extra verses so we could edit later, but we ended up using all the lyrics when we recorded the demo of it at Michaels house, with Nadia Ruff and Mark Lennon on back up vocals.

Sometimes when first writing a lyric or a piece of music, if it’s really flowing, I’ll write as much as I can, thinking I can always edit out the extraneous stuff later. I don’t remember if I always did this, or if it was something I learned from reading something that John Lennon said he always did, but it makes sense. If the inspiration is with you, and the muse is in the room, go with it, because tomorrow you might not be able to get back to the original feeling that got you inspired in the first place. That is what I did with this song.

I thought Michael’s mostly keyboard production of the demo was fantastic, and his arrangement of the backing vocals superb. We called the song ‘Way Of The Heart’, but he never really seemed to express any excitement about it after that day. I didn’t know if it was because he just wasn’t used to anyone else writing lyrics to his songs, or if he just thought the lyrics sucked. If so, fair enough, but he wasn’t forthcoming about it either, so the song just sat there in the demo pile until in 1996 when my producer Mike Shipley and I were reviewing song possibilities for ‘Coconut Culture’.

Shipley thought the song needed editing, and instead of the piano part being the main instrument, he felt an acoustic guitar should be the prominent instrument, in keeping with the rest of the record. Wouldn't you know it, my buddy Bryan Kessler had also loved the music to ‘Way Of The Heart’ as much as I had, and he had already worked up an arrangement of it for his own enjoyment, in Taro Patch (G) tuning. We flew Bryan over to Kauai and the three of us put our heads together and came up with the new arrangement.

The only concern was Shipley thought the song needed a bridge now. No problem, Bryan wrote one on the spot and we were on our way. I recorded Bryan playing his acoustic guitar part and it was perfect. Ruff liked the song much better after the rewrite, and so did I. We had cut about two minutes off the song!

Mike Shipley has over the years been one of the recording industries most in-demand mixers. Mxing CD's for artists as diverse as Joni Mitchell, Shania Twain, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, and Maroon 5. He is currently producing and recording the next Alison Krauss CD.

lyrics

Way of the Heart

words Allan Thomas - music Michael Ruff

There's your face again
just out of reach
and I keep trying
to get back in the dream
wake up wanting you
what does it mean
this must be the way of the heart

pain beyond measure
joy to the extreme
that's how you know
its the way of the heart

you come and go
its like breathing
the ebb and the flow
you always return to me
I must love you
more than I could ever admit
these things come to me only now

pain beyond measure
joy to the extreme
that's how you know
it's the way of the heart
the bliss and the madness
and everything in between
that's what I mean
by the way of the heart

wake up wanting you
what does it mean
this must be
the way of the heart

pain beyond measure
all things to the extreme
that's what I mean
by the way of the heart
the tears and the pleasure
the bitter and the sweet
that's what I mean
by the way of the heart

C 1997 Black Bamboo Music - BMI
Ruff Mix Music - BMI

credits

from Coconut Culture, track released February 10, 1997
Allan Thomas - vocals
Bryan Kessler - acoustic guitar
Michael Ruff - keyboards
Ken Emerson - slide guitar
Dave Inamine - bass
Mike Shipley - drums & percussion

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Allan Thomas Hanalei, Hawaii

Aloha and welcome to my Bandcamp Music Store home page. Here you can listen to full-length samples of all seven Allan Thomas albums and three singles. Also to be found are credits, photos, stories and lyrics for all songs. Dig in...

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