A cassette tape I found of my mother singing this song a cappella rekindled my interest in doing something with my songs (this one written in 1980)
Story behind the song
I wrote this song for a character in my musical that was supposed to be about Atlantis but never got anywhere near that subject because I was more interested in the relationship between the mother and daughter Id created. When I discovered an a cappella version my mother had recorded, I thought the song could stand on its own with a few lyric tweaks (my husband helped with that part!)
Lyrics
It was back in
THE EARLY DAYS
The age of bouquets
And cummerbunds
When I thought
That I would marry
The downtown visionary
And thumb my nose
At all the other ones
What a time it was
We dined on dreams
Before life came apart at the seams
Billy and I
Were such radical chic
With a streak
Of collective insanity
As we traipsed
Around the nation
Filming scenes of desperation
Making movies
Of the worlds profanity
Cloaked our empty lives
In utopian schemes
Before life came apart at the seams
There I was, just an idiot heiress
Fresh from education in Paris
Searching for someone to be
Other than me
Take me back to
those simple days
A child in my arms
Who needed me
As your mother
Lay there dying
And you and I were crying
I cradled the part
That completed me
There you were
Just an innocent stranger
Deserted, surrounded by danger
But God had opened a door
Given you more than you know
More than anyone knows
And someday
Ill find the words to say
And the things to do
Be the mother
That I dreamed
I could be to you
Way back in
THE EARLY DAYS
Take me back to
THE EARLY DAYS