"In the Mirror" by David Kilpatrick

In the Mirror

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What does the man in the mirror - or the woman in the mirror - see, looking back at you? Is it the past, is it the future, or is it those shifting sands in between?

singer songwriter acoustic folk british guitarist song celtic traditional fingerstyle scottish scotland guitar kelso

David Kilpatrick

Solo singer-songwriter and tunesmith playing British fingerstyle steel and nylon string guitar, and historic instruments. Scots and Irish influences.

I've been writing and playing songs and tunes since teenage years in folk clubs and pubs. I co-organise the Kelso Friday night live music sessions at the Cross Keys (hosted singaround 7.45-10pm) and Cobbles Inn (10-12pm open mic with The Cobbles Band) with the help of many friends. All welcome! Visit us at kelsofolkandlive co uk. It is worth clicking on the tab because the sound quality of my tracks is far higher than the auto player on this page. Many can be streamed or downloaded at 320KBps and the enhancement for solo guitar/voice far exceeds the benefit you get for highly compressed band recordings. My recordings are full dynamic, not compressed. Just select Hi-Fi for the first song, and an MP3 high bitrate window will open - you will still get a sequence of songs. Most of my downloads are free, but some 320KBps tracks are paid-for. These are selected because they make up my main instrumental album. I now have a YouTube page and have started doing some video recordings for fun: @daviddkilpatrick I have mainly played Lowden guitars since 1999. I current play a 1985 S5FN (nylon string), 1986 S22 (jumbo O-size mahogany/cedar), and 1995 S32 (small body rosewood/spruce). I also play my own 1997-built Martin 'kit' Grand Auditorium rosewood/spruce, a Sigma OM-T, Furch Little Jane, Tacoma Papoose, Guild 8-string baritone, Vintage V880 parlour guitar and Gordon Giltrap signature model, a Troubadour mahogany/spruce classical and an Adam Black 12-string. And that's just the guitars... also viola, mandolin, mandola, waldzither, bouzouki, Appalachian dulcimer, low D whistle, keyboards.

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic Folk

Charts

Peak #298

Peak in subgenre #49

Author

David Kilpatrick

Rights

David Kilpatrick

Uploaded

November 25, 2003

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.6 MB • 128 kbps • 5:03

Story behind the song

We had a power cut on July 31st 2000. The idea for 'In the Mirror' had been with me for some time, along with a desire to use a certain nicked classical theme. It took a about twenty minutes to write the song as once the theme was clear, it almost wrote itself. In fact, the closing lines DID - as I wondered what to write, I glanced back at the first verse, and realised the existing ending could be repeated. This song is very personal - I was 47 and a skinny kind of guy, so that I could either look young or ancient! Now I'm 51 and no fatter, it's getting harder to be called 'lad' or 'young man' in local shops but it still happens. Many of our shopkeepers are past retirement age...

It's a serious song and I hope it connects. The general setting is a bit grand for me and I think this would be a classic for Michael Crawford with a full orchestra... I make no apologies for visiting a seam which has been worked for. This my take on it.

Lyrics

In the Mirror © David Kilpatrick July 2000

I get up every morning
Just the same as I've done
For twenty-four years and more
I breathe the same air
I see the same sun
And I stand on the same bathroom floor

And the man in the mirror
He looks back at me
And I always wonder
Just who does he see?
For there's a young man and an old man
Fighting their place
Behind the lines drawn
On this middle-aged face
And sometimes he's sixty
And sometimes sixteen
But the man in the mirror
He'll never say
Which one he's seen
Today

Sometimes I look back
When he catches the light
And I see the the sixteen-year-old
Winning the fight
Sometimes when I'm tired
And the night has grown late
He looks back and pretends
That he's going on eighty
There's an old man there waiting
For a morning to come
When the young man
Is finally gone

And then I turn round
And I find that you're there
And you're looking at him, just like me
But your eyes are still smiling
And you really don't care
If it's young man or old man you see

For the girl in the mirror
Is keeping apace
And the man in the mirror
Looks into her face
There's a young girl and a woman
And he can't tell who's who
For all that he sees
Is what's always been you
And when you are sixty
You'll still be sixteen
And the man in the mirror
He'll never say
Which one he's seen
Today

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