From the recording THE MARIONETTE: This & That from Hither & Yon
Since I began driving a school bus in 2018, I have penned only two new songs. One, entitled The Golden One, was written in recognition of an unheralded local hero who was a fixture on Golden Avenue here in Springfield, Missouri... an elderly gentleman who could be found every morning, often before sunrise, picking up trash along the road left by litterbugs during the night. For several years, I saw him on my bus route each morning. However, that song is not included here, as it will be included, more fittingly, on my next CD (already in the works) called The Gardener in the War. This inspiring gentleman is sadly absent these days and I fear he may have passed on, as I have not seen him for several years now.
The second song is this one. It was inspired by one of my high school passengers. She was a fellow theater nerd who, not unlike myself, found freedom and her true self on the stage (a common experience among thespians). I saw her perform in several of her school’s productions and she displayed significant, natural talent. She graduated precisely forty years after my own departure from high school in 1983, inspiring the song’s secondary meaning of the word “stages”, and in the spring of 2024, my puppet master, once again, demanded pen be put to paper.
For Cami.
Lyrics
You were standing at the stop in your red coat and blue jeans
Deep into your music and lines from that big scene
You gotta make it through the hustle of another high school day
And the passions of your youth up and carried you away
The stage gave you permission, by design and definition
To venture from the shell that held you, safely hidden
And showed you are as beautiful as those lines that never age
From that day on, you’re only whole when you’re out there on that stage
There’s so much yet to write on so many empty pages
So many boards to tread on so many waiting stages
Entrances and exits, butterflies in wings
And the perfect imperfection of a broken heart that cries out when it sings
It’s just a stage. A passing phase
It’s just the first act of a lovely play
It’s just a stage. So take your time
It’s just sublime. Enjoy your stay
I think of you too often for my liking at my age
But deep into the third act, conflict takes the stage
Through life’s tragedy and magic, the wise are heard to say
Pour your heart into your part. Because in time, the lime that lights it burns away
It’s just a stage. A passing phase
It’s just the last act of a lovely play
It’s just a stage. So take your time
It’s just sublime. Enjoy your stay
Music & Lyrics by David Greathouse
© 2024, Sourdough Music, ASCAP
Cello and horn arrangement graciously provided by Mr. John Tweed.