Dandelion

by @davidtaro

Liner Notes

This one was sparked by my son, Daniel, berating me for having too many silly nicknames for him (it’s true, I do). I’ve written quite a few ‘isn’t it sad that you’ve got to grow up’ songs in the past, and initially this was another. But it’s kind of morphed into a more general meditation on, well, I suppose death. So a very cheerful number.

It’s not quite the song I had in my head when I was writing it. And it’s a little too earnest for my liking, in retrospect. But I’ve given up tweaking for now and am offering it up to the FAWM Gods. Do your worst…

#folk #harmonies #fingerpicking #mellotron #overlyearnest

Lyrics

Dandelion, look at you grow
Dandelion, wouldn’t you know
So strong and proud in the summer meadow

Dandelion, yellow as the sun in the August sky
I’m happy and I’m sad, I don’t know why
Oh dandelion

Dandelion, when do we learn
Dandelion, seasons will turn
Like time-lapse memories, we flicker

Dandelion, mellow as the light of a dying star
This spirit in our lungs only goes so far
Oh dandelion

Dandelion, look at you now
Dandelion, you made it somehow
Still strong and proud in the fading echoes

Dandelion, scatter your seeds on a passing wind
One story ends and a new one begins
Oh dandelion

Comments

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I think this treads the deep end of the ocean at a nice and steady pace. Not too deep to drown, but deep enough to get covered in the feels. It's a beautiful take without getting too sentimental.
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Love this pull into the folk genre.. Absolutely adore the harmonies, and the slow build with the subtle mellotron. "Dandelion, mellow as the light of a dying star " and what follows is such a gorgeous lyric. I really enjoyed the progression on the guitar, it adds a certain urgency to the meditative lyrics. Great stuff.
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This is sweet! Loving the guitar picking and vocals! The lyrics are great as well.
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Ahhhhh, fingerpicking just resonates with me, mostly because it completely escapes me how people do it. One can wish. I love the use of repeating words. It doesn't come off as too earnest to me, mostly because I will take any visions of summer and this fits the bill, here in the freezing wintertime. That hanging note at the end of the section is great - makes you want more and that's exactly how I feel about summer. Loved it.
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Such a sweet and simple song. It is pleasing to see each phrase start with the word dandelion. :)
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Really beautiful. I love you vocals, you can hear the honesty.
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Oh yes I did one for my daughter called My Little Cupcake which was all about her growing up too fast. (And embarrassed her when I sang it to her when she was 12.) Man that was emo to sing. I have a few nicknames to offer up as well as Dandelion, Danimal, Danielle, Darnell, Danny Boy, Danny Zucho… loving that errant (dominant 7th?) that somehow captures the bittersweet life cycle of everything. Kids eh…inspiring, frustrating, couldn’t live without em. This is in a word - beautiful.
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I'm still in the season of keeping the earnest songs I write that are inspired or informed by my kids out of their hearing. So for me, this one is that kind of singing in your head, without saying it out loud...And there's this whole world blooming and blowing away in there...
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The FAWM Gods have accepted your sacrifice and have raised it open the the highest FAWM heaven, level 12, to be received in the highest courts. Congratulations!

Also - love that "bad" note in the pause. (On purpose or accident and then you held it because that's what jazz bands do🤣).

Great chord changes and truly beautiful as well.
Ah!! That note was on purpose. LOVE IT. Especially the second time. And those dissoant keyboards underneath. Ooof.
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Very beautiful song and sentiment. Your son will soon start appreciate every loving name you have for him. It's just the age he is now :) Gorgeous song, singing, playing and the feel of love is definitely in every word and every note. Beautiful harmonies, warm and absolutely wonderful. Stunning song. Everything is magical. Your little pause is so beautiful too. Fantastic structure. Love your song, singing and playing.
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After listening to this lovely song, I was reading all the positive comments that FAWMers have rightfully given. I'm one of your musical admirers and this song keeps me in firmly on your side.

Depending on the age of your son, I wonder about encouraging him to scatter his seeds. If he's a teenager....ooof! :)
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This is so beautiful. I find that songs go where they want to go sometimes. I love where this one went.
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This is beautiful DT. Just wonderfully played and I love the overall feel, just perfect for the song in my opinion. The verse I feel is the killer part, which I think is just fine.
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oooh i love those hanging chords in the breaks... beautiful harmonies... beautiful all round ... beautiful lyrics/concept
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The dandelion spores just blew ME away with this one!
The symbolism of the dandelion is one of hope, strength and transformation...very apt I think, after reading your liner notes...
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@n24
Nothing wrong with earnest! Sincerity is hard to pull off and you've done it beautifully. Those chord choices and harmonies are beautiful, just as you think you know where it's going you throw a little twist and mirror the discomfort of existential dread with the ever so discordant choices. A treasure!
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Very sweet and quite a different style than I'm used to, but then that voice came is and all was right.
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That extended metaphor really tells a big story and the fairly simple musical setting just emphasizes that for me. I was really taken by the cool chord changes and I was fairly amazed at the really interesting harmony intervals you chose and how they wove around the top line. Really fine song construction, David.
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Love the simplicity and depth of this and also way the last lines of the three verse lines plays with the rhyme by shifting where the emphasis falls.
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Beatles, yes I guess so but for me more a 60s trippy vibe with the title and the arrangement. A bit of it is the nostalgic mellotron sound no doubt. Those unusual chord changes certainly arrest your attention too. Haven’t quite got round to loving that dissonant note at the end of the chorus yet though, but otherwise an excellent and intriguing song.
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argh cheery death songs already man. made me smile reading above about the nicknames for your son, I've started calling mine "Pie" and have no idea why. anyway as for the song it's got a magic fm feel to it, soothing man
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I love the unexpected chord progressions of the B sections juxtaposed against the simplicity of the lyrics - such a sweet reflection (and it's ok to be earnest, I promise).
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the life of a dandelion is a stark metaphor for the ephemeral existence of we mortal beings. all these characteristics are relevant to our own condition, from the "spirit in our lungs" to the scattering of our seeds. deceptively simple, the song swings and sways its way with getle mellowness until we realize he is singing, not only about dandelions, but of us..in all our beauty and frailty. the lyrics are whitmanesque in their seeming ordinariness that cloaks a deep profundity within.
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This one’s interesting - that second section troubled me on a first listen - I don’t have the musical vocabulary to explain, but it’s like the harmony was inverted in an unexpected way, but it makes sense the second time. It’s like an optical illusion, it has flipped into place. I guess that’s about my expectations. This is really beautiful. I feel like it is a cousin to Julia off The Beatles in the sense that it is a meditation on love and mortality, it has pretty finger picking, and it is quiet and small. Also, the more I hear that dissonant guitar note, the more it makes sense: it’s really rather lovely.
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Beautiful fingerstyle playing David. Dandelion is such a cute nickname for Daniel. I really enjoyed the gentle sweet tone of this song, and how you used the dandelion imagery for growing up. Masterful songwriting IMHO. Nice "fading echoes" echo. So well done, and a very moving and memorable song.
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As a fellow songwriting parent, I love the songs our kids draw out from us, the way our understanding and expression of love changes and grows as they do.

Mine are both in college, the youngest turned 20(!!), and the nest is empty most of the time. The ephemeral image of the dandelion scattering in the wind is all the more powerful for how fleeting our time together with our kids really is. Everyone says that, but you can't know until it happens.

The unexpected notes in the "yellow/mellow as" phrases was jarring to me at first, then I realized how you were capturing something musically to pair with the lyric. Bittersweet, ya dig?

As for over-earnest, I struggle with that myself. Especially in my folk-ier writing, sometimes I think earnestness is one of my strengths and even I cringe away from it sometimes. Why are we so culturally conditioned to fear/mock earnestness? What is it about genuine human emotion that makes us so uncomfortable?

And that's a good "I love my kid" song, that can lead to me to thoughts like that.
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Really interesting note choice in the pause before the second verse - some generally interesting chord movement in general. Nice rich harmonies across the vocals that make for a quilt of sound that brings comfort to the message. Nice write.
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The acoustic guitar was the correct choice for this song. The melodic guitar and sparse production gives the room for the lyrics to resonate with the listener...great job.
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Let me just grab a tissue and wipe away a tear first. Okay, now that that's taken care of, what can I say about this? I loved the fade in. Your guitar playing is fantastic and so is your recording of it. I like the dissonant note at the end of some sections (that feels like a very Beatles-esque touch to me). Your vocals are good and I like the softness you've given them, which is appropriate to the material. As for the lyrics, I mean, okay, maybe they're a little earnest, but I don't have a problem with that at all. And lines like this: "This spirit in our lungs only goes so far" hit hard. I mean, what are you trying to do, turn me into a puddle of sobbing flab? If so, well done. Despite the fact that this song sounded (to me, anyway) very grounded in the Beatles, your last verse (as well as a few other spots) also reminded me very strongly of Paul Simon, particularly "I Do It For Your Love" and a couple of other tunes of his. In any case, this was a really beautiful song, well performed and well recorded. Excellent work! And no apologies for earnestness. My opinion, at least, is that we could all use a bit less cynicism and a bit more earnestness. If I can't manage to do it, I'm glad to see others who can.
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Your liner notes alone could make a great song! I especially like, "I'm happy and I'm sad, I don't know why." Who can't relate to that? I think my favorite part is, "Dandelion, look at you now/ Dandelion, you made it somehow." It got me.
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Wait--we're not supposed to have a ton of nicknames for our kids? Uh-oh, I blew that one, too! 😉

Love this one, David--more "acoustic-y" than I think I'm used to hearing from you. Less "rocky", I guess. Hmmm...I think that might make it a new favorite of yours for me. ❤️
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Lovely repeating finger-picked refrain flowing along like life's river and I'm imagining that you slotted in the dissonant note as a signal that all pleasant constant flowing reaches an end at some point ... where the sweet meets the bitter? Dandelion is such a lovely word too.
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Very Beatles-esque! That one dissonant note really catches me after each second paragraph…word painting of something bitter among the sweet, matches your sentiment here well.
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Love the guitar picking/playing/melody/chord progression. Very melancholy and full of emotion
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Oh these words pack a lot of feels, and they're massively relatable. So much of raising children is uncertainty and you convey that with some astonishing contrasts of scale. "Mellow as the light of a dying star. This spirit in our lungs only goes so far" is a proper sit-you-down-and-make-you-ponder-the-universe stuff.
Gorgeous picking. The chord sequence on the chorus(?) just took me somewhere else entirely. Wonderful.
Lastly, your instinct that it needed something but not a big something was bang on. Enter the mighty mellotron as a lovely worm midrange shelf right out of the seventies. Superlative stuff.
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I hate that my kids grow up so fast. And that they are becoming independent and don’t need me as much. This gives a chance to reflect and maybe realize it’s not all bad. love the harmonies; I reckon Daniel will be proud of his dad.. you know.. in some years 🙂
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Ahh this is one of them universal themes that everyone relates to in one way or another. Really nice
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Love the subtle build up in the second verse. Very reflective and the music definitely captures that perfectly.
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Nice... got some nice philosophy going...
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i love how melancholy this is. and the earnestness of it is a nice contrast to your first song, which i also loved. it’s awesome to hear all these different sides of you. and of course it all still feels very you.
love the harmonies. love that guitar picking. my favorite parts of the chord changes are those moments right before you stop, it’s like a minor chord? or something. some kind of unresolved note (i can’t read music, sorry!) really nice. makes it extra sad. it’s always such a joy listening to your stuff dude
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Beautiful all aroiund David! And had me nearly choking up with your words, and thinking back to when my adult sons were younger. Those dissonant moments create just a touch of tension that is glorious when released. Loved listening to this!
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DT, there’s nothing like the love for a child. It’s precious and fragile. Whatever your song morphed into, the love and tenderness is still there. Maybe with some sadness but still all the love and beauty…
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Oh this is lovely. I especially like the way it turns from the last "dandelion" stanza and how the ending is somehow not really an ending but rather suggests something is coming
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No such thing as overly earnest. I love this song. Your playing and vocals match the sentiment of the song perfectly. And, it has mellotron!
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The vox over those notes is very powerful! And even some discordant subtly thrown in. I do really love your more laid back songs! You’ve dug deep here mate and it shows
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Holy god and sweet baby jeebus….this is powerful as F. Expertly produced and performed. Absolutely beautiful my dude. I’m genuinely crying in both eyes.
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Overly earnest? Really? I think it has just as much poignancy as Tears In Heaven. I don't have children, but I do think I'd be very much inclined to impart a song with these "real life realities" in such a sentimental way. I like silly love songs and I like over earnest songs, too! 💯
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OK, I'll do my very worst...."Dandelion, mellow as the light of a dying star
This spirit in our lungs only goes so far"----brilliant lines. And even worse...this is so you, those Taro harmonies, tamed nuances and seeming over-fluffiness, it's YOUR fluffiness, and who doesn't go nutso in love over their kids??
And my very last and worst comment of all is this...you had a plan. Your muses had another. You let go and took the ride. You're the worst!!! :0))
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Interesting, I never expected a conversation with your son ending in such a dark song. I like the contrast of picking and melancholic lyrics. But I so understand why you want to offer it to the FAWM gods.
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@sbs
That is very sweet - we have many nicknames for our furry kids. 😀
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Lovely picked guitar and super vocal harmonies just grab you (or rather, grab me) right from the off - that high harmony part is particularly great. Strings are subtle but super when they come in. And it's a more restrained vocal from you, which I really like. Undersell but overdeliver. That's a phrase isn't it? Should be if not.
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Sweet fingering 😄 and beautiful lyrics, although sad.
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Mmm...that guitar is sweet, as is the vocal, and...all of it. Can you have too many nicknames? My kid is 20, and I'm still making up new ones. Too earnest? Hmm, I don't know. There's some nice lines in there: the spirit in our lungs, time-lapse memories, etc. Dandelion is a great word, too
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Beautiful. I understand the feeling of „this is a bit too honest“, I just released such a song myself… :-)
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Time warp to the 70's, in the best way. I think I hear a mellotron in there? Is that right? It adds so much vibe. I like the vocal harmonies. You got another one finished and out there, that's what matters!
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Beautiful! Really grateful that I got to listen to this today and that you made it! Aren't dandelions such a gift for us because they so obviously depict time and seasons, etc. Love that nice unresolved ending, and I really love the line "I'm happy and I'm sad, I don't know why" very simple, but oh does it get to the heart of things! PS - I once tried to write a buttercup song. Couldn't get it to work. Maybe I'll try again.
[FAWM]