FAWM: "Whereabouts Unknown"

Whereabouts Unknown

1 week ago by @tspoon

Whereabouts Unknown

tspoon

00:00

Liner Notes

#americana #folkpop
This is another song title I wrote down last month after watching a Netflix mystery about a missing girl. She was the daughter of a Chinese diplomat, and the detectives kept using this term. Coincidentally, my wife had to leave town this weekend, and I thought up this one in response to being alone on Valentine’s weekend. Though its all fiction, I had fun writing the story about a missing girlfriend, and how the mind wanders when you don’t know where a loved one is. And as a dad of 2 adult daughters who live in different states, I often feel irrational fears when I cant get them to respond to me, or haven’t heard from them in more than a day or 2.
I also wanted to pull out the old electric guitar for this one, and as I listen back, its not exactly in tune. But it was not bad enough for me to want to re-do it.

Lyrics

I tried to call her on the phone
knocked on her door, she wasn’t home
I searched the places we used to go
All Reports came back… whereabouts unknown

refrain
Whereabouts unknown, the girl was gone
Whereabouts unknown, This bird had flown
Will she return? ill never know
Ahooo ooo ooo ill never know

If you ever see her, in her new town
tell her from me, I am still around
She may be in Houston, or NYC
if you see her, say hello from me

She may be traveling abroad
She may be a victim of some fraud
She may be with someone, or maybe alone
All Reports came back… whereabouts unknown

Why did she leave here, why did she go?
Was she running from the winter snow?
or was it something else, that I shoulda known?
All reports come back… Whereabouts unknown
refrain

Comments

@joefahey 1w

This a heavy song and a good exercise to pull from fiction for an ideas outside to your reality. But the theme is a feeling so many of us parents, partners, siblings and friends can, and do, encounter. That occasional feeling of panic and worry for our loved ones who are out of sight from our geographical landscape.

@mattpierce 1w

Aren't daughters great!
You get to write songs about them! :)
"if you see her, say hello from me"
this line gives me the feeling that you're not talking
to one another, after say an argument?
Then again, it may be those irrational fears that
Fathers sometimes get with their daughters

@toddnorem 1w

That's a great title. I really like your verses and the way they end with whereabouts unknown. I like the ooo's too. The chorus starts to get infectious toward the end. Nice guitar playing too. You seem to be on a roll.

@schnowd 1w

This song has a lonely but hopeful vibe. Great tune!

@sheslin 1w

I totally relate to your liner notes! When my kids were in college I would text them a picture of our dog just to get a proof of life comment back. Lovely vocals, and the doubled vocals in the chorus worked really well. I love that space between "back" and "whereabouts" - it adds a gentle tension. The oohs are so pretty also. Great song! Also, these kids lol!!