Ghost Orchid

by @nancyrost Mod · @mikeskliar

Ghost Orchid
nancyrost +1
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Liner Notes

Nancy: This song started with Mike’s guitar track. While toggling between other songs in progress, it occurred to me that the feel would suit a lyrical idea I had to fulfill a challenge from @wylddandelyon from the “Give a prompt, receive a prompt” thread https://write.fawm.org/forums/3323: “Write a song about your favorite extinct animal, bird, fish, or plant.” I don’t know if I have a single favorite, but I was interested in this endangered one that has at times been thought extinct. Ghost orchids are thin and pale, often hidden, and don’t have the means for photosynthesis, instead relying on networks of fungi for their nutrition. What would one be like as a person?

Mike: Guitar
Nancy: Lyrics, vocal, Ashbory bass, electric organ

#PromptChain #acousticrock #organ-solo

Lyrics

You’ve got that 90s model-waif thing
Pouty lips, pale and thin
The gossip rags say it’s heroin
27 Club waiting in the wings

They had you down for the count in the cold hard ground, forever thwarted
Buried so deep in a permanent sleep, deep in the forest
But you’re haunting them, gorgeous
Ghost orchid

A star who’s not sensational
Is like a plant that has no chlorophyll
Do you take some magic pill
Are you breathing through your gills?

They had you down for the count in the cold hard ground, forever thwarted
Buried so deep in a permanent sleep, deep in the forest
But you’re haunting them, gorgeous
Ghost orchid

You’ve got your roots to get by
A neighborhood ungentrified
That feeds the beauty inside
When you bloom you open wide

They had you down for the count in the cold hard ground, forever thwarted
Buried so deep in a permanent sleep, deep in the forest
But you’re haunting them, gorgeous
Ghost orchid

Comments

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Oh yeah, this is a bop, love that chord and melodic turn on the first line of the verse. And yes to that organ solo. Great lyric, the title drew me in and those last two lines are a great finish. Solid collab!
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And it sure sounds like a highlight. But let me note first, @mikeskliar, I like that choppy, thrusty guitar strumming. Very much right on time with what Nancy's doing vocally. I was reminded of some 60s/70s era pop. Delicious. Nancy is once again weaving that magic and it's still efficacious as ever. Nice work, y'all.
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Its always a pleasure and a fawm highlight for me to do a collaboration with @nancyrost - Nancy suggested that I send her some music and she'd take it from there, and she sure did- love everything she did, including that great lyric, the whole concept, that organ solo, and all the rest. thanks again, Nancy!
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Oh this has personally in spades. I just love hearing you together. What an excellent song!!
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Great lyrical imagery, fun melody, awesome overall vibe. A collab with the two of you comes with high expectations that this meets!
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It's the sign of a great songwriter to take a familiar theme and describe it in entirely new ways. Lots of innovative lines here but the first verse is my favourite. '27 club waiting in the wings' is striking in its coy darkness. It's also deft in that it's never entirely clear where the line is drawn (if at all) between the literal and the metaphoric.

I know this voice and this guitar well - they come together to create quite a different third persona. You work well together.
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Oh, this is lovely! If it’s set public I’ll send a link to a filker friend who loves orchids.
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Love the descriptions and analogies of the ghost orchid. Fantastic chorus! Lovely melody. Love the steady strum stage throughout and the fabulous organ section!
[FAWM]