If I forget you

Community Recordings Originals (Not Covers)
1

Apologies that there’s no moving pictures

Sorry about the sound quality. Turn off dishwashers while recording.

Written from the perspective of someone with dementia experiencing gradual failure. My own father died from and others in my life are suffering this terrible fate. It’s just an homage to the long goodbye. Others have taken other meanings from it and that’s ok too.

IF I FORGET YOU
I told you all my secrets and I held you in my hands
Old faces now are fading, like high tide swallowed sands
Our places less familiar and my words now slip away
Eyes that once shone brightly, burn slower every day

Chorus
It’s getting harder to ignore it, not a choice I got to make
Memories pale like shadows as the morning starts to break
Times we spent together, in the end will see us through
But please forgive me while I forget you

Can you hear the voices calling, the echoes back in time?
The lifetimes we’ve been weaving have started to unwind
Hearts of song and sunshine but fear knocks at my door
I’m so sorry that I’ve lost my way to where we were before

Chorus

So gather ‘round this twilight, let’s toast to brighter days
Our joys and aspirations that time cannot erase
I’ll leave you with my whispers, the love you can’t unlearn
And though my thoughts may wander, my soul light always burn

Chorus

12 Likes
2

Lovely song, Dom. Enjoyed your playing and vocal performance.

I noticed a odd moment when the guitar seemed only on the right channel and vocal lost some quality.

Before making any comments about recording, perhaps share how you make the recordings.

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Dom

Superb song and awesome lyric. Worthy of publication I think.

Brian

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4

Really enjoyed your song!
Very nice singing and playing and lyrics!

Maybe you could re-record it with the background sounds off and the recording device (smartphone pretty close (just so much that it doesn’t distort)?

All the best,
Dominique

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5

I really like your lyrics, especially “Please forgive while I forget you.” I would have expected “if I forget you”, but “while I forget you” is so much better. Kudos for that.

I have a suggestion regarding the music: I think you would benefit if you got some separation between the verses and the chorus. They sound so similar in mood, the volume is the same, the strumming seems about the same. I want to feel it when you hit the chorus.

Normally a chorus would be pumped up, louder vocal, more vigorous strumming, etc. That might not be appropriate for this song, but I would still like to hear the drama increase somehow. One idea might be to shorten the chorus and perhaps repeat the last line (the great lyric). So something like

I dunno, I’ve never written a song in my life, but this idea popped into my head.

Anyway, nice job on a fine lyric.

6

Now that John mentions this, I can relate to it. I read your lyrics while listening and without them, I would possibly not have known about verse and chorus.

I didn’t really think to post about it, because I was really captured by the beauty of your song!
Maybe you’ll have your own idea about how the chorus could contrast a bit more with the verses…

7

Good grief, that was a sad song Dom. But that’s what was intended - to convey emotion - it worked really well.

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8

Wonderful, emotional song Dom, proper poem. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for sharing.

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9

Just did the car test and the quality is the worst I’ve had and had to turn it off. I recorded it on a set of Bluetooth headphones. I get what you are saying about the channels flipping in and out. I can only assume it’s related to the Bluetooth software.

I’ll rerecord with a proper microphone

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Yes. Going to do that I think

11

There’s a little bit of hope in there too. There’s a lot of love in loss

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12

This isn’t ‘Tex’ Walsh, is it?

Thanks for the feedback John. I’d been messing with the melody for three weeks and I hit a 15 minute sweet spot this morning and just press record. It certainly needs more time on orchestration, timing and punctuation.

13

That was unreal Dom. I don’t think there are enough superlatives to describe how good that was. Wonderfully crafted song , very moving and emotional. Thanks for sharing Dom and wish you a happy 2025.

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14

I am very much looking forward to it!

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15

Wow Dom, what great lyrics. I dont mind admiting the whole thing sucked me in and left me with a lump in my throat :flushed:. Great work.

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16

Dom what an exquisitely painful piece of music. The haunting quality of your vocal captures the pain and your guitar sings the uncertainly so well. I particularly like the lightness and understatement of your outro. This piece of music rests on my heart. Thankyou.

3 Likes
17

Screw the quality of the recording, Dom :wink:
I much prefer finding joy in dirty uncut gems than polished turds.
(You know you’ve created something special when you lure the crazy batlady out of her cave :laughing:)
On a personal level, I enjoyed this all the more as my mum is happily fading in a Dublin nursing home. It was exactly a year ago when we did a family & friends cover of a Calexico song about Alzheimer’s - The Vanishing Mind
Thanks again

2 Likes
18

Yes, a very moving and emotional song Dom. Very well written, played and sung.

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Are you set up with an AI and DAW, Dom? If so then recording a separate guitar and vocal can be reasonably straight-forward and result in an excellent recording. Sorry if talking about things you are well familiar with. I forget who does and know what when it comes to home recording.

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I don’t know what a daw or ai is, David so I’m not sure. Up to now I always recorded on my phone. Occasionally edit in an Android app called bandlab which can handle an extra track for recording purposes, before my phone falls over in a cold sweat.

I was giving a mic for Christmas so I’ll see what I can do with that.

You can see I’m very pedantic about what people think of me and my recordings :joy:

1 Like