WHEN I WAS A CHILD

©Stuart Nager/Chris Carbone

Lyrics: Stuart Nager
Music: Chris Carbone/Stuart Nager
Grinn Singers: Kerrigan Webb Sullivan
Melissa Jones
Chris Carbone
Stuart Nager

When I was a child
Things were just so wild
It was you and me
We were really free
Always on the run
Always having fun
When I was a child

I remember things so clearly
Growing up as I did
My friends and I played daily
At nighttime, we hid

Our minds went exploring
With every book we read
The page/s were like lightning
Imaginations, fully fed

When I was a child
Things were just so wild
It was you and me
We were really free
Always on the run
Always having fun
When I was a child

And in our dreams we’d tumble
Exploring new-found shores
Filling our nights with treasure
By opening up new doors

When I look upon it now
A smile will find my face
I’ll never be alone
Memories, a saving grace

When I was a child
Things were just so wild
It was you and me
We were really free
Always on the run
Always having fun
When I was a child

It was you and me
We were really free
When I was a child

************** ***************** *************

Author’s Note:

In the winter of December 1997/January 1998, we had plenty of Improv song structures/skeletons. Any show we performed one of them at, the lyrics happened on the spot. It was fun, scary, risky, challenging, and FUN. The Brothers Grinn (and Sisters) went into a studio and recorded our one and only cassette. Yes. Cassette. At the time, CDs were new and three times the price. So, Cassettes.

When I Was A Child is the only song on that cassette that was never sung in a show. I wrote it, had the basic melody in my head, and I asked Chris (Music Director and close friend) to help translate my humming/mumbling into music that made sense. Most, if not all, of the Grinns liked the song. Recording was a drag, but the final product was worth the effort.

The lyrics above have gone unsung since. That is a shame.

Music is eternal.

I hope you enjoy this

4 responses »

Arlee Bird on August 19, 2020 at 1:39 am said:

The lyrics are catchy. I could hear the song singing in my head.

Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out

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- Stu on August 19, 2020 at 4:01 pm said:
  
  Thanks, Arlee. I had an MP3 of the song. File got corrupted somewhere. I’ll dig out one of the cassettes and try again. Would love to see how you compare the music we set to what’s playing in your head.
  
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  - Arlee Bird on August 19, 2020 at 4:28 pm said:
    
    Hope you find the recording and share it. Now a day later I can’t remember what I was “hearing” last night, but it would probably come back to me. It would be interesting to make the comparison. A couple years ago I tried an experiment with one of my songs when a neighbor recorded his interpretation with my vocals, then a friend in TN used the lyrics to make his own interpretation.
    
    You can hear the result of that experiment here:
    
    http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/2018/09/lets-run-botb-iwsg.html
    
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Alana Mautone (@RamblinGarden) on August 26, 2020 at 7:29 pm said:

I did enjoy it, as a poem that triggered memories of me playing until dark in one of the small playgrounds of the housing project in the Bronx that I lived in. More and more, I find myself reaching into memories, some of which I haven’t accessed in many years. As for music: I don’t “think” music, I leave it to those with the talent.

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