"WISHES (Duet with Valerie Carter)" genre: Acoustic
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	Valerie Carter has been a member of James Taylor's band for years as well as a star in her own right. She has a heart of pure gold, and it was really an honor to have the privilege of singing with her. She has also sung with Linda Ronstadt, Randy Newman, Jackson, and many, many of my musical friends. The song is about wishing I wasn't wishing all these impossible things.
	MP3.com CD: Awakening Sampler - buy it! CD: The Awakening Credits: Valerie Carter: Lead, Harmony and Backing Vocal; J'Anna Jacoby: Violin; Erika Walczak: Violin; Ming Pak: Viola; Kevan Torfeh: Cello; Ida Bodin: Bowed Double-Bass; Brad Steed: String Arrangement; Stephen Paul: Guitar and Vocals, Chime. Produced and Engineered by Stephen Paul, assisted by Scott Swink © 2000 Built On Dreams Music (BMI)
	Story Behind the Song Wishes This is all about the edge, I'm finally beginning to see This really has nothing to do with you and me It's a dance of tightrope walkers at the mercy of the breeze Balance against the wind on a high trapeze And I wish these dreams would let me fly I wish these crimes would let me by I wish that I wasn't wishing all these impossible things I wish that here beneath my wings your body lay I wish that all these difficult years would melt away And we could be lovers Thought I could walk away, thought my heart was free But in the light of brand-new love I finally see In the falling of my soul and in the pain of letting go I'm still in love with you, how could I know And I wish these dreams would let me fly I wish these crimes would let me by I wish that I wasn't wishing all these impossible things I wish that here beneath my wings your body lay I wish that all these difficult years would melt away And we could be lovers But I know these are just phantoms of my dreams 'Cos True Love stands right here in front of me And the Fool in me wonders where to go While the Truth is quietly waiting in the candle glow And I wish these dreams would let me fly I wish these crimes would let me by I wish that I wasn't wishing all these impossible things I wish that here beneath my wings your body lay I wish that all these difficult years would melt away And we could be lovers And I wish these dreams would let me fly I wish these crimes would let me by I wish that I wasn't wishing all these impossible things I wish that here beneath my wings your body lay I wish that all these difficult years would melt away And we could be lovers Words and Music by Stephen Paul © 2000 Built On Dreams Music (BMI) Lyrics The Battlements of My Dreams I understand my responsibilities I know I have so much to do here And yet so many remnants of this Obsession remain clear These Iron Maiden nights Fitfully wash into Reluctant dawns When I awake- Somehow grateful still to be alive And yet like grappling hooks My mind clings to the Battlements of my dreams Hoping to scale these walls of Distance These stones the high cruel keep of my Restless fugitive heart Hoping to taste some zephyr of Freedom Like the long-awaited scent Of some ancient Pleasure Barge On which I might languish and remember the sun While Arthur's maidens comfort me home to rest But these walls are high And here I hide The light of my Love Just a suicide And that forgetful Moon silvers no more nights As the shrapnel of our lost Romance Blinds my tired eyes The hope of seeing light once more And other possibilities Vanishing like a mist upon a slowly Warming sea And here I am in drydock again Laid up once more to hide out and plan Don't want no more love I won't dance again These crippled words whispered Like a needle against the pain Yet even in my armor of funereal blue In the cave of my heart, I still wish for you From "Songs From a Rusty Heart" Selected Poems 1974-2000 © 2000 Stephen Paul Technical Notes: For you recording enthusiasts out there: I had to record this song five times completely with two different quintets before I was finally satisfied with all the performances. (With the exception of Valerie's) it's an exceedingly difficult song to perform, which is really a perfect mirror of the relationship which brought it into being.(g) The guitar (my '68 35) was miked with a pair of Neumann KM-53s, a small tube omnidirectional aluminum diaphragmmed mike which has the same capsule found in the legendary M-50. The strings were all miked with Stephen Paul Audio microphone lab modified tube and solid state condensers, 0.9u U-87's on the violins, a Neumann 1.5u M-49 on the viola, and a 0.9u AKG C-12 on the cello and bowed bass. My vocal was done on the C-12, Valerie's lead vocal was performed on the prototype 0.9 micron Neumann 269, which was also the microphone we used together to do the background vocals.

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