10. When the First Leaves Fall (3:32) Words & Music by Steve Gillette

I have said about this song, "If I could only say one thing, this song is what I would say." It's a love song, but a song which tries to get at something essential, even existential, encountered in what the writers of the standards used to call "love's embrace." He says "There's an unspoken wisdom in the motion of the trees, eternity stirring in the air." And, "In the silence when the wish becomes a prayer."

It's the only time I have used the word "prayer" in a song. It's chosen with care to communicate the reverence, the sacred nature of commitment. I try to make the distinction between something that is merely desired, or even demanded, and the thing that confronts the lover at the ground plane of his existence.

The autumn is a very special time in New England. People travel from distant places to view the colors and experience that bucolic splendor that follows the Autumnal equinox each year. Part of the beauty is the mixture of different kinds of trees and a varied landscape which seems to enhance the display. With nature as a background, you already have the passages of time, day to night, Spring to Fall, birth to death, slumbering under the gentle tempo of the song. As the images are connected by a scheme of thought, the song moves from setting the scene early on to getting toward the point, the argument, the "what am I saying by what I'm saying" part. For me this is usually at the midpoint of a song. That means that it can be revisited, maybe even from a different perspective, and there may be room for a bridge to intercede and refresh the ear to prepare for that revisitation.

(BMI)

Read more on my About the Song website here