Oz

[billroper]

I wrote this song for the OVFF Songwriting Contest on the way back from ConText late in September. The topic for this year (which I checked a few times to make sure I was reading correctly :) ), was "Come Fly With Me". I started poking at lyrics and then realized who the song belonged to, which made it much easier to put together.

I ended up finishing third, which is the best I've done at OVFF, so that works out pretty well.

Words and Music: Bill Roper
Copyright 2012

Oz

I want to look into your eyes
And promise I won’t tell you lies
Like every other humbug wizard passing through the fair.
And hope that you might take a chance
On understated elegance,
A conveyance of my own design to take us anywhere.
Come fly with me through space and time.
I’ll conjure up a bit of rhyme
And maybe summon up a tune
To sing as we sail past the moon.
As we’re sitting sharing dreams,
Reality’s not what it seems.
My balloon can carry two.
Come fly with me so I can fly with you.

Beneath the canopy unfurled,
We’ll drift between the different worlds
Where nothing is impossible that hasn’t happened yet.
And hope that it is not amiss
If I lean over for a kiss
That I’ve held in abeyance since the moment that we met.
Come fly with me through time and space.
I’ll conjure up some better place
And summon up your heart’s desire
As we sail safe past lakes of fire.
From here to there and back again,
We’re sailing off to anywhen.
My balloon can carry two.
Come fly with me so I can fly with you.

(Bridge)
I’m not like any other wizard that you might have seen,
For I have learned my lessons in a land of emerald green.
And though I once was humbug, I am better than I was
And I have learned to do the things an honest wizard does.


I hope that you might venture soon
To take a ride in my balloon.
I’ll cast away the moorings and we’ll sail into the sky.
And I will promise this to you:
My wizard’s word is finally true,
‘Cause even an old humbug can someday learn to fly.
Come fly with me to anywhere.
I’ll conjure anything you dare
And summon up some worthy cause
For us to journey back to Oz,
Where reality’s another scene
All colored up in emerald green.
My balloon can carry two.
Come fly with me so I can fly with you.

Come fly with me so I can fly with you.

Comments

[janeg.livejournal.com]

Wish I could have been there to hear you sing it!

[billroper]

I know. But I'll be at FKO! :)

[sexybass.livejournal.com]

I heard it Bill and loved it! Wish we got to play more music together :-/ We are home safe after a bit of a rough drive through rain and high winds but missed the wort of it. One person dead here in Toronto from the storm.

[billroper]

Thanks! I would have liked to have had more time in a circle with you too, but the weekend wasn't cooperating in any fashion and having to skip the dead dog filk this year took a lot of singing time away.

On the other hand, Katie and Julie really enjoyed the event at school that we'd hurried back for, so it was a good thing from that point of view. :)

[chaoticgoodchic.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of the best songs in your entire repertoire and hope to hear it frequently!! You deserved better than third. It might have gone better with the judges if you could have gotten more of the audience singing with you.

[billroper]

Thanks! I expect to keep it in the rotation. If nothing else, it's a follower when the Oz cycle of songs pops up. :)

The problem with getting the audience to sing along with this song is that -- like Windward Passage -- it doesn't have a real chorus. It's got two repeated lines and a mutable chorus, so getting folks to follow along (especially the first time that you're singing it in public) is challenging...