Blue Horse from Autumn Sketchbook by Pumpkin Friend

Recorded: October 23, 2019

This is one of 3-4 songs in this collection that I think are good enough to record better versions of sometime in the future. In this early attempt, I flub both the lyrics and guitar a little. However, I like the reverb-drenched atmosphere and the overall feeling of the song comes through.

The lyrics are about a metal, swing-set horse (now, long gone) at Martinak State Park where my family camped each year throughout my childhood in the 80s/90s. They had a lot of horses—dark green, red, and white (as well as a skunk and zebra)—but the blue horse was always my favorite and I greeted him with a hug every spring when we went. (My Pumpkin Friend profile pic is of me riding this blue horse.)

In the song, I’m imagining riding on him one last time, but on a magical carousel in the woods. Obviously this is a reflection on my childhood.

Musically, the song evolved out of trying to write a one-chord song that utilizes all of the diatonic notes of the scale—in this case C Major—without moving away from the root chord (C). Each of the other four notes are worked in as ornaments. (The bridge then switches to A natural minor and does the same thing.)

Here are the lyrics:

Golden day at summer’s end
Autumn just around the bend
Afternoon in wooded dell
There I found a carousel

Sunlight on the horses fell
No one there to hear or tell
When I heard one call my name
I climbed on and grabbed his mane

I found my blue horse

Carousel began to turn
Time passed strange and undiscerned
All the years came whizzing by
Flooding out of my two eyes

[Interlude]

Time had come to leave at last
Tender years rush by so fast
Said goodbye to dear old friend
Won’t be back this way again

I found my blue horse
I found my blue horse

Tracklist

5.	Blue Horse	1:43

Credits

from Autumn Sketchbook, released December 7, 2020

License