One of the things I enjoy doing- and a must for people with a creative streak who like singing but can’t compose music- is rewriting the lyrics of songs while keeping the same basic rhythmic structure. This allows us to sing with different words to the same tune and instrumental track- great for Karaoke. Here’s two examples. Hurt (the Johnny Cash cover) rewritten to be about Shelley’s poem Ozymandias and The Mystery of Love rewritten to be about a tragic fall romance.
The Mystery of Love rewrite (“The Fall”) was written in conjunction with @sufjansimone
Ozymandias
A traveller spoke today “If the desert you trek Upon white sands black legs Boundless lies the wreck” Ozymandias, king of kings Once dread, long since dead Wind and silence circle in rings Cold sneer upon stone head What has he become? Once worshipped, but no friend Many roads all flesh treads All with dust pit at the end You could never have his lands His empire in dirts Yet he would give it all For your breaths and hurts He wears crown of obsidian Electrum long since fled And the paint on his eyes Wind knives long ago bled Beneath the stains of time The decrees disappear He is nowhere now You are still now here What has he become? Once worshipped, but no friend Many roads all flesh treads All with dust pit at the end You could never have his lands His empire in dirts Yet he would give it all For your breaths and hurts For a chance to start again His throne he'd step down A peasant low and broke He would give each crown
The Fall
Oh, to see with mine own eyes Quaking leaves on silver spires You thrill me as the sun expires My thoughts drift along high air Autumn winds dispel all care Stumbling by grove bare Dusk comes, bringing shadow bliss Our lips pray in hallowed kiss O’ holy is each tree Each leaf that breeze pries free O’, incandescent burns thy touch Sacred is the season of fall Carpo I no longer believe Lonely in naked forest Buried by the snow that wind conceived By my lover sorest My hyacinth, he died Now an angel’s lover Now the river is freeze dried What hope left to uncover? O’ holy is each tree Each branch that breeze breaks free O’, frozen fades thy touch Sacred is the season of fall How much sorrow can I take? Godwit fled my shoulder And what difference does it make When my love lives no more? Shall I sleep under your frost Still struck river woeful Lay your ice above my head 'Til I breathe my last breath O’ holy is each tree Bare against the howling wind O’, freezing burns thy absence Sacred is the season of frost
DePonySum 