Song Notes: I arranged and recorded this song while in the throes and recovery of persistent pneumonia. Seemed like a great song to demonstrate the awful sounds that sometimes emanate from my lungs. I hadn't considered including this song on Song Of Myself until my pneumonia. I was planning on performing a different song by JT. But then I couldn't shake my cough and decided this was the only song I sounded right singing. (I recorded the vocals in a separate pass so that I could edit out most of the coughing between phrases.)

"The Frozen Man" (New Moon Shine, 1991) was inspired by an article that appeared in National Geographic magazine. The body of this unfortunate man was found a hundred years after he was lost on a late 19th century expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the North Canadian coast. Taylor put his own spin on the story, having the victim coming back to life and realizing that his family was gone. (In a concert screened by BBC Television in March 2009, he said he didn't know much about the story, having simply looked at the pictures, but the more he thought about it the more he realised his composition was about his own father, who had spent two years at the South Pole with the Navy.)

This was the most challenging arrangement for me. The James Taylor version is driven by percussion and a very rhythmic guitar part. I had no idea how to represant that relentless feeling of drive and forward motion. I'm kind of glad the pneumonia took so long to abate. I needed all that time to figure it out.

I tried to invoke the sea shanty music of The Frozen Man's own era. And the sense of ice and a world full of sharp, cold things. The spaces between the notes help to illustrate his sense separateness. The rhythms invoke his sense of particality and common sense. But there is no request for pity. Only mercy.

Mercy, something we may all need.

Link back to Song Of Myself project page.

Other lyrics pages for Song Of Myself:

1. Impossible Dream [Mitch Leigh/Joe Darion, from Man of la Mancha]
2. Dignity [Bob Dylan]
3. American Tune [Paul Simon]
4. Blue Tattoos [Joni Mitchell]
5. Blackbird [Paul McCartney]
6. Being Alive (8.1 Mb mp3) [Stephen Sondheim, from Company]
7. Frozen Man (8.7 Mb mp3) [James Taylor]
8. I Have Been Deceived (14.3 mp3) [Elton John/Bernie Taupin]
9. Let's Pretend [Anderson/Wakeman/Bruford/Howe] (altered lyrics)
10. Oh Danny Boy [traditional, lyrics by Federic Weatherly]
11. No Place Like Home [Arlen/Mueller/Mankowski]
12. BONUS TRACK: Before There Were Gods [lyrics by Tobin Mueller, music by Mueller/Hedges]

VIDEOS on YouTube:
Impossible Dream (including many fascinating images of Don Quixote)
Dignity (including photos to illustrate the lyrics)
Blue Tattoos (with a slideshow of actual tattoos... which are astounding)
I Have Been Deceived (Elton John meets the Game Of Thrones)

Link back to Song Of Myself project page.