Another meditation on how we got here. It’s more somber than I’m feeling today, but then I’ve been working this one for a while.

D minor with mechanical MIDI guitar accompaniment.

The preview is a sketch supporting the a cappella. First zip STEMS are raw voice and trimmed, as is the a cappella preview. Second zip is time aligned with voice mics mixed and run through iZotope Nektar 2, plus the instrumental .mid file.

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Lyrics (cc)BY D A Ayer 2020-11-01

You might expect to get to choose the coin of your own realm…
that is, unless you’ve studied just how the business goes:
for though you man the ship of state and stand to boldly grasp her helm,
the lines you cross and spheres you navigate are not what you suppose.

Love, truth, and beauty are all there’s ever been to choose…
Love, truth, and beauty underwrite all other currencies.
Love, truth, and beauty: so hard to catch, much easier to lose.
Love, truth, and beauty lie over heaven, earth, and seven seas.

Now you can offer gold or silver just to get across the river
though for the final trip two copper pence will do;
and while a soldier you might barter faith for arrows in the quiver,
once home you’ll know the price of life had naught to do with you.

Love, truth, or beauty: that’s all there’s ever been to choose…
Love, truth, and beauty underwrite all currencies.
Love, truth, and beauty: so hard to catch, much easier to lose.
Love, truth, and beauty lie over heaven, earth, and seven seas.

Now Beauty spins your head around; she leads your craft and crew aground
then disappears like morning dew or some imagined ghost,
while Truth is made of solid stone that’s neither hope nor comfort known
and will not stop to mourn the wrecks that dot her jagged coast.

So one will fade, the other last, the latter slow, the former fast,
but no such coin will keep you from the cold
and if I had no fortune yet I’d stake my soul and place a bet
on Love and seek enough to overfill my empty hold.

Love, truth, or beauty: that’s all there’s ever been to choose…
Love, truth, and beauty underwrite all human currencies.
Love, truth, and beauty: so hard to catch, much easier to lose.
Love, truth, and beauty lie over heaven, earth, and seven seas.