the brief

a quiet but joyful reflection on the endurance of love across many years, and warm anticipation of a future still together

Jacaranda by Govi was a potential async track I'd identified somewhere in the summer of 2019, after the start of the 3.2 set. I was initially attracted to it by the title, in part because I had lived on a Jacarandah (sic) Drive in Ontario, and it was the name of a common but pretty flowering tree in Australia where I lived for several years.

But Govi's music was very different from anything I'd worked with to that point, and for several months of listening I couldn't get anything except the phrase "I remember" at the start of each verse and a strong sense it would be very elegaic.

It finally started to actively channel when I'd returned to my home recording studio after the Laos Chaos in March the next year.

I remember back there on old Jacarandah Drive
in the spring before the trees had bloomed
the air would taste so
fresh

It was the 39th karosong to start channeling, the 6th song in the 3.2 set, and the 4th pure rom-flavour song.

and I remember
when you first moved in down the street
struggling to get your attention
not sure what I'd do if I did

and I remember
when we first went out for dinner
we talked for hours but
all I remembered was that smile

and in the years and decades to come
I will always treasure that smile
even if I only ever saw it just the once
that would be miracle enough for one lifetime

But I've been blessed to see it more than once
to see it as a regular occurence in fact
and I want to thank you
for being the smile in my life

It was a kind of ballad I suppose, non-biographical, not about anyone in particular. Three verses with two choruses, finished off with an outgoing refrain that restated elements of the last verse. The lyrics ended with a kind of hummed but non-verbal "ba da dah" that I often use to feel the pattern of emerging lyrics before their semantic meaning starts slapping me around the face.

In this case, the "ba da dahs" were the actual trailing out vocals.

And I remember
when I asked you to marry me
you said "not a chance"
but your smile gave a different answer

And I remember
when our first was born
looking down you looked so worn
but you still had on that smile

Karosongs normally come as they come, and take no account of what my conscious "I" thinks. With this song, they did. I think.

When the lyrics for the first verse came initially, the middle phrase started as "when we first walked home from school" which I thought worked okay. But it didn't feel quite right. Conscious "I" came up with the "when you first moved in down the street" which I thought was simpler and more resonant. The energies agreed. I think. The line changed.

I did have initial reservations when the third verse started with a repeat of the first phrase in the first verse. It seemed a bit of a cheat to me. My reservations were ignored. And once I got the next phrase — which included one of my favourite karosong rhymes — I understood why.

The past opened the door to the future.

I remember back there on old Jacarandah Drive
in the spring before the trees had bloomed
the air would taste so fresh

and I want to remember
sitting on something like an old Jacaranda veranda
talking over the day just gone
holding hands and watching that smile

yeah, sitting on an old Jacaranda veranda
quietly holding hands

yeah, sitting on an old Jacaranda veranda
watching that smile

Post-script

Several months after this song had been mastered, during the first period I was over-wintering on Lake Erie and only channeling subvocally, a new bit of lyric came between the 2nd and 3rd stanzas of the first verse. Another case where a long-finished song suddenly popped up a change that made it work better.

and I remember
when you first moved in down the street
struggling to get your attention
not sure what I'd do if I did

but i thought what the heck

and I remember
when we first went out for dinner
we talked for hours but
all I remembered was that smile