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Table of contents for Songwriting
- Songwriting Series: Pieces of Love
- Songwriting Series: Club 501
- Songwriting Series: In A Heartbeat
I blame Kristy for this. I spent most of the afternoon buried in a gigantic leaf bag full of old cassettes looking for tapes of songs that I have written or co-written.
I found many of them and plan to share them here over the next several days. I also found some tapes that you are just going to have to hear to believe.
This first song I’m going to share with you was written by Hoss Burns and I in the spring of 1997. We wrote this over the course of an afternoon, sitting on his back deck in the sun. I told Hoss that I wanted to write something with a bit of an Eagles feel to it, with a built in background chorus. I hoped to pitch it to Delious for inclusion on our record.
I don’t remember specifically which of us came up with the hook. I do remember that this song came together frighteningly fast. I think it’s true that some of the best songs write themselves.
This song actually got published, and George Strait had put it on his “hold” list. When a song is “held” for an artist, the publishing company doesn’t submit it out to any other artists until the holding artist either records the song, or releases it. Unfortunately, George never added this song to an album, but he held on to it until after the publishing contract expired. Technically, he could decide to record it still, but the publishing company isn’t actively pursuing a new artist for it.
That makes it available if there’s any artists out there who are looking for a song.
I’m posting two versions of this song.
The first features Hoss Burns on lead vocals. You can hear me doing some backing vocals.
The second version of Pieces of Love was the demo sent to George Strait. It features James Griffin on lead vocals. Those with a strong knowledge of 70’s pop music will recognize James Griffin’s name and voice, as he was a founding member and vocalist with the super group Bread.
Pieces of Love
© 1997 Harris/BurnsWe can split down the middle everything we own
Put a for sale sign in front of our home
Box up the memories and give up on usWe could sign all the papers, take off our rings
Try to win the battle and lose everything
Just throw away these pieces of lovePieces of love
Lie broken and battered
Two hearts have been shattered
They’re windblown and scattered
Oh there’s nothing sadder
Than tiny broken pieces of loveCan we pick up the pieces of our wounded hearts
Take the time to find the missing parts
Put back together these pieces of loveDo we work on this puzzle
Do we cast it to the wind
Do we sweep them away or
Do we try to mend these pieces of love
It should go without saying that these lyrics and audio file are protected by standard artist copyright and are not licensed for use by any other entities without my expressed written permission, regardless of the Creative Commons License that applies to most other posts.
