The Wish is one of those songs that has had a life of its own. I first came up with the main chord changes sometime in the mid-80s and played around with them on and off over the years. I would come up with 2 other songs that formed sort of a trilogy, having chord changes to 3 songs with no lyrics or melodies. I would work on these over the years, trying to fine-tune them into actual songs.
One of these songs wasn’t what you could call a song. Just this chord sequence that intrigued me to no end. Eventually, I would take what was the original chorus of The Wish and add it to the chord sequence and make it the chorus on that song, which I would eventually give to Bruce Engler to write a lyric and a melody for. That song would become One More Chance.
courtesy of @markmaryanovich
The other song of the Trilogy was a fully contained track, with melody, verse and chorus. It would find its way to Eddie Walker, who would write the lyrics and become Think A Little Louder. So with 2 of the 3 songs of the trilogy now finished, I thought I would do the same for the music of the 3rd one, but the situation never quite presented itself. I never found a potential co-writer for it, so I guess it would have to fall on my shoulders to finish it.
With a new chorus in place and nearly 25 years after I first started doodling with the chord changes, I decided to record a track as part of the Standing Still project. I had written some lyrics and recorded a demo to send to drummer Steve Holley and bassist Paul Page to learn for the recording sessions, which would take place in December of 2009 and consist of 15 recorded tracks. The last being The Wish.
Steve, Robert & Paul
The original version of The Wish was more uptempo than the finished version. I recall drummer Steve Holley not being a fan of the uptempo version. Steve had a suggestion, which he usually started with the phrase “I know you’re probably going to hate this but”…Now Steve Holley is a very distinguished musician and only a fool would not listen to what he has to say. I asked him what his idea was and he said he heard the song in half-time as a cross between Neil Young meets Pearl Jam. How could anyone not want to hear what that would sound like?
And so we started to try out Steve’s idea. It was fairly obvious that this was the new version we would record. Steve’s idea of slowing the track down by using half-time made the groove much stronger. What was also obvious to me was that the new track did not fit in with any of the other tracks recorded for Standing Still. And so The Wish, as the track was now called, would once again find itself in limbo for another few years.
Fast forward to 2018. It’s time to think about a new album and I’ve already got some songs to work on. One is already “in the can” and just needs me to finally finish the lyrics and put a vocal on it. I’m determined to finish The Wish. I spend a couple of weeks honing the final draft of the lyrics and demoing the track at home until I’m satisfied. Then in late September, I go into my old friend Stephen DeAcutis‘ Sound Spa Studio. Stephen is also an artist, aka Stevie D. He lends his support by adding some tasty lead guitar to the track and in early October I’ve got a finished mix of The Wish.
Over 30 years after I first came across the chord changes, I’ve finally finished writing and recording the song The Wish. In April 2019 I release it as a single and then in May as The Wish EP in Europe via Last Man Music in the UK. Talk about what a long strange trip it’s been. That certainly would describe the journey of The Wish. 🙂
https://soundcloud.com/shalaman/the-wish