New Derek Webb songs!

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Me Died Blue

Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Derek Webb's third solo album, "Mockingbird," is coming out December 26. For now, you can listen to two of the songs, the title track and "A New Law," at Derek's MySpace page. The two songs have excellent themes and lyrics:

"Mockingbird"
Words and Music by Derek Webb

There are days I don't believe the words I say
I'm like a life that I'm not living,
A song that I'm not singing but to you.

And there are times that I believe I'm satisfied.
And like an intimate connection
Despite this bad reception with you.

Cause I can't afford to pay
For most of what I say
So it's a lucky thing
That the truth's public domain...

Chorus
And I am like a Mockingbird,
I've got no new song to sing.
And I am like an amplifier,
I just tell you what I've heard.
I'm like a Mockingbird.

So yes it's true, that I need this more than you
Like one whose name is many,
Have mercy, please don't send me away

And I'll do all I can
To be a better man.
I'll clean up this act
And be worse than when we started...

Chorus (x2)
And I am like a Mockingbird,
I've got no new song to sing.
And I am like an amplifier,
I just tell you what I've heard.
I'm like a Mockingbird.

I'm like a Mockingbird. (x3)

"A New Law"
Words and Music by Derek Webb

Don't teach me about politics and government
Just tell me who to vote for.
Don't teach me about truth and beauty
Just label my music.
Don't teach me how to live like a free man
Just give me a new law.

I don't want to know if the answers aren't easy.
So just bring it down from the mountain to me.

Chorus
I want a new law
I want a new law
Just gimme that new law

Don't teach me about moderation and liberty
I prefer a shot of grape juice
Don't teach me about loving my enemies
.....
Don't teach me how to listen to the Spirit
Just give me a new law

I don't want to know if the answers aren't easy.
So just bring it down from the mountain to me.

Chorus
I want a new law
I want a new law
Just gimme that new law

Bridge
Cause what's the use in trading a law you can never keep
For one you can that cannot get you anything?

Do not be afraid (x14)
 
I'd read an interview where he was talking about 'Mockingbird'. I didn't know when the new cd would come out..thanks for the heads up!
 
Actually, mockingbirds have many new songs to sing (up to about 200 songs). They imitate other birds as well as some insects and other creatures. Many of them also sing well into the night. I'm very blessed to have many of them in my yard and most times they seem to be singing a different song (unless they are threatened or protecting their nest).

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/NORMOC/
 
Originally posted by Gregg
Actually, mockingbirds have many new songs to sing (up to about 200 songs). They imitate other birds as well as some insects and other creatures. Many of them also sing well into the night. I'm very blessed to have many of them in my yard and most times they seem to be singing a different song (unless they are threatened or protecting their nest).

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/NORMOC/

But do they sing songs that are not imitations of one kind or another?
 
Northern mockingbirds, year-round residents of the Bay Area (having expanded their breeding range here after the arrival of European settlers), each develop their own songs. Similar to those of other songbirds, mockingbirds´ songs consist of a specific configuration of syllables and phrases, sung primarily to court a mate or defend a territory. However, northern mockingbird songs are different from most of the world´s other 5,600 songbirds´ in that they consist of brief imitated phrases strung together and sung repeatedly"”sometimes as many as a dozen times.

The great majority of other songbirds learn and memorize their songs from a mentor, either their own father or another singing male. Mockingbirds, however, take most of their sounds from the environment, sometimes from other mockingbirds, and always including a range of other bird vocalizations. Mockingbird songs may also incorporate the vocalizations of non-avian species, such as mammals (including the pet dog!) or frogs, and even electronic sounds, like car alarms and cell phones. These sounds are learned, memorized, and incorporated into the mockingbird´s ever-expanding repertoire.

So it seems like even though a song as a whole can be unique to a Mockingbird (because of the differing possibilities for ordering the song's various parts), all of those various parts used to form that song are nonetheless each an imitation of another sound the bird hears - correct?
 
Have you ever heard a mockingbird sing? Very seldom does it just sing 1 song over and over, but sings numerous tunes within a very short time. If each sound is an imitation, it must have a very good memory indeed.:D


[Edited on 11-29-2005 by Gregg]
 
Doesn't it just keep hearing new sounds, in addition to whatever memory it might have? I mean, there is essentially never just one bird around with no others, and no insects and the like...

;) In any case, at least the point of Derek's song comes across clearly. :banana:

What do some people think of "A New Law"?
 
My wife and I saw Derek and Sandra play at The Master's College back in October, and Derek played a lot of the new stuff that will be on Mockingbird. It was excellent! I think, musically at least, that this will be his best effort to date. Being the obsessive compulsive type, he spent a few minutes introducing his songs, and explained the whole mockingbird thing.

The concert, by the way, as well as the one at Calvary Chapel Oxnard from that same weekend, is available free online with Derek's permission at the derekwebb.net site. I found the link somwhere in their discussion forum.

I think A New Law is a great song, lyrically and musically.

A couple other new songs that I particularly like are A King and a Kingdom and I Hate Everything But You.
 
Re: A New Law . . . a month or two ago I heard him play this song at a concert - good song, I'd been trying to find it on-line somewhere since then (so thanks, Chris!).
 
Originally posted by Me Died Blue
Doesn't it just keep hearing new sounds, in addition to whatever memory it might have? I mean, there is essentially never just one bird around with no others, and no insects and the like...

;) In any case, at least the point of Derek's song comes across clearly. :banana:

Even if the bird learns new songs/sounds from other creatures it hears, it still has to learn it and puts them forth into new songs constantly. Just as you as a little boy learned new sounds and from imitating (the sounds of others speaking), you learned how to talk.



[Edited on 11-29-2005 by Gregg]
 
For all who are interested, although the only full songs are those two at Derek's MySpace, you can also hear 30-second clips from ALL of the songs on the new album at Grassroots Music.
 
Yes, my wife bought it for me for my birthday back in January. I think it's a great CD, although I must admit that I almost always skip tracks 5, 8, and 9. As some reviewers have noted, the recurring political and social themes are a bit overdone, but honestly I think those tracks are pretty dull musically, too. The rest of the songs are more than good enough to make up for it, though. I think if you consider the balance of the CD, minus the ones that I skip all the time, it is his best solo work to date.

One of the best things about Derek is that he is very honest about being and feeling wretched. That can be quite helpful at times. I think that is a big part of why "I Hate Everything But You" is probably my favorite track.
 
I got it for my birthday . . . there are some songs that I skip a lot, but it also has some pretty good ones (i.e. Mockingbird, A King and a Kingdom)
 
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