From the recording The Emergent Sea
I originally wrote this in British Columbia, directly inspired by the misty ocean and mountain scenery around Tofino and Long Beach, where we went as part of a protect Meares' Island protest in the fall of 1983. I was living at the time on the other end of the country from my then girl friend/common law wife and missed her dearly. This song is for her. Words got changed and added to incorporate life changes, when I rewrote in 2007. I cleaned up the imagery, trying to tighten it up and an added in the bridge with Tim's violin plucking, which I love. Tim was really worried about his playing as he had only picked up the violin for the first time less than a year before. But I love it. Although I originally conceived of this as a purely flute song, his feeling precisely matches the mood and gives it an almost eerie west Ireland sound, so you can imagine yourself on lonely Inishmore as much as in Tofino. It speaks of emotional tides.
Lyrics
Ocean Sunset © Keith Adams, 1989 rewrite 2007 new words and bridge
1. Ocean Sunset, don't go down yet on me. Golden Mauve of morning, graces the far shore of this sea.Oh cragged cliff of reason, the jumbled jagged twilight of my mind. The rambling wave roved me out here to find that my heart sunk ten thousand miles behind.
Chorus 1: No breeze through the fir trees, alone, lost & hollow; and the mist on the sea grounds both gull and swallow; and the waves swells and the sea shells, and on the porch the Chinese bells all remind me of your beauty.
2. Driftwood, I witness the wounded sun surrender, bleeding into the violet sea. Seaweed, I accord its crimson cry rolling in with the tide over me. Waves crash unto my shore, unto the jumbled rocks of reason in my mind. Lessons too long ignored, mind's eye. Sand castles crumble and nothing's left behind. Instrumental
Bridge
What did I call you for, cracks in the ocean floor? Bared mine and earth's own core. Is this fate' s own forge? Love is it's own scourge, but sun sinks to rise once more.
Chorus 2: A breeze through the fir trees, a gentle banshee, clears the mist from the sea and reveals things unseen. and the waves swells and the sea shells, and on the porch the Chinese bells all remind me of your beauty.
End: Ocean Sunset, don't go down yet on me.