(Title) Follow the Sound (Sections) The Music, The Way I Play, Home Where the Highway Has No End
For background info about "Follow the Sound," see "1st Instalment, March 25, 2026 - How to Watch 'Follow the Sound'"
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In this instalment -
About song #17 from the "ALAICMI" collection, "Roll Away"
Scroll down to find the link to the song video "Roll Away"
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(Transcript)
About "Roll Away"
I'd been playing the chords of this song since at least 1974. I did have the title. For some reason, it just seemed to me that Roll Away was a good title for this song.
And I had an idea for what message I wanted the song to tell. I had seen the movie "The Snows of Kilamanjaro." If you know the story, you'll remember that there is a sort of a puzzle: A leopard's remains were found at the top of Kilamanjaro. What was the leopard doing up there?
Unless I've misunderstood the point of that story, the main character in the end learns that what has frustrated him with his life endeavors is that he kept getting distracted. He kept getting sidetracked by one thing or another.
And for me, personally, I wanted to learn that lesson for myself and keep it in mind. Because, oddly enough, in the 70's and even for some time later, I had been having kind of a recurring dream, not always the exact same dream, but similar.
In the dreams I'd be travelling from somewhere to somewhere, sometimes on foot, but more often in a car. And as I traveled, I'd lose my way. And I'd turn this way and that but I could never get back on track And I could never get back to where I was trying to go.
And that was a reality of life for me. The main thing I was always trying to do in life was to get my music out and to get it heard (something I'm still trying to do to this very day). But something was always coming along and pulling me away from it. It was my dreams being manifested in real life.
Lesson learned: When life tries to pull you away from you life's calling, you've got to get back on track and stick with it.
I had tried to make lyrics for this song and even recorded a version of it in 1992. But the lyrics sucked (and the recording wasn't so hot either). But still I knew that it was a good song musically.
It wouldn't be until 2022 when I set about to record this song for the ALAICMI project that I set my mind to come up with some proper lyrics for this song once and for all. I wanted the setting to be like a driving motif. That's the way my dreams most often had been.
I remember it wasn't easy for me to come up with the lyrics, mostly because of the inherent phrasing of the music. But I finally did it and I'm happy with the lyrics now.
The basic lead for the song and a rudimentary bass line came to me in 1992. The rest is all new as of 2022. And incidentally, this song is another example of how my little Yamaha FG-75 acoustic guitar is capable of putting out dynamite rock and roll!
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(To watch the song video, click the link below)
Collection number 4, "ALAICMI,"
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