YOU CAN'T PRAY A LIE
"You Can't Pray a Lie" is a direct quote from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". And Huck said them. The scene is: Huck has just found out that his friend Jim, a runaway black slave, has been stolen off the raft they'd been navigating down the Mississippi for the last few weeks. At first, Huck felt a sense of relief because he had spent long nights worrying about how he was such a bad guy for helping a black man to run from his masters, a man he should have turned in. He would write a letter to Jim's owner and tell her where he was. He even got down on his knees to pray, to promise God that he would be a better person but he couldn't do it. Jim was his friend and he was going to find out where he was and set him free. Huck, up to his wicked ways. He tore up the letter and said: "All right, I'll go to hell!" He thought that the act of helping a friend was an evil thing to do because of the way he was raised. There was no-one there to tell him that he was doing the right and noble thing. So he said, "You can't pray a lie." He was right.
The genesis of the song was from my love of Mark Twain's classic novel. When I read that quote, I knew that I'd write a song around it. The first version of the song came to be one day in the early to mid 70's. The music and lyrics were written jointly between my brother Robert Savoie and I in an upstairs apartment in Toronto, not far from the CNE. Unfortunately, over the years, both of us forgot some of the lyrics. We let it go until 2004, when we got together again to rewrite it. The results of that session are what you will hear in the future.
The track features Pat Browne on drums and my brothers on the rest of it. I play rhythm guitar and Roland plays a great lead break! Guest artists are Phil McNally on mandolin and Matt Landry on violin
SWEET TASTE OF ROSE
This song started with a title. John E. Ellis's title, to be precise. He didn't know what it was about; he just thought it was a great title. So did I. I came up with some music that I thought would suit it and John and I got together one night to see what we could do with it. For an hour or so, we couldn't come up with anything. We had a theme: a Lothario who brags about his conquests but concedes to the fact that he's in love with a girl named Rose. We decided to use different images to describe his conquests by their names but we ran into a brick wall. In desperation, we called on Vonnie Mann to give us some help. She came up with names like Heather (after her sister), Ruby, Jasmine, etc. and even helped with a line or two. Suddenly, the song came alive. Thanks to her, we finished it rather quickly. The music is mine and I helped with the lyrics.
The vocalist is singer / songwriter Roy Gould, who was my first and only choice to sing it. I'd like to take credit for the great arrangement but I can't;: that was conceived by my brothers Gilles, Robert and Roland. I play acoustic guitar. The session was produced by Roland Savoie.
HALIFAX HARBOUR
This song had its beginning at a get-together at a friend's place in 1980. A man I know was playing guitar--beautifully. I was envious of him and I watched him all night trying to see if there was anything I could learn. Well, his style was much too intricate for me to grasp but there was one riff that I retained and tried to master to no avail. I noticed, though, that I could play the thing backwards. I was inspired by John Lennon who got Yoko Ono to play the Moonlight Sonata backwards and thus composing the beautiful "Because" from the Beatles' Abbey Road album. The guitar figures in the song are what I came up with.
I was in Halifax later on staying with my cousin Rachel Malenfant. It was a cool, crisp autumn day, if I recall correctly when I went for a walk along the water at the harbour. It was then that I conceived of the title "Halifax Harbour." When I got back to Moncton, I played it for my frequent writing partners John E. Ellis and Danny Greene. John and I tried to put lyrics to it one morning with no luck. There were crumpled pieces of paper all over the kitchen table and on the floor. Danny got up late that morning (I think it was a Saturday) to make himself a coffee. He saw that John and I were struggling with the song, so he simply said: "Why don't you make it a boy / girl thing and make it easier on yourself?" After that, John and I couldn't write it fast enough! I'm sure that Danny helped with a line or two, but I consider the lyrics to be mostly John's.
Many people that I've played it for think that it's about a man going to war and leaving his lover behind. Actually, we were thinking of 18th or 19th century Halifax, where a woman is saying goodbye to her man who is off to do some business in England, perhaps to make deals on goods from the New World. The track features Jerry Wylie and I on guitar. My brothers fleshed out the arrangement with gorgeous strings. The vocalist are Jana Moore and Kristen Pollard. I've never met them but I think they did a beautiful job. The steel guitar solo is courtesy of Chris Colepaugh, who took time out of his busy schedule to do it for us. I think he recorded it while he was on the road. Thanks, Chris.
YOU'RE THE CURE
John E. Ellis's title again. We started this song without any music. The two of us wrote the chorus together after a writing session, thinking that it might become something in the future. One day, I came up with a kind of blues feel for the idea. We couldn't get together for a while and I was a little desperate to get it done, so I called Danny Greene, who resides in Willow Grove. He and I wrote the first verse but couldn't seem to go any further with it. Later on, at another writing session, John and I finished the second verse.
At the time of its writing, I hadn't met Vonnie Mann yet, so the woman in the song was a mystery to me. John and Danny were probably talking about their wives. The song's message is simple: no matter how difficult things get in life, things will be fine as long as you've got someone to love. Vonnie turned out to be the woman in the end.
The lead vocal is by Wayne Hebert. The harp solo is by Roy Gould. The arrangement belongs to Gilles, Robert and Roland. The drums are digital.
NIGHT CITY DREAMS
John and I were in a phase where we pretended to write songs for famous artists. On this particular night, we chose Madonna. I'm not a big fan of hers but I know that if she decided to perform one of our songs, I would be forever grateful to her. At the time, he book "Sex" had come out. It was about the seamy side of night life (S&M, whips and chains, general debauchery) which we had no real knowledge of, thank God. So we decided to tell the story of someone who's been invited to step out and explore the dark side of a city after that lights go down. But the invitee suggests that he / she was only going to put his / her toe in the water to see what it's like, reserving the right to bail out if it holds no appeal for him / her. Thus the line, "I don't need you anyway." I even sent it to Madonna but I guess she either didn't like it or didn't hear it. I got a nice letter from her people, though.
I play keyboards on this one. The arrangement is largely mine with significant help from my brothers. Roland Savoie sings it. He also plays bass, as he does on most tracks on the album. The marvellous guitar solos are done by Derek O'Connor. He recorded three lead guitar tracks, two of which I selected. One solo is coming from the left speaker and the other is heard on the right. Awesome. He's one of only two people involved in this project that isn't in his 50's. It was magic captured by my brother Robert, who produced the session.
CAJUN RADIO
This song came from a TV show. I was watching W5 which was featuring a piece on Louisiana Acadian musicians. They were talking to a man who, at the time, was probably in his late '50's or his early '60's. I don't remember his first name but his last name was Savoie, like me. He looked a lot like my uncle Jerry, who died years ago. In the course of the interview, it was mentioned that he played on a radio show that featured cajun music. The station it was on was nicknamed "Cajun Radio" and I thought, what a great title for a song! I tried to write it myself to no avail. So, naturally, I called John E. Ellis and asked him if he would help out. When we got together to do it, we found it rough going in the beginning until he suggested that we dig up an map of Louisiana to see it we could some inspiration from it. It's loosely about someone who lives in Queens, New York who goes to visit a friend in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. On his way there, he turns on his car radio and finds a station "playing Creole".
The song went through a few changes. Gene Belliveau supplied us with some French words (Ca c'est belle musique) which was a suggestion of Danny Greene's ("Why don't you go French?"). Linda Boyer and her husband Willy McPhee perform the song sometimes and somehow ended up singing "Ca c'est magnifique", which wasn't in the original lyric but it sounded so good that I kept it. The last line of French came from my aunt Louise, who had visited New Orleans years ago. She has a picture of her and Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland on the train going there!
The arrangement is simple and spare: guitars, keyboards and sythesized accordian. The lead vocal is done by Gilles Savoie and the background vocals are by Charmaine Savoie,, Gilles Savoie,, Roland Savoie and Robert Savoie including a cast of friends, cousins, nieces and nephews. Great fun was had by all. The song features Jean-Guy Melanson, who is also know as Mugsy. He has been to Louisiana and I asked him to say something in French over the middle instrumental. He put something together and did the thing in about four or five takes.
MIDNIGHT IN MUNICH (GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS, 1945)
This song is dedicated to my father Nazaire, who passed away a couple of years ago of lung cancer. The song had its genesis when he told me the story of what it was like waiting to go home after the war. The soldiers were waiting for their "number to come up" to board a ship and head for home. He passed the time then performing for shows put on for "the boys". At night, though, boredom would set in. Someone saved them from it by bringing a radio and tuning in to a show that was broadcast from Munich, Germany called "Midnight In Munich". I thought that would make a great title for the song. I put together some music but I remained without a bridge and lyrics for almost 20 years. John E. Ellis and Danny Greene both tried to help me out with it but they couldn't seem to get it right: "You should do this one yourself", they said to me but I didn't think I'd do the subject any justice. One night, about three years or so ago, I finally sat down to do it. I thought of how he could fall asleep at the drop of a hat. That did it; I wrote it quickly, bridge and all.
My brothers and sister and I all sang a verse or so on it. It's the only recording that features all of the Savoie family. The arrangement was mostly Gilles and Roland's. When I performed on Rogers Songwriters Circle, I sang that song with Nazaire sitting in the audience. It made him cry, which pleased me dearly. He continues to be sorely missed by anyone who knew him. He was a good soul.
SATELLITE EYE
Television inspired this song. I was watching a documentary about space techology. It was the early '80's. The narrator said that sattelites have the capacity to spy on people, even being able to look through windows, into private lives. That little piece of information rattled my nerves. I had no idea that it was possible for some stranger out there to take a peek at our lives. I was thinking: "Whatever happened to the right to privacy?" It affected me so much that I went to my synthesizer and banged out a riff. It was one of the few times that the words came to me without writing them down. I had to write them down later because I knew I'd forget them if I didn't.
This is the only track on the album I didn't play on. Gilles, Robert and Roland did the entire rhythm track. It features Gilles and Roy Gould on lead vocals; Gilles is the innocent who believes that the "satellite eye" is a good thing while Roy represents the satellite itself. The harmonized female vocals were done by Vonnie Mann, representing the voices of caution. The music is psychedelia with a message. Close the curtains, now.....
I WALK THE LINE
It was the mid eighties. I was listening to the radio one day in my bachelor apartment. The song that was playing was "I Walk the LIne", written and sung by Johnny Cash. For the first time, in all the years I'd heard that song played, I really listened to the words. What I discovered was a lovely lyric about devotion. So I slowed it down and made a demo of it. Later on, I suggested doing this song to my brothers and they seemed enthusiastic about doing it. That's me singing the lead. Hope I did OK. I like performing it. Thanks, Johnny.
WITH ALL ITS FAULTS
This song went through a metamorphosis. It started out as a rant against George Bush. But it evolved into something else. That something else was helped along by Phil McNally. Phil's contribution was musical as well as lyrical. An original set of lyrics were written by John E. Ellis and Danny Greene. He was doing some nice things that I thought made the song sound better. I sing it and I even try to sound like Phil in one place because I heard him sing it that way once and it stuck with me. The lyrics are about Canada, really. I wrote the chorus and I meant every word of it. The song features a great piano solo by Gilles Savoie. I challenged John to help me write a song for Great Big Sea. Well, I don't know if those guys would be interested in a song like this. Who knows? I perform this once in a while and I still get a kick out of it.
STRANGE PARADISE
This one was born in Belmont outside of Saint John. I remember Mike Boyer and I sitting by water, writing the lyrics to this song. Maybe I had my guitar with me but I can't swear to it. I think it was not soon before I found out that a friend of mine was going to help me go to Los Angeles to "seek my fame and glory". I was excited by the prospect!! So Mike and I wrote a song about it. It became a cautionary tale of the disparity between the rich and the poor in LA. Mike and I didn't know much about the place except that it was full of movie stars and billionaires. I thought that if we were unfair about LA in any way, I'd try to alter the lyrics a little bit but after I went there...well, let's just say that I didn't change the lyrics. Lee Boyer's contribution was a wail that he improvised on the original recording toward the end of the song. It just blew my mind. So it became, in my mind, an intrigal part of the song that had to be repeated basically the same way on record. Mike and Lee, brothers of the famous Boyer clan. They recorded their part at Mike's studio and a good job it was, too!! This song features Derek O'Connor again on lead guitar. I play keyboards. I tried to stay as close to the original recording as possible. To my recollection, the music was basically mine but Mike contributed quite a bit to it, so I'm happy to say that the song was written jointly between us.
FASCINATIN' LIES
This is the only song that was co-written by all my brothers and I. I was inspired to write it after seeing the Pointer Sisters in Toronto. Ruth Pointer performed a song called "Black Coffee", solo with spare accompaniment with only a stool for a prop. I was intrigued by the way she sang it and how she expressed her deep devotion for a no-good cheat of a man. This was in 1973 or 4, I believe. It was a stunning show (they were in their jazz phase) but that performance stuck with me.
When I got back home to Dorchester, NB, where I was raised, I decided to make an attempt at composing a song like "Black Coffee." It started off all right; I wrote the music and lyrics for three verses but it bothered me that I couldn't come up with a middle eight. Enter my brothers. After I played it for him, Roland formed the chords and Gilles and Robert fleshed it out. I thought it came off really well.
The lead singer of the piece is Charmaine Savoie, our sister. The song is about a woman who keeps being drawn in by a man's deceit. She knows he's no good but feels trapped by her love for him ("Who am I to care?/ But the way that I do for you / Could be breaking my heart in two.") Maybe she doesn't think she can find love elsewhere and feels resigned to her lot. It's a sad tale that I hope will help some women out there make better choices. There are too many women out there that are vicims of abuse simply because they can't walk away from a dysfunctional relationship.
The arrangement is a joint effort by me and my brothers. Gilles does a killer organ solo at the end of the song. Robert's contribution gives it a spooky atmosphere, which suits the song beautifully.
AM I THERE YET?
This is a truly scary song. It was jointly written by myself and Doug Boyer, Linda Boyer and Mike Boyer. It was one of the writing sessions for their CD "Connected" which was issued in 2003. (This CD was instrumental in garnering an ECMA nomination for Best New Group. We lost to Charlie A'Court but the time we spent in Halifax was a hoot.) I remember the writing session well. I was nervous. I hadn't worked with any of the Boyers for years and now I had what I thought was a heavy responsibility to do it right. I was up early in the upstairs apartment at Linda's house. I almost immediately picked up my guitar and began playing something. Then Linda came up, wished me good morning and proceeded to make some coffee for herself (I don't drink coffee) and she heard what I was playing and said: "What's that?" Next thing I know, she's picking up her bass guitar and following what I was doing. Then Doug and Mike showed up ready to go. In the end, everybody contributed to the song: Doug's riff and lyrics and Mike's melody put it all together. I wasn't sure about their arrangement; I heard it differently in my head. What you will hear is pretty much the way I heard it.
The reason the song is scary is that it's about an enraged jealous boyfriend trying to get home because he suspects her of having an affair. He's hindered by a thick fog that makes visibility nil and getting there quickly extremely difficult. I don't know why we decided to tackle that subject; the words kind of wrote themselves, I guess. You can thank The Simpsons for the the title; anyone who's watched the show has seen Homer driving his family somewhere while Bart and Lisa are yelling from the back seat: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
I decided to do my own version. When I met Wayne Hebert at the Greenwood Lodge in Ford's Mills, Kent County, NB a few years ago, I knew that I wanted him to sing that song. I got my wish. The basic rhythm track is by my brothers and I. The great slide guitar is played by Steve Stewart. Gilles supplied some much needed muscle to the song.
The reason the song is so scary is that you know that the narrator of the story is going to eventually get home. Will he just blow his top or will he become violent? Really, it's about the kind of things that could be going through a jealous mind. There's no doubt in my mind that domestic abuse is an aberration and should be more vigorously prosecuted. To me, the song is simply a character study in the form of a pop song. Watch out for this guy....
DIFFERENT WINDOWS
This song was performed at a Star Search contest and received two standing ovations. I didn't win the trip to New York City but I won a few hearts. The song was only a few months old then. I was inspired to write it when I saw a lone figure, a woman, standing at a window looking down on Main Street in Moncton. I came up with lyrics that I had to go home immediately and put down. I remembered it all and put some music to it. I ended up composing something that sounded like it could have been done by Meat Loaf or someone like that. I was thinking that I had said too much and that anything that I wrote in the verses would be redundant. So I called John E. Ellis and asked him to help. The verses are almost exclusively by him. He wrote it almost immediately and after a good hour, we had it nailed to our mutual satisfaction.
The song is a plea for peace and understanding. It's about how we refuse to put down our differences and realize that we're really all the same. This song talks about how disappointing life can get when you limit yourself to one point of view, resistant to change. You believe something so much that your world is shattered when it doesn't work out the way you thought it would. It's the "where do I go now?" syndrome. Call me an idealist but I believe that the human race will find a way to broker peace around the world. Love is our only option.
Anyway, I sing it on the recording. The gorgeous arrangement is solely the work of my brothers; all I did was play rhythm guitar and sing and they built the sound around that. This song features Robert Savoie on piano and Roland Savoie on lead guitar and bass. Gilles Savoie did the frills.
We've "looked down from different windows" throughout this project and it's good to see that things are looking up again, at least for the Savoie family and their loved ones. It may take months before we're ready to present the music. When we finally reach that place, we will be selling them online (we do have to make a living!) and I hope that we get some support. This site is just a way of saying hello, we're coming to a computer near you.
Have a great life.
All the above notes were written by Richard Savoie
All the opinions made here are those of the writer and no-one else in the project. Changes will be made once in a while on this page to correct any mistakes and omissions that were made.
