'I just want to walk in the dark with you' began in the spring of 2006. I was living in a street-village, feeling charmed by the way the light faded in the evening under the canopying cottonwood trees. I was listening to Greg Brown and Tom Waits. That summer the song was recorded for the 'Rootbound' record, though it didn't make it onto that album. The following spring I played it as my sister walked down the aisle at her wedding.
The song then stayed in a relatively static state until the summer of 2017 when, with the help of Andrew Braun, it was revisited with additional instrumentation - the rollicking 'Stand by me' bass and the droning synths were particularly helpful in breathing life into it - and the tempo was increased. Over the next couple of years, the basic structure remained the same though some of the chords evolved into more nuanced versions of themselves, while the lyrics underwent a similar evolution. These adjustments, in conjunction with the increased ambiance and ambivalence of the recording, helped allow the song to come to fruition.
Then, in early 2020, the song underwent the first of a number of mixes. It eventually came to light that the tempo was still too slow, so, with that amended, by late that autumn 'I just want to walk in the dark with you' was finally ready enough to go out into the world.
lyrics
I just want to walk in the dark with you
Put your hand here in mine
let's go now, now's the time
I don't even care where we go to
I just want to walk in the dark with you
We go to a friend's place and laugh out loud
but I just can't wait to get out of the crowd
because when the party is finally through
I just want to walk in the dark with you
You're as near as the stars and as far as my eyes
Is the sky to us what we are to the sky?
I may lie beside you but this is true
I just want to walk in the dark with you
We're in this love that reaches to dust
soon a star will appear that's made of us
and you smile like it's something you knew
I just want to walk in the dark with you
I just want to walk in the dark with you
I just want to walk in the dark with you
credits
from I just want to walk in the dark with you,
released January 29, 2021
composed, performed, and produced by Paul Bergman | piano, programming, and additional production by Andrew Braun | additional vocals by Amy Loewen | mixed and mastered by John Paul Peters at Private Ear Recording | lyrical counsel by Siriol Troup and Andrew Vaisius | photography by Susie Fisher | design by Matthew Young | released by Birthday Cake Media
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
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