“Sometimes Silence (Speaks Louder than Words)” was written in 1995. I didn’t remember this, but I found the lyric sheet with the date on it. In December of last year while I was floundering around trying to distract my mind from my heartbreak, I was going through songs Mike and I; Mike, Billy Earl and I; Mike, Rock and I; Mike, Alan and I; Pat and I; Mark and I; and songs that I had written by myself. I found the work tape I did on this one when I wrote it. I always liked the song and when I listened to it I knew I had to write a new verse, do an arrangement, record it, do a video on it and put it on Cosmic Groove Music.

I had a mission. So, over the next several weeks I did that, except for the video part. More on that later.

This time I was able to hear the guitar so I could chart the song to put in BNB. Then, it was finding the right style and doing an arrangement. It usually takes a while to find the right style or at least the one that feels right to me and that’s what it has to do – feel right to me. If I don’t feel it, I know no one else will either. Of course, there are times when even if I do feel it, some people aren’t going to, but I can’t do anything about that.

Originally, the last verse was about daddy passing in 1982. But, with mama’s passing in 2022, I had to write one for her. Now, it’s their song from me.

Over the next few weeks I worked on her verse as I took my daily walk, washed clothes, washed me, washed dishes, cleaned house, etc. Basically, all the time. It had to be what felt right to me and it took some time. But, finally the right words were given to me and I gratefully accepted them.

Armed with the music and the lyrics, I started…”In Search of …the videos”. (Nod to Leonard Nimoy) For every video I’ve put on, I usually spend days looking at videos on websites that offer royalty free ones to find the right ones for the song I’m doing. (Thanks Mark for turning me on to the free video websites) It’s not unusual to look through hundreds of videos for a project.

While I’m searching for videos for the song I’m working on, if I see one that’s unique, cool, different, special or for some reason catches my eye, I download it, too, even if it doesn’t fit the song I’m looking for at that time. I have a hard drive full of these videos that I can also look through to find that special one for the project I’m working on. (The video for Mama’s verse came from this stash)

There seems to be three ways to selecting what to use for the song video. One is find media that reflects exactly (or very close) the words in the lyrics, which was much easier to do with photographs than with videos. Another is find media that reflects the emotions or sentiments the words are trying to elicit from the listener. Much harder. The third way is a combination of the two.

When I started on the “Sometimes Silence…” video, I was pretty sure I could find videos for the first two verses because there’s more visual imagery in them. But, for the bridge and daddy’s and mama’s verses it’s mostly emotional imagery, which meant I had to find videos that were more symbolic in nature. I expected it to take a long time.(Surprise. It didn’t)

I had some old pictures and a video I shot of mama watching the “Don’t Give Up” video. But, that was it. So, on Sunday after lunch, I headed to Pexels and Pixabay to see what they had to offer.

After an hour or so, I had found the videos for the first two verses and thought that was pretty quick. And, I even found one that would work on the bridge. But, it was now time for the hard part. And, it was hard, believe me. Not in finding them, but in watching them in the video I was making.

I put the photos in for daddy’s verse and felt the tears begin building. I found the video for the end of his verse and for the solo after it and the tears began pushing hard against the dam. I felt like the Dutch boy with his finger ready to plug the dike when it broke. When I found the video for mama’s verse, I found that my finger wasn’t big enough; nor my whole hand, and the dam burst. By the ending of the song, I was deluged by tears and was sobbing my heart out again as if it was December 6, 2022 all over.

When making a video like these I’ve been making, I have to play them over and over to make sure everything syncs up and do the necessary tweaking if it doesn’t. On this song, I have not made it through watching and listening without tears coming by the end. It’s truly been a labor of love and I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to Unknown for the thumbnail photograph.

Thanks to Nick Fewings for the photo on Unsplash and to unknown persons and photographers from the 1940s and 50s for the other photographs.

Thanks to Joe Hackney and Elcin Qarayev for the videos on Pixabay and to Anastasia Shuraeva, Cottonbro (2), C-Technical, Pavel Danilyuk, Caleb Oquedno, Kindel Media and Roberto D'Amico for the videos on Pexels. Yours truly did the video of mama.

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