Lest We Forget

Grateful acknowledgement is given to David Minyard of Eagleswatch for permission to use the photograph of the Navy Reflection Room

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LEST WE FORGET

Lest We Forget is a CD with two songs – Remember Me and Never Let You Go (© Geoff Robson 2007) taken from an upcoming album entitled “Days of the Last Crusade” (© Geoff Robson 2007) – see Days Of The Last Crusade for that CD and MP3 previews.

You can listen to the MP3 clips of Remember Me and Never Let You Go alongside their lyrics below and purchase the CD. You can also hear the MP3 clip by visiting Eagles Watch Foundation and taking an automated tour of the Navy Reflection Room in the Pentagon. Part of the proceeds from the CD will be donated to Eagleswatch for all the good work done by its founder, Dave Minyard.

As explained on the CD cover, the two songs on “Lest We Forget” are dedicated to those who lost their lives on 9/11, to our families in uniform, past and present, and to Eagles Watch Foundation for their memorial tours of the Navy Reflection Room and Army Mekorial exhibits in the Pentagon as well as their continued charitable work.

See comments on each song below the lyrics on the genesis of each.

All My Thanks to Dan LaMiestra for making many rough stones shine. Words can not convey my deepest appreciation for all of Dan's remarkable work on these CD's. Visit his site to learn more of Dan www.danlamaestra.com

Remember Me

Comments and Inspiration: Like many in the aftermath of 9/11, I was very busy for about 13 months. When time permitted, usually on Sunday mornings, I would sit down and play my guitar or piano to unwind. I began to write Remember Me within a year after 9/11. I hammered out the tune on my old J45 and finally put some place holder lyrics to it thinking it would make a nice love song. It sat there on the back of an envelope with pencil notes and erasure marks in the margin for over a year as I started and finished a short story. In the middle of that story, the protagonist recalls a night in a bar drinking beer with his dog while a folk singer sings a new song he just wrote (my cameo in the story). To fit a meaningful need in the story, the protagonist’s inspiration, I rewrote the song lyrics in a more patriotic vein moving them closer to a memorial piece. I finished the short story, by then a novella, in 2005 and revisited the song. The lyrics still didn’t quite capture what needed to be said and I was struggling. So, once again, I put them aside until one night, on a cable news show , I heard a far left wing liberal say, among other idiotic conspiratorial expressions, to paraphrase, “It’s time to forget about 9/11 and all the nameless victims." After hearing that, I rewrote half the lyrics. I remained hung up on the ending of one line for several more weeks after that - the line that starts with: “I shall not grow old in your eyes”, a paraphrase concept from Lawrence Binyon’s poem, but finally found what I was looking for in a Shakespeare tragedy. The novella was submitted for publication to several journals and rejected before I returned to the song, finished and recorded it one cold Sunday afternoon in October 2006 at Cue Studios in Falls Church Virginia.

Remember Me

They speak softly, don’t they

- The names of names we don’t say?

Cast in stone, we read them

For each, the cost of freedom

Shines like blue September days

And sings in unity.

Remember Me

I was your son, your mother

Your sister, ah your lover

I am that day, the blue sky

That shone to Heaven on high

I shall not grow old in your eyes

Eclipsed by tragedy

Remember Me.

Love is love

Ain’t nothing new

Lies are lies and

True is true

The fallen speak where stand the free:

‘Remember Me.’

They speak softly, don’t they

- the names of names we don’t say

Never Let You Go

Kiss me when the sun goes down

Hold me gentle when you sleep.

Love me tender when I dream of you

when breathless bodies breathe as one, not two

And I will love you honest as

The day is long and nights

are made for keeping promises

Of love that last for life

You know I never will

Let You Go

Race the morning to my arms.

Hush the cock’s crow with your smile.

Catch the sunlight in your eyes

and see

Why the day begins with you

for me.

And I will love you honest as

The day is long and nights

are made for keeping promises

Of love that last for life

You know I never will

Let You Go

There’s just one bond of love

In flesh and blood and bone;

Just one heart that beats

When two hearts beat as one;

Just one promise made

When all is said and done,

And I won’t

Let You Go,

Let You Go.

Never Let You Go

Comments and Inspiration: Let You Go was written in the summer of 2001. I had a black cat at that time who really loved it and sang along whenever I played it. It’s a simple love song that I thought might be nice at weddings. I wrote it in two sittings over two consecutive weekends and polished off the last verse over a couple of months. In Oct 2006, I recorded it and sent a copy to my 90 year old Aunt. She swore it was about my late wife and convinced me to listen to the symbolism in some of the words like “night” especially in conjunction with the ending – “when all is said and done”. So, in that context, I decided to put it on “Lest We Forget” for those who lost loved ones on and since 9/11. But, I still think it makes a nice love song for weddings and Valentines Days.