Casualties of Faith: Re-work

After recording a bare bones version of the tune, I put it on my iPod and took it to work, driving around and listening to it over and over again, noting what I liked and didn't like. Some of the lyrical rhythms I wasn't too stoked about and there were some different melody ideas that seemed more natural, so I recorded these into my cel phone and planned on doing a re-working when I got home.

I didn't change much - just a couple of the lyrics, which are in boldface:

one goes down in a hail of bullets
while another one gets the blade
one is hung from a tree in the village
a victim of the crusade
it was an early morning raid

wasted lives, ill-gotten gain
religion causing so much pain
I'm just sayin'

CHORUS

what we have in common
is the fallen world we live in
can't you see?
one piece of the puzzle
as we struggle
to get around all this hostility
how can the righteous assassinate
these casualties of faith?

Christian mobs burning homes of the Muslims
Indonesia is ablaze
In Africa, Muslim takes a gun, shoots a nun
which the extremists loudly praise
it never ceases to amaze


it could very well be you or me
falling prey to zealotry
I'm just sayin'

CHORUS

what we have in common
is the fallen world we live in
can't you see?
one piece of the puzzle
as we struggle
to get around all this hostility
using a prayer to intimidate
these casualties of faith

BRIDGE

what in the world can we do to stop the killing?
how many murders must we grieve?
every side sees the other as the villain
their righteousness is stained with blood
slaying in the name of God

CHORUS

what we have in common
is the fallen world we live in
can't you see?
one piece of the puzzle
as we struggle
to get around all this hostility
by looking away, we participate
in these casualties of faith

Copyright © 2006 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

The changes in the bridge were mainly rhythmic - the words weren't flowing with the beat like I wanted them to, so I added some syllables to make it "roll" better. The outright change of the bridge's second half was due because it seemed too "wordy" - and I also liked the punch of this couplet better. Since it was similar to the second verse tag, I changed that so I wasn't duplicating sentiments.

Here is a rough demo - this is kind of a different piece for me and I'm really happy how it came out! I purposely did not record bass, as a fantastic performer I know has offered to lay down a track or two.

"Casualties Of Faith" (work demo)

For those dulcimer-players (and others) who are curious to give it a run, I'm tuned in DAA:

The verse and groove progression

E // A // G

pre-chorus

A // C // Bsus4

chorus

E // G // A // G

E // G // A // C


E // G // A // G

E // G // A // C // Bsus4

bridge

A // G // E

Have fun with it - and when the next version of this demo is ready, I'll post it here to show you how it's coming along!