Song #227 of 9999 - Ties of Blood and Water by Frankie Big Face

As mentioned in my post of July 20, I'm going to write about my own music for a few weeks as a way to get some song comments together for an updated website. My goal is eventually to have a few paragraphs written for every song on my website and I figured I'd start with all the Nur Ein songs I've written over the past six years. Nur Ein is a songwriting competition in the same vein as Song Fight!, wherein a title is presented each week and participants must write and record a song using that title. The songs are posted and listeners vote for their favorites. In the case of Nur Ein, there is a judging panel that ranks the songs and participants are eliminated each week until "only one" (nur ein) remains. There are also additional challenges that must be incorporated such as "lyrics in the form of a sonnet" or "guest rapper." Nur Ein has been around for seven years and I've entered four times and won twice. NBD. :D  This is post #12.

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Song #227 of 9999 

Title: Ties of Blood and Water
Artist: Frankie Big Face
Year: 2008
Album: Nur Ein 3

Click here to listen!

Ties of Blood and Water was a difficult song. The Nur Ein charge was to write a song with three different tempos and we weren't allowed to use "half-time" or  "double-time"—the tempos had to be distinct. Then there was the title, which left me uninspired and cold. This was the moment during this Nur Ein (it happens during every Nur Ein, really) when I almost gave up.

Eventually, I began writing this melodrama that follows a lesbian couple through the most amazing and most difficult moments of their lives. The main idea of the piece being that love between two people overrides any other connection, familial or otherwise. It's pretty heavy stuff featuring life, death, pain, suffering, (and yes) blood and water. Although I wasn't that thrilled with the song at the time and the middle section ("Only love...") leaves something to be desired, I'm proud of it now. I think the lyrics are actually quite good. It's also a challenge to sing. Probably would fit nicely in a modern musical drama.