Song of Innocence / Dancing on Light [7-inch single]

Description

“Song of Innocence” – b/w “Dancing on Light” – is a two-sided 7-inch vinyl single by the American singer, songwriter, and producer Terry Scott Taylor of Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies and the Lost Dogs fame, released on Shadow Records in 1986, distributed in the US by Lexicon Distribution (catalogue number S-5901). Both tracks were lifted from his full-length album Knowledge & Innocence released on Shadow Records the same year, recorded by Doug Doyle at 3-D Studios in Costa Mesa, California; with Terry Taylor and Rob Watson producing. The track on side A was written by Taylor while the flip-side was co-written by Taylor and Watson.

We recorded the album over at Doug Doyle’s old 3-D studios in Costa Mesa, and although Randy had never worked there before, he and I were very close and had worked together quite a bit already, so the atmosphere was very relaxed and informal. With Randy of course there are a lot of laughs, but when it comes time to work, we work hard. The moment I wrote this song, I knew I had to have Randy do a vocal on it. He was completely charmed by the song when I presented it to him that very day in the studio, and he went right to work learning his part. He’s a quick study and he’s got great sensibilities when it comes to the appropriate vocal approach to a particular song. He went with a kind of breathiness in the vocal, which captures the inherent wonder of the lyrics. His vocal on that one is very soulful and sweet. I think he played a little guitar on there too. Some people might not know that that’s Bob Bennett singing the background on the closing chorus. He did a beautiful job. [Interview with Terry Taylor where he comments on “Song of Innocence”]

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7-inch Vinyl Single tracklist:

Side A. “Song Of Innocence” – 3:48
Side B. “Dancing On Light” – 4:54

Note: In 2019 Terry Taylor did an acoustic re-recording of “Song Of Innocence” as a part of his Bedroom Demos – Vol. 25, released August 16, 2019. Available at Bandcamp: https://terryscotttaylor.bandcamp.com/track/song-of-innocence-2019

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Song Of Innocence – 2019
from Bedroom Demos – Vol. 25
by Terry Scott Taylor

I greatly enjoyed revisiting this song from my first solo project Knowledge and Innocence. On the original track, «Song of Innocence» was recorded as a duet with my dear friend Randy Stonehill, and Bob Bennett can also be heard on the track singing the gentle background vocals on the turnaround near the end of the song.

William Blake’s “The Lamb,” along with a couple of other Blake poems, greatly inspired the lyrics and in fact, within the song, I either directly quote or paraphrase some of the great man’s poetry. Blake was an artist and poet who was prone to visions (some of them quite bizarre), and with «Song of Innocence» I was attempting to create a musical and lyrical ambience reflective of Blake’s gentler, more accessibly orthodox visionary works. My children were still young at the time I wrote «Song of Innocence» (both of them can be seen on the back cover of Knowledge and Innocence) and fairytales were read often in our home, so in conceptualizing the song I imagined it as the kind of Victorian-era allegorical myth I would enjoy reading to my little ones.

A child floating down on a cloud in the sky
Said “Sing me a song ’bout a lamb”
So I sang and he smiled, so I sang again
As he placed a reed in my hand

And with my rural pen I stained the water clear
And wrote this song for every little child to hear
A song of innocence A song of goodness & light
A song of innocence A song of goodness & light

Said the child hovering there on his cloud in the sky
“Please sing me the song once again”
And when it was over, he vanished from sight
These are the words sung to him
The One who’s meek and mild you’ll find is always near
And I will sing this song for every child to hear

A song of innocence (Little lamb, who made thee?)
A song of goodness & light (Little lamb, I’ll tell you)
A song of innocence (He is called by thy name)
A song of goodness & light (He became a child, too)
A child floating down on a cloud in the sky
Said “Sing me a song ’bout a lamb”
A song of innocence
A song of goodness & light
A song of innocence
A song of goodness & light
A song of innocence

Words and Music by Terry Taylor ©1986 SnellSongs (ASCAP)