I Need A Wish
This play is going out to my good friend Greg Martens, formidable music booster.
I often get calls from my “most excellent” friend and fan Greg Martens - as he is doing his “looking for America drive throughs”. He’s on the road a lot and he has his soundtrack for those sojourns. I have gotten “out of the blue” calls from him - Calgary, Steamboat Springs, Tonopa and somewhere in the Sierra Nevada’s - even one from Death Valley - home of the old ranger and Twenty Mule Team Borax. At the other end of the line - Greg’s report confirmed what I knew already - “It’s fucking hot here and I am running low on water. I am listening to your song, I Need a Wish.” Because Greg is into miracles - and his life has always been in pursuit of high ideals - and sublime partnerships. That’s what makes him a brother. It’s good to be on his playlist.
Greg, Masterplan is coming soon.
Sometimes a great line is hanging in the air
You just have to catch it....
One fall day found me walking briskly from my apartment
In midtown down the west side of 5th Ave/
It was close to five
I’m swept up in the current
So many bobbing heads flowing towards Manhattan’s
Exits.....For me Grand Central
The light is immaculate/ slanted fall
Golden and sweet
Floating on a sea of heads
I’m carried by the herd…
Nothing but momentum
I’m right behind this tall black guy
He’s got his Walkman on
In his soundtrack
His own movie/ living his playlist/ skate away
He’s got the whole world in the city
And above his head/ floating
There appears a single milkweed seed
Shared moment
Seed so light and delicate
Driven to and fro
By the roiling crowd below
Looking to be in dire circumstance
That it might lose its air and be trampled
Under foot…
Now hovering
Just above his head
Darting like a kite
He reaches with long arm and open hand
Not to catch or trap/ but to propel this wisp
Back into the womb of space
So it might continue its journey/
And perhaps find fertile soil
To lay down in
Or maybe no more than to enjoy and augment
It’s delicate freedom/ with the wind from his hand
And as he was caught up in this gesture
He exhaled these words...
“I Need A Wish”
And so I made a song to celebrate
This visitation....
I overheard it. That’s how some lines come.
And you grow that seed into a song
I Need A Wish was one of a set of four I recorded in 1979 at CI Studios on 57th St.
This was one of the first “Demo’s” I circulated to record companies. One of my first trips into a multitrack studio. Live bait/cast out in pursuit of the elusive Record Deal.
I Need A Wish
I need a wish
A star I can dream on (dream on)
I need a sun that shines on me
I need a woman
A woman I can lean on (lean on)
I need a dream
A dream come true
What I want that I can’t find
Is a human so divine
Take me high and far beyond
These dreams and broken memories
Need you
I need a wish
A star I can dream on
I need your voice
A wish for you
I need a song
A song you can sing on
I need to know if dreams come true
Please believe me when I say
I fall in love most everyday
But never with someone like you
I think this wish just might come true
Need you
What I want that I can’t find
Is a woman so divine
Take me high and far beyond
These dreams and broken memories
Need you
I need a wish
A star I can dream on
I need a sun that shines on me
I need a woman
A woman I can lean on
I need a dream
A dream come true
© Compton Maddux 1979. All rights reserved.
Players:
Compton Maddux - Lead Vocal, Acoustic Guitar
Chico Render - Bass
Leo Adamian - Drums
John Moses - Electric Guitar
Kinny Landrum - Hammond Organ
Eliot Osborn & Margo Covington - Backing Vocals
Peter Ecklund - Trumpet
Charlie Lagond - Saxophones
——————————————————————————
Produced by Dave Achelis & Compton Maddux
Engineered by Dave Achelis
Studio Owners: Chuck Irwin and Elvin Campbell
Studio Manager: Cathy Webber
Recorded at CI Studios, West 57th, NY, NY
Medium: 2” AMPEX - 30 ips
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