The song ‘Spring’ features the words from cummings’ poem Chansons Innocentes I, more commonly known as ‘In Just-‘ included in ‘Tulips and Chimneys’.
I believe this is widely regarded as cummings’ most well known poem. I am no expert, but to me this seems one of his most straightforward and accessible poems with the childlike imagery of sploshing about in puddles and playing games as winter makes way for spring. Playing marbles, pirates, hop scotch, and jump rope games are all images we can all relate to and call up in our minds eye with a smile on our face, and the two simple made-up words “mud-licious” and “puddle-wonderful”, for me conjure up happy memories of simple times when getting dirty and wet was all part of the fun!
I feel cummings would have enjoyed writing this poem and I have created a song full of fun and childlike hooks. I particularly liked the musical whistling element to cummings words, which of course had to feature in the song ‘Spring’ as the balloonman whistles in the distance.
Again, the poem is short and concise, which allows room for the whistling section and hook to be prominent, the whistling you hear is me tooting away happily and the melody is duplicated and blended with a guitar.
The process was the same here as before: I wrote a demo of the song and laid down rough tracks in my studio and James then made sense of it all and took it to another level.
I love the way the song slows down in the last bar. I had the music fading out as the whistling drifted into the distance, but James came up with the idea of the slow down end, which I love.
‘Spring’ was mixed in my studio by me and mastered in James’ studio by James.