We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/

about

The lyrics are a twist on Jonathan Swift’s oft-tributed (copied and parodied) GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, where the man Lemuel Gulliver is storm-tossed and knocked unconscious, only to awaken as a prisoner on an island populated by eccentric little people.

In my song, I turned it around so the island is populated by marooned humans who, after a dark and stormy night, find a Giant on the beach, but they can’t wake him up from his peaceful slumber. They’re compelled to awaken him because they think he has solutions, that he is friendly. The Giant is a metaphor for love and, as it turns out, the islanders have simply forgotten how to love, so the Giant keeps sleeping.

“The Giant’s gonna get us…” sounds like a “scary monster” line, but it’s really about the Giant waking us up to start loving and living again.

Musically, I set out to do a Dennis Wilson/Beach Boys-style drum pattern, layered with chords and guitar figures (emphasizing augmented 4ths and harmonics) learned from David Bowie, Mick Ronson, early Genesis, and Split Enz. It’s closed out with a keyboard solo on a primitive Casio keyboard, made to sound like a distorted RMI from progressive rock records of the early 70s. It all turned out like “pop music.”

Initial tracks were recorded on lo-fi instruments and lo-fi gear in a lo-fi loft studio in San Francisco, then released on a demo album in 1991, SUSPENSION BRITCHES IN SAN FRANCISCO (cover art by Joe Sloan). A remix appeared in 2007 on the GRATEFUL CD, expertly digitized and redubbed by Scott Francis at Mind’s Eye Studios.

lyrics

SLEEPING GIANT OF LOVE

1. Last night there was an awful storm
We all were scared and quite alarmed
Next day we found him quite unharmed
A Sleeping Giant on the sand
A face so gentle and so grand
What is he doing in our land?
We used to praise the Lord above
We used to dance the songs of love
Have we forgotten how?

Chorus:
Now the Giant’s sleeping on the beach
A bigger one can be within your reach
Rejoice Respond
To what can overcome us when
The Giant’s gonna get us…soon

2. We send our shuttles to the Moon
We write each other funny runes
But then we forget all the tunes
And when the Giant comes around
He’ll have the biggest laugh in town (ha ha)
Yes we’ve forgotten how
(solo) The Giant’s gonna wake up,
The Giant’s gonna get us (etc.)

repeat Chorus, vamp out on:
The Giant’s goona wake up
The Giant’s gonna get us
The Giant’s gonna wake us

copyright 1991, 2007 Word2Soul Music BMI

credits

from DEATH, GOD, LOVE, & MONEY (a compilation of edgy music), track released April 26, 2011
JJB: bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, percussion, & vocals
Xavier Scott Francis: remixing

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" San Francisco, California

"Johnny is a virtuoso"--Brian Wilson
"Pop music with a conscience.”--Goldmine
“the Harry Houdini of rock and roll.”-- Spotlight. Listen to Johnny's fast-paced mix of old school soul, psychedelia, punk/new wave, & classic pop/rock. Singer-songwriter in his own right, he was also a sideman for Davy Jones and The Monkees + performed with David Cassidy, Al Stewart, Buddy & Julie Miller, & others. ... more

contact / help

Contact Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large"

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Report this track or account

Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" recommends:

If you like Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large", you may also like: