Close To You
Close To You is more than a song. To me, it is a place where I want to live and reside. An experience I wish to have over and over. It is my expression of how being “in love” feels. That type of close wherein you are just ecstatic and happily overwhelmed that your someone is just an arm’s reach away. You don’t even have to be touching or talking. But you want to. You really want to be even closer.
The guitar begins solo, almost lonely and dark. Then the organ comes in and complicates the tonal center by further implying a minor key, but with some sophistication. Next time around, the full band comes in, and the mood shifts from sad and complicated into airy and pleasant. The guitar is still playing those dark and lonely chords. The organ is still sophisticated and minor. And then the horns and rhythm section let us know that we are happy, reflecting how our closeness to Them shifts us into a sort of peaceful bliss. Just Their presence takes the existing emotions and turns them on their head.
The verse lyrics echo the sentiment of the guitar and organ intro by being alone but somehow happy just to be thinking of Them. The simple chorus lyrics get directly to the point. “I just love being close to you.” The mood tells the listener what being “Close To You” feels like. The horns deliver the peaceful harmony of being close, while the organ and guitars paint an atmosphere of gentle complexity. The bass and drums are the pulse of passionate hearts beating together, different from one another but also working together as one. Subtle but slightly altering harmonies accentuate the chorus to showcase the ever-changing range of emotions one experiences being Close To You.
The trombone solo is a slow, gentle kiss that begins low and full, then repeats itself a bit higher and more intense. The rhythm section syncopates underneath the solo to mimic the body movements that dance together as feelings of desire pass between you and Them. Then we go back to multiple choruses, and a new chorus melody reiterates how we feel before moving into a pared-down final chorus.
The ending is how suddenly things change when They walk away and you are left wanting to start the song all over again.
I hope you will enjoy this song. It is my interpretation of what that glorious experience of being with the one you most want is like.
Sincerely,
Dale Drinkard, Jr.
P.S.
No AI was used in the making of this song. Every instrument on this song was performed by or programmed by me. The drums are programmed, the horns are sounds on a keyboard played one at a time to feel more like individual players. The guitars, vocals, bass, organ sounds were performed by me in real time. I wrote, arranged, recorded, performed, mixed, mastered this song at my home studio.
