In this series of Song Stories we’re taking you behind the scenes of each song.
We’re starting with Chapter 1 – Old Bones Odyssey and here is our second song on the album Old Bones Odyssey.
Coming soon: we’re creating a podcast that dives deeper into the stories and history behind our songs.
OLD BONES ODYSSEY
OLD BONES ODYSSEY - THE SONG
I created the title Old Bones Odyssey because my bones are old and I wanted to deal with my own age right out of the box and establish that this story is coming from old bones, my old bones.
Old bones taking me backﾠ
Old worlds taking me backﾠ
Resting on the souls of long agoﾠ
I think bones are such a great metaphor. And more than that, they actually are the way that we learn about the past in the most straightforward manner.
So whether it’s that we’re finding the bones of people from the past in graveyards or we’re learning about who is actually in Potter’s field on Hart Island or what Neanderthals were doing or early prototypes of homo sapiens, all of theses bones are a very direct path to finding wisdom. That’s how I see it.
Bones also have the skull and crossbones insignias, the pirate flag, the poison sign. Where all the secrets lurk. The things that no one wants to see. The bones that no one can identify. Which is definitely a recurring theme in my own life, in history in general and definitely in American history in particular.
You know, whose bones do we care about and whose bones do we abandon? That’s definitely very much on my mind. So I think that’s a big part of it.
And there’s also humor in it to me. Just the whole idea of Old Bones Odyssey, it sounds like a jiggling skeleton doing a dance or like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. Something about it makes me smile.
an interview with ellen
Old Bones Odyssey
This is the transcript, watch the full video above.
“Trees with leaves for dreams,
A dance that never ends that only you can know,
from the roots to the sky sylvan slippers rings of time,
in the gloaming of this world,
back where memories lie.”
Q: Why did you write Old Bones Odyssey
Mostly to express the core principle of the project, which is about Old Bones, literally and figuratively. Taking us back, old worlds taking us back, and we’re resting on the souls of long ago. That is what Old Bones, the project is all about. And hopefully our song brings you into our story and also makes you think about your own story, about your old, old bones and about the people you come from and the worlds that we all come from and the good, the bad and the ugly. That’s kind of what we’re trying to do.ﾠ
Q: How do you want listeners to feel when hearing Old Bones Odyssey
Originally, I really didn’t think about how people would feel when I was writing it. I just was thinking about the story and just bringing people in. But now that we’ve made the song, I’m hoping that people feel elated and somewhat joyful. And yes, definitely, really a tad nostalgic. But I think that it’s a song that has all kinds of feelings running through it, and they’re not all necessarily identifiable. But the end feeling of it is that from the old and from the ancient past, we take a voyage into a new place that we’ve never been before. So it has that feeling of discovery. At least that’s what we’re hoping the song conveys.ﾠ
Q: What are the lines of lyric that you think are the most powerful? Why?
All these things are so personal for me, I love
“Trees with leaves for dreams,
A dance that never ends that only you can know,
from the roots to the sky sylvan slippers rings of time,
in the gloaming of this world,
back where memories lie.”
You know, I can’t say it or sing it without feeling something intensely about the passing of time and mortality and the fragile quality of life. That’s what those words mean to me.
Q: Is there anything in particular that inspired you when writing Old Bones Odyssey?
Well, I don’t know if it was happening right then, it’s kind of all a blur. But the whole tree science thing had caught my imagination, and I was reading constantly about something about the fibers of the mushrooms underneath the ground that connects the trees to each other, and they’re all talking to each other.
And I thought it was such a great metaphor for the whole project that people are like trees and worlds and cities and ancient past, and then history and stories are the things underground that are connecting us all.
Well, I probably, you know, it sounds pretty psychedelic, but that’s, I think definitely the new tree science was a huge piece of what I was thinking as I went to write Old Bones and also just for the whole project. Trees are one of the main images for obvious reasons, the family tree, the tree of humanity goes on and on, but I also just mean living trees and all the things that they make us think about here on Earth.
Ellen C Kaye
Singer/songwriter, producer, podcast maker, mom, born and bred in NYC. Night Club singer at heart.
