Friend of a Lover

Now we arrive at ‘Friend of a Lover’, which is track #8 on the ‘Running Behind Time’ album. The background story is the same as that of ‘Double Kiss’ (see my earlier blog of that song), which is track #3 on the album.

The music for both songs was written and provided for inclusion on the album by the studio engineer for the original recordings, Pál Hanula. It was my task to add lyrics for both pieces of music.

It was an interesting challenge for me, as the songs were written without lyrics or lyrical structure in mind (as musical pieces without the traditional verse-bridge-chorus progression, or similar). So, I had to find a way to place the lyrics around the music without simply following the musical progressions (which would have sounded monotonous), and thereby to create a separate melody progression for the lyrics, that fit around the melody progression of the music. Once I got into the groove of this way of writing, the lyrics for both songs came to me very quickly.

From the time I had started writing songs, I would occasionally memorise or keep a document of phrases or sentences that I could use later when writing song lyrics. One of them was ‘Friend of a Lover’.

When it came to this particular song, there was a two-way battle in my head – one voice saying there was no chance I would ever write a song titled ‘Friend of a Lover’ 😊. The other voice was telling me that of course this song would be called ‘Friend of a Lover’😊. I was leaning more towards the first voice, but in the end the second voice in my head won over😊. And I’m happy it did :)))))

The song title created the theme of the lyrics, which revolves around a three-way relationship. I really had fun with the lyrics, which are sprinkled with innuendo and ambiguity, in a light-hearted (but realistic) take on the theme😊. It’s a grey area as to who forms the couple, who is the third party, or if any of them can really be subject to any form of definition.

It’s best for the listener to apply their own interpretation. The lyrics include lines such as:

‘’ There’s nothing in it for me,

A view from the left, a piece in a puzzle of three,

A confidant, a keeper of a diary ‘’

And also:

‘’ Under a spell or undercover,

Side by side or with each other,

It’s not by accident or by design,

To take the hit on the bottom line,

And be a friend of a lover ‘’

In the end, I was very happy with the result, as I was with its twin ‘Double Kiss’. Both are excellent musical pieces by Pál, made that little bit more special and intriguing in that the music was not crafted around lyrics. Ultimately, the combination of music and lyrics resulted in both songs having a unique and individual vibe.

In addition, when recording drums to both songs, I had fun playing some unusual hi-hat, ride cymbal, and bass-snare patterns, which I think also fit well with the musicality of the songs.

I still enjoy listening to both songs, and I hope listeners enjoy them too. And, put them on repeat play, of course :)))))