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A Map of the World

by Jswetch

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Here's a song about keeping your bearings, and being comfortable when they inevitably take you into newly charted places. Change is a constant, so those bearings can swerve and shift pretty regularly. Our perceptions of the "world", and our place in it, are never likely to be fixed for any great length of time.
It can also be about realizing that changes in borders, and shifts in our own lives and circumstances leave some constants which remain integrated in some basic, yet profound, ways.
This was written at a point in the early 90's when the political map of Europe was going through some major changes due to the end of the Cold War. I got thinking then about the whirlwinds and upheavals coming from new borders and the personal shifts that put millions of people through in a pretty central part of their own personal identities and literal "place in the world".
That led to pondering how we all basically go through this to some extent in our daily lives: as we start or end relationships; when we get new jobs; as family members come and go over time; when we change residences; and on and on.
Those thoughts, and the bassline you'll hear, led to this song. This is now the 3rd different recording of it since about 1992, so this musical map has certainly changed a little each time the song has gotten a new life . The music was originally inspired and influenced a bit by the band XTC, and the kind of sound they were getting in the early 90's. Regrettably, XTC is now pretty much off the musical map, and this probably doesn't sound as overtly like them anymore.
I tried to make the instrumentation on this version a bit more "Global". You'll hear that in the percussion that's in tandem with a conventional drum kit, and there's a nylon stringed acoustic guitar that I put through a Ravish Sitar effect. That's on a "breezy" middle solo section that hopeflly acts as a musical trip of sorts. There are some psychedelic aspects along the way too-not to mention the good old fashioned toe tapping hoe-down chorus.
I hope that this takes you on a nice "world tour" as you listen, and that your own Map remains as manageable as possible, and that it might even integrate for you in pleasant ways.

lyrics

Scanning in a bar code for a map of the world
Tell me what's the price today
Factor in a desert and an ocean wave's curl
Tell me what more can I do or say

Got to think it out. Stress the size and shape.
Before you lay me out, map without a border would be great.
Think I'll get it out. Stretch the shape and size.
Don't yet lay me out. Gazing at a map, I'm getting wise.

Spent time looking at a map of the world
See it changing, it can't change enough.
Factor in a wedding and a dervishe's whirl
See it changing, hope I can keep up

Got to......

Dreamt all night about a map of the world
Can't remember what it was about
Factor in emotion and the spirit unfurls
Can't forget it, whisper or a shout

Got to.....

credits

released November 1, 2022
Written, performed , recorded, engineered, and produced by John Schwetje at Swetchsongs Studio, Long Island, NY. Copyright 2022 by Swetchsongs, ASCAP. Photo is public domain image of the Kashgari Map from 1072 CE.

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Jswetch New York

Jswetch is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with many years of playing experience in varied settings. He's influenced by Kurt Rosenwinkel, Neil Finn, John McLaughlin, XTC, Oregon, Todd Rundgren, Keith Jarrett, Weather Report, The Beatles, Hendrix, Jack Bruce, 70's Prog, Pat Metheny, and Fairport Convention. A little of all this filters into his own unique songs, sound, and musical vision. ... more

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