Blog: Behind The “You Needed Me” Cover

Hey everyone !

Hope you all had a FAB weekend !

I’ve been layin’ low prepping for lots of upcoming fun stuff ….some of which has been prematurely teased online without my knowledge and will be confirmed as soon as we have official word that certain shows and events are indeed happening.

I’m also prepping for a soon to be announced film project that’s been quietly in the works for nearly six years! Welcome to Hollywood…lol. SO excited to unveil this to all of you.

As you can see, this past week my hair fall and me had some super fun singing moments. I do the same work on my voice and whole being constantly, but the element of surprise still is so crazy …one day it’s more of an effort to sing.  This day was particularly magical.

So when my man and my friend left the house, I jumped on the piano but didn’t anticipate doing this one. I hadn’t pulled up chords or lyrics and don’t know that I had ever played it straight through in my adult life though I can vividly picture that sheet music sitting on my childhood piano. Anne Murray’s performance is so rich and grounded and simply delicious.

I know I shouldn’t give away all my secrets but I for some reason find it fun to share with you guys what’s actually going on minute to minute as I’m recording one of these videos. Before the chorus I truly had no idea what the next chord was going to be so I naturally did two rounds of “you needed me …you needed me,” which made it sound like it was possibly going to be one of my super abridged version of songs in keeping with how I’ve been doing them lately. But indeed at the last second the chorus chord popped in my head and so I continued on to the end.

As I have listened to the song over the past several years it came to me that the line “so high that I could almost see eternity” was interesting in that everything else about the song is so emphatic, passionate, and romantic.  The word “almost,” to me, took it down a notch. So every time I sing along with it, if it’s playing on my iPod mix or if it comes on the radio, I naturally have been singing “So high – now – ALL I see …eternity.” To me it has two meanings. It means I see all, I get it now …the meaning of life and my path etc., as well as the obvious… All I can see is eternity …and forever with you. When sung in this way it makes no apologies and leaves no room for being wishy-washy.

I jokingly call my man “The Song Doctor” as he is an actual doctor but is constantly hearing things like that in amazing hit songs. Another example is “Shine bright like a diamond.” How about a twist at the end that says “Shine bright…we are diamonds in the sky.” Or “We’re the diamonds in the sky.” Instead of being LIKE them ….we ARE them …illuminating all with our magic and love. Pretty powerful! Not that Rihanna needs my help. The song is timeless.

That one little shift is now an elevation I look for when channeling my own music as opposed to just taking the first rime that comes to me. I’m thinking, “Is that the clearest, most unique, most powerful way it can be said?” It’s a long time coming this new album I keep hinting at, but trust me. When it drops, you’ll know. It’ll be the most raw, yet tightest, it can be!

Since that day I’ve had some good singing days n not. Funny how sometimes I gauge how I feel on that or fret about how my voice and me will feel each show. It was actually easier when I was doing a show a week or five concerts a week because you don’t project out words as much and there is in a weird way less pressure on it all. But what I’ve learned is that the most important thing is to “show up” with whatever the universe is giving me that day and rock what I got!!! You can always be rest assured I’ve put my work in and taken it seriously, as your loyalty and hard earned time and money are of great value to me. I then hafta make a shift and let it all go and to drop any worry and just HAVE FUN!!!

Any who :-). Whew! So, that’s the story behind this week’s Music Monday pick and the latest in my #AcousticPop series. I hafta say honestly, this one kinda picked me!

Enjoy!!!

X Deb