Keep it Real

"Fashion to Ashes" came to me pretty quickly. Once I found the chords, the words kind of wrote themselves. My wife had some fashion mags lying around our apt. in West Nyack, NY. While thumbing through a few it dawned on me that these mags were presenting nothing but a false reality. In my mind, all of these unblemished models with their perfect figures and their air brushed complexions seemed to be making women feel terrible about their real, unglamorous selves. On a personal level it was just a simple love song to my wife to let her know that I thought she was way more beautiful than those mucked up phonies. But it was also aimed at the countless women who let this stuff make them feel inferior and ugly. In the song the words "ugly people" are intended as a metaphor for real people......

You should see the lovely things that I see through these eyes

And hear the angel voices swimming in my ears when only you are talking to me

You won't break through your fears by hiding under stones

you carry in your bag of hopeless hesitation

Open up your eyes, you are so inviting

Take a look inside, see the grace you're hiding

It always seems to me there's no ugly people in those magazines

It's obscene, let's throw them on the fire

Watch them burn and we'll turn

The fashion into ashes

Open up your eyes, you are so inviting

Take a look inside, see the grace you're hiding

You are a blessing and a mirage

Here is my reel to reel demo of 'Fashion To Ashes".......

If you know the song you can hear the chorus vocals are not recorded but I have all of the melodies worked out. John Smith helped me with a couple of lines: "see the grace you're hiding" and "You are a blessing and a mirage".... He always had a knack of summing up the sentiment in an interesting way. I may record this again as I like Unspun's version but don't think it does the song justice.