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Blue (A Murder Waltz)

from hope​/​less by Chris Roth

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about

This is part of another kind of challenge: the Morph Challenge, where you take a song as a starting point and inspiration and develop your own song from it, changing parts and keeping others. In this case, I changed the majors to minors and vice versa. I kept the ballad-like structure, the 3/4 waltz time signature, but altered the story of the song: When the song I was inspired by dealt with a toxic man wanting to charm a singer, I made it about his murder investigation.

Side note: I must at one time in my life have read something about the Highway of Tears. I searched for “Highway 16” months after I finished the lyrics. I didn’t write the song with it in mind, but it fits eerily well.
If you don’t know about the Highway of Tears, please do read up on it and learn how the intersection of racism, classism and sexism has dire consequences for many people living in British Columbia, Canada.

lyrics

[Verse 1]

Near highway sixteen
I came late to the scene
the con man I’d followed
for seven long months

His eyes stared blank
brow unpleasantly dank
in his pocket a matchbook
in his slackened hand cloth

[Chorus 1]

of blue, blue
what did he do
to deserve this cruel end?
blue, blue
oh what could I do
I need to follow this through

[Verse 2]

There’s a club nearby
asked around for the guy
many knew him, despised him
called him dirtbag and worse

A notorious man
stealing hearts first, then lives
and he left late that night with
a singer, a lady

[Chorus 2]

in blue, blue
I don’t know about you
why would he meet his end?
blue, blue
oh what could I do
I need to follow this through

[Verse 3]

I followed the scent
almost sure where she went
all I found was a letter
written in ink

“Don’t come looking for me
He deserved it, you see
I just made your job easy
he’s gone now, you’re free.”

[Verse 4]

I blinked, time stood still
I don’t know if I will
ever fully believe
what I knew then in passing

My blue dress on the ground
where the letter I’d found
I had reckoned with the man
I couldn’t seem to pin down

[Chorus 3]

It’s true, true
not out of the blue
he finally met his end

blue, blue
oh what did I do
I needed to follow this through
oh I needed to follow this through

credits

from hope​/​less, released May 6, 2022

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Chris Roth Mannheim, Germany

Electronic music, minor preferred.

Retro dance, alternative darkwave, dreamy electro, a dash of metal.

The sound of streets at night, neon light, heavy rain.

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