40 Days in The Wilderness

Back in 1969 a friend asked me to compose a melody for a poem he had written called 'Just Came Back from the Wilderness.'

Anyway, inspired by his lyrics, I wrote those below, perhaps 10 to 12 years later. They are quite different from the originals.

I was looking through a folder of creative stuff the other day and came across these amended lyrics. So, not having a decent version of the song, I recorded the vocals and guitar into Audacity, just as I'd performed the original version for Bob France and his girlfriend, Roweena, 57 years previously.

This was then exported to SUNO, where it was neatened up considerably.

24 hours of editing later, here is the result...

"Forty days in the wilderness,
40 days I'm on my own.
Forty days of steadfast prayer,
For my sins I must atone.

Forty days in the wilderness,
Forty nights all in a dream.
Locked in with loneliness,
So empty and bewildered I could scream.

Somebody's watching me.
I don't know why.
They say that someone like me
Is gonna die.

Forty days in the wilderness,
Sometimes I'd like to up and fly.
Don't think that I can make it,
But then they say I have to try.

I have a job to do,
I have just forty days to prepare.
Up ahead my fate awaits me,
Perhaps I'll find my answer there.

Somebody's watching me.
I wonder whom.
They tell me someone like me
Is coming soon.

Forty days in the wilderness,
A stronger wiser man to make.
And still I'm all a-tremble,
I think they made a big mistake.

Forty days in the wilderness,
And still my heart and mind's a maze.
They said I'd find myself,
The truth would out in forty days. 

Somebody's gonna take me,
I don't know where.
They say that someone like me's
Already there.

And then some fella came
And bade me choose.
I still can't figure out
Why I refused.
Been forty days and I paid my dues!

Forty days in the wilderness,
I don't know why I changed my mind.
But I saw no revelation,
I guess I wasn't meant to save mankind.

Forty days in the wilderness,
And still I don't know who I am.
There's just one thing I know for sure,
I am not the son of man.

Somebody's watching me,
I don't know why.
They say that someone like me
Is gonna die."