This will probably the only other one I post (though I do have more). I’m obsessed with love stories that are affected by the theory of relativity (time passing faster on Earth than for the person traveling at the speed of light, for instance), so I thought the natural sadness of “Lowlands Away” would really fit that idea. That particular shanty is about having a dream that a loved one passed while you were at sea. In my space shanty short film that will never be, I imagined having this song be like a digital ghost in the memory banks of an abandoned ship.

Anyway, here’s “Solar Away”, sung to this tune.

When I did leave, we were eighteen 
Solar, Solar away, my John   
His face I saw, only on screen
Solar away

His message came but ten years late,
Solar, Solar away, my John
He’s sixty-three, I’m twenty eight
Solar away

His hair was grey, and mine still black
Solar, Solar away, my John
He spoke of days that never passed
Solar away

How many years of his I missed
Solar, Solar away, my John
‘Tis yesterday to me we kissed
Solar away

Transmissions ceased, no words he said
Solar, Solar away, my John
And then I knew, my love was dead
Solar away

His life was done when mine began
Solar, Solar away, my John
He lived without, so live I can
Solar away

And in the stars, I see his face
Solar, Solar away, my John
I feel like I’m debris in space
Solar away