Trick Of The Light (Bedroom Demo #91) (Patreon)

words and music: Terry Scott Taylor

©2018 Shape Of Air Music, BMI

I saw Gene today movin’ fast on his feet,

Makin’ his way through the crowd on the street

Maybe gettin’ back to a Green Room track,

Or the one

Where the horses run in Los Alamitos

Oh no, that can’t be right

All I suppose it was

Was a trick of The Light

I saw Tom again through the bar and grill window

On piano he played his song’s final crescendo

Thought I’d go in, grab the leg of my friend

He’ll grab mine

It’s another fine ol’ “Low Five”

Oh no, that can’t be right

All I suppose it was

Was a trick of The Light

I’ve seen Doug and Dave and my old friend Joe

Where the shadows danced and the light fell so

It crowned their heads like a saint’s halo

My heart said “yes” till my eyes said “no”

I saw Mama again and Dad among the funeral crowd

Dad was looking content 

Of course Mom was laughing long and loud

They looked like visitors from another place and time,

Not one you will find

In this old world

Oh no, that can’t be right

All I suppose it was

Was a trick of The Light

All I suppose it was

Was a trick of The Light

vocals and instruments: T.S. Taylor

Note:

All of the names appearing in “a Trick of The Light” are those of precious friends and family members I have lost in relatively recent years; Gene Eugene, Tom Howard, Doug Doyle, Dave Perry, Joe Dougherty, and my Mom and Dad. This is my tribute to them.

I did see “Mom” at her own funeral, though it turned out to be her niece whose appearance had been transformed into my Mothers by a shaft of sunlight perfectly framing her head and face. She appeared to be Mom clothed now in her new and imperishable resurrected body. 

The “Low Five” mentioned in the song is real. This was Tom Howard's and my traditional greeting whenever we got together again after a time of absence, and it never failed to crack up anyone in the room who witnessed it.

A few years back I did see a man who looked amazingly like Gene “makin’ his way through the crowd on the street.” How painful and sweet was that encounter. I’m certain most of us have had this kind of experience; a face in the crowd who has an uncanny resemblance to someone dear, now lost to us. A little gift from God, or just a “trick of the light”? God only knows. If I were a betting man I think my money would be on the former.