Music + lyrics by Peter King
2:14 | :30 soundbite
This tune comes from the same period of antiquity as “Capital of Idaho,” but I reharmonized it a couple of years ago, adding a few more chords and creating a stepwise descending bass line in the verses. If you’re a songwriter, you know that a good stepwise descending bass line is where it’s at.
“Morning Mail” makes me remember the way the birds would start chirping at 4:30 in the morning and the leaves of the trees would gradually materialize as dawn came, and I would still be awake scribbling and playing softly so as not to wake my roomies in a student apartment in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylavnia. I used to keep some really strange hours. Still do, actually.
You can hear a Jamesian inflluence in this tune. I’m speaking, of course, of Henry James, as well as James Brown.
Chorus:
Well I just picked up the morning mail
Not a heckuva lot to do
Well I just picked up the morning mail
Gonna lie around and dream about you
Verse:
Nothing special in the mail today
Nothing to write home about
A royalty check and a medical bill
That just about balance out
And your sweet lovin’ is on my mind
I think about you most of the day
I just can’t believe how we intertwine
But every night we find a way
Chorus:
Well I just picked up the morning mail
Not a heckuva lot to do
Well I just picked up the morning mail
Gonna lie around and dream about you
Verse:
I wake up slowly and I take my time
Goin’ in an easy groove
A breeze starts blowing and some branches stir
But that’s about as much as we move
Bridge:
I can’t wait till the twilight falls
Cool and crystal blue
I can’t wait till the nightbird calls
And I’m all alone with you
Chorus:
Well I just picked up the morning mail
Not a heckuva lot to do
Well I just picked up the morning mail
Gonna lie around and dream about you
Gonna lie around and dream about you
Gonna lie around and dream about you