The Impossible Journey — Angela Brett and Joey Marianer on JoCo Cruise 2022
Channel: Angela Brett
Date: 2022-04-14

Later in our relationship, we started intentionally writing songs together, instead of Joey just setting my poems to music, or me setting words to tunes from Joey's dreams. We entered the SpinTunes songwriting contest (http://spintunescontest.blogspot.com), and ended up writing three songs about The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, an amazing book full of puns and wordplay, which is not really spoiled by knowing all the plot points mentioned in this song. You can listen to all three songs at https://angelastic.bandcamp.com/album/spintunes-16-entries

The challenge for this one was to write an uplifting song to sing for a Graduation, Dedication, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Funeral, Baptism, or similar event. 

In the universe of The Phantom Tollbooth, this song would be sung at the annual celebration of the [spoiler ahead]




 rescue of Rhyme and Reason by Milo, Tock, and the Humbug. In our universe, it's suitable for any celebration of somebody's hard-won achievements — graduation, funeral, knighthood, and so on.

I'm just singing extra 'journey's at various points for comic effect, because that's what happens when I get the song in my head.

lyrics:

You took the impossible journey 
You went to the castle in the air 
It was an impossible journey 
You had every Reason to dare 

You passed Expectations at the very start 
You rode out the doldrums very thoughtfully 
You watched your words and served your sentences 
You heard of a problem and you came to help 
You brought quite some courage to the table 
You ventured to change the way you looked at things 
You saw things from someone else’s Point of View 
You saw past Illusions to Reality 
You brought forth the dawn in vivid symphony 
You fought for the silenced with your voice 
You jumped to conclusions and worked back again 
You carefully thought about which path to take 

You took the impossible journey 
You went to the castle in the air 
It was an impossible journey 
You had every Reason to dare 

You mastered the magic you can count upon 
You looked past the average towards infinity 
You forged an agreement from the strife 
You conquered distractions of the trivial 
You vanquished the demons with perceptiveness 
Your thoughts shook the shoulders of a giant 
You kept all your senses and went bravely on 
You found what you searched for at last 
You thought your blunders were a waste of time 
You thought your skill was all pretending 
You brought back harmony with Reason and Rhyme 
Your learning will be neverending 

You made the impossible journey 
You went to the castle in the air 
It was an impossible journey 
You had every Reason to dare

The video of this entire show is at https://youtu.be/VkpGEGRtrDs
The playlist of videos of individual poems/songs is at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ-l6mr1dW0hJ1kN-7Fi7viIPXRSIJGjW
There's also a playlist of videos mentioned in the show: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ-l6mr1dW0iFgLqZ5GrhBNQsT4p7EDXx

What can I say? I like playlists.