Song of Innocence

Album: Knowledge & Innocence (1986)
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Songfacts®:

  • Terry Scott Taylor is very prolific - his side projects include the bands Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies, and Lost Dogs - but he also has a considerable solo output. This song is a duet with Randy Stonehill. Speaking about the song, Taylor told us: "We recorded the album over at Doug Doyle's old 3-D studios in Costa Mesa, and although Randy had never worked there before, he and I were very close and had worked together quite a bit already, so the atmosphere was very relaxed and informal. With Randy of course there are a lot of laughs, but when it comes time to work, we work hard. The moment I wrote this song, I knew I had to have Randy do a vocal on it. He was completely charmed by the song when I presented it to him that very day in the studio, and he went right to work learning his part. He's a quick study and he's got great sensibilities when it comes to the appropriate vocal approach to a particular song. He went with a kind of breathiness in the vocal, which captures the inherent wonder of the lyrics. His vocal on that one is very soulful and sweet. I think he played a little guitar on there too. Some people might not know that that's Bob Bennet singing the background on the closing chorus. He did a beautiful job." (Here's our full Terry Taylor interview.)
  • Taylor often alludes to the work of William Blake; The Daniel Amos album title Fearful Symmetry, for instance, was drawn from Blake's poem "The Tyger." This song was inspired by English poet's 1789 collection Songs Of Innocence, which eloquently explored issues of divine love. Unable to find a publisher for his book of poems, Blake and his wife engraved and printed them at home.

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