END OF SUMMER (1965)

Am                Dm     Am It's come.  It's the End of Summer.       C                               E          E7 My homeward way, I must weave.       Am            G             Am Darling, my heart stays with you,            C      G            Am Though I, myself, must leave. Der Sommer ist leider vorüber Unsere Liebe, trotzdem nicht vorbei Aber Ich, Ich müss' weider 'rüber Und Du, Du bleibst hier, Lorelei. Soon, the dry leaves will chatter All along this valley so low And the golden fields of autumn Will glisten with ice and with snow But I'll return in the springtime. 'Til then, my love stays with you, So watch 'til the end of winter When I'll return to you Was soll' Ich Dir noch sagen? Schleiss Deine Augen bis Zehn. Noch 'nen Kuss. Bitte, keine Fragen. Ich liebe Dich.  Auf wiedersehn. Travis Edward Pike (Chelsea Naval Hospital - 1964)

CLICK TO HEAR TRAVIS PIKE'S TEA PARTY DEMO OF "END OF SUMMER."

This is the first original song I wrote when I was reovering from bone-graft surgery in CHelsea Naval Hospital. I am frequently asked what became of Lorelei. Did I ever see her again? Alas, she has always been and never was, a golden enchantress whose song distracts mariners so completely that they never see the rocks that crush their boats and drown them. My studies in folklore and myth introduced me to my two favorite poems in the German Language--Heinrich Heine's Die Lorelei, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Der Erlknig. If you do not understand German, by all means, discover them in translation, but you must hear them performed in in German to truly grasp the wonder and horror of both. Loosely translated, Der Erlknig is usually rendered in English as the Elf King, but I prefer the Alder King, once high lord of the trees, more recently replaced by the Oak, but I digress. Lorelei represents all the lovers left behind, who yearn for a reunion that may never come. I wrote it for my German fans, in the hope that one day I would return to Germany and see them again.

Fans may recognize this photo from the cover of my 2014 album, Feelin Better featuring new recordings of several songs I performed in Feelin Good. The background in the original photo taken in 1965 in Portsmouth, Virginia, wasnt exciting, but I liked the way I looked back over my left shoulder, and my German-made Framus electric guitar hanged down behind my back.      I asked graphic artist Linda Snyder to crop me out of that photo and insert me in a shot I took at Croxteth Hall, Liverpool, England, in 1992, when I discovered its magical gate to otherworld for Morningstone, the original, multi-million dollar musical fantasy adventure film I had scheduled for production in 1993. The resulting accurate period photo of me, going toward that mysterious otherworldly gate more than a quarter century later, captured my concept exactly.      Unfortunately, the production was shelved indefintely for lack of funds, but indefinitely need not mean forever. I adapted my screenplay into a novel, retitled it Changelings Return and Otherworld Cottage Industries published it and a new 53-minute CD of its music in late 2019.

BACK	HOME	NEXT