SOLITARY WALK 020311 - LA SOMBRA and EUREKA

James Michael Taylor

I was on location for The Stone Raft in Spain and feeling pretty lonely. June of 2000. I was the only person on cast or crew that spoke only English. I was left out of most conversations because the crew and cast were all multilingual Europeans. George, the director was Dutch. His wife, Anne, was French. Mostly the conversations were in Spanish or French. At dinner someone would say, “Speak English for James…” But it would soon drift off into dribble to me. That made me like a blind man at a race track. AND I was the only American. I spent the evenings alone in my hotel room. Later to find that the others had been meeting at a local watering hole for music and fun times. I was not invited.
The imagery in this song is from the scenes we were filming of Pedro, Federico Luppi, up thru his death and burial.
I made notes during the day as the shooting progressed and I pieced the song together in my hotel room. Someone in the crew told me how to say “solitary walk” in Spanish.

SOLITARY WALK Am

INTRO Am F Am F

Am G F G
Tho I follow in the footprints of my friends
And the road I walk down has been tramped into stone
Dm
All the tears that I’ve cried will have been turned into dust
My life will pass like a shadow into the shade
La sombra, a la sombra

When the weight of the sun on my eyes
Is replaced by the cool silence of the tunnel
Like a lamb with a broken leg I will be left behind
And the cries of your new born will steal your thots from me

When I lie beneath my little cross
And your ridged wheels rattle my bones
I will trust you to leave me with peace in your hearts
For that will be the end of my world
Por esso sera el fin de me mundo

Camanate solitario…
It’s a solitary walk…..