Link to: Discography Red December Next Song (Modern Day Messiah Blues)
		Truth: Part III Hear It! (5:24 / 1.3M)

Its hard to believe that the 'Truth' project has come to an end. Fourteen years in the making! Of course, the history of the song would be better understood if you have already read the stories behind 'Truth: Part I' and 'Truth: Part II'. But in a nutshell, Mark wrote the lyrics for a three-part song called 'Truth' in 1987. Since all of the members of the band (at that time) were big into Rush, they created an epic nine-minute song that included all three parts. Very artsy, and in retrospect...kinda cheesy. Having broken up the parts of the song for separate inclusion on "Graven Images" and "Itch!", it was only logical that HBI include Part III on "Red December" and close the trilogy. Hoever, there were two difficult challenges in doing this. One, the music originally written for the 1987 epic would not work if Part III were to stand alone as its own song. The chord changes and structure were just too weird. Plus, the original epic featured a climactic chord progression that really rocked, unitl it was realized that John had unintentionally ripped it off from the song "Tell Me What You Want" by Zebra. All in all, for Part III...HBI had to return to the musical drawing board. Fortunately, there was some good musical material from the original epic and from the subsequent Parts I and II. Pulling from these sources, HBI came up with new music for Part III that utilizes some old Truth riffs (for consistency) with new twists. The second challenge was the vocal melody. Since most of the chord changes had been rewritten for Part III, the original melody no longer applied. Further, the key HBI was using turned out to be an awkward "too high or too low" choice for vocals. But HBI had to use that key in order to be consistent with the rest of the trilogy. To solve these issues, HBI devloped a new (and somewhat humorous) technique for vocal recording. John and Mark sat down (with an acoustic guitar) and hummed out a reasonable melody for the first verses. Once they were comfortable that it would work, they would quickly jump up and record Mark's vocals for the first verses (before he forgot how it went). Then, they would sit down and work out the melody for the bridge. Once they got it, they would jump up and record the bridge vocals. This process was repeated for the chorus and throughout the rest of the song--recording the vocal track in segments so as not to forget what works. Again, when it was all over-- HBI had a good laugh! And thus, the Truth trilogy comes to a close...or does it? After all, the journey is the end in itself...

REVELATION he lays beside a flowing woodland stream the past five years a flowing endless dream his journey has taken him to foreign places and foreign climes yet his questions are unanswered his quest's a waste of time suddenly...a cloudburst warm summer rain pours down quenching his inner thirst a smile replaces a frown it all seems so obvious now he can't believe he missed it before the answer comes creeping like the soft summer rain that falls     he realizes what his answer is     he now sees the solution     his vision has suddenly cleared     and he sees through the illusion the journey is the end in itself the search is the answer to be on the path is to find the truth the joy of wandering forever he now sees his voyage anew he now knows its worth keep finding never search he has undergone rebirth for there is no end to the road of life there's no solution to internal strife     find without seeking     believe without proof     only through journey     will you find. . . the truth the journey is the end in itself the search is the answer to be on the path is to find the truth the joy of wandering forever Lyrics by Mark Schaefer ©2001 by HBI and Red December Music