Rise and fall - finished

Karsten has shortened the intro for "rise and fall" and considers a purely instrumental intro. This actually improves the song a lot. In former times there were two rules for hit material: the chorus must begin after a maximum of 30 seconds, and a songs must not last longer than 3 minutes. This was because the American radio stations would insert advertisements every 3 minutes. As for the 30 seconds this is about the time span an A&R manager gives new material to let himself become convinced that he should invest time and money on it.

For me Karsten's suggestions mean that my job as for this song is finished. This might imply a further improvement, too. My idea having the text relate to current affairs was actually quite risky. The song could become outdated quite soon because nobody would like to listen to its lyrics any longer. I've only referred to current events in two of my own songs, if I remember correctly. One is "peaceful times" which refers to the Kosovo crises and the Afghan war. I tried to fix it by making the text past tense. The other is "bushfires" which I never recorded anyway. It didn't even have a melody.