Can't Go Back Again
Text Source
Don "Orfeo" Rechtman
Music
Don "Orfeo" Rechtman
Instrumentation
Voice, piano
Can't Go Back Again by Don "Orfeo" Rechtman (1990)
is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
(This means you can perform it non-commercially or commercially without having to pay royalties, but you are required to acknowledge its authorship and where you got it. You cannot modify it without written permission from Don "Orfeo" Rechtman.)
Sheet Music
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Recording
N/A
Video
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Practice Tracks
Piano Accompaniment MP3 (5MB)
Lyrics Printout
Lyrics MS Word doc
Notes
This was written as incidental music for a 1990 Decatur Theater (Decatur, Georgia) production of Lanford Wilson's play "Fifth of July." Notables who starred in its off-Broadway and Broadway productions include Christopher Reeve, John Hurt, Amy Wright, Jonathan Hogan, Swoosie Kurtz, and Timothy Bottoms. Amy played an aspiring country composer and singer, and Hogan had composed a partial very mediocre tune for her to use. I felt the Decatur Theater could use a more relevant and completed piece. The story centers around a gay paraplegic Vietnam vet recently returned home.
It is my first and only folk song, and is more folk than country, but still fit the play well. At first I was a bit confused after writing the music, as a Calypso style did not seem a likely fit for an anti-war folk song. But it did not take long for me to realize that the musical style strongly supports the irony of the text.
There was no dedication on the music at the time, but in light of my own war resistance history and the ongoing events, I found myself compelled to dedicate the music "For All Who Serve." My dedication does not specify tense (living or dead) or nationality, as violence is not just a national tragedy, it is a Human tragedy.