Yesterday I wrote about the song Somebody Will and why it's tricky in a group singing context, and shared a new melody I was playing with. After talking to some people about what they like about the original melody, and listening to some group singing recordings, here's another go.

This version keeps the melody for sections where it's reasonably predictable, simplifies the melody in a few places, and substitutes a new melody only where I think one is needed. Specifically:

• The first melody ("Our new world ... will not be mine") is unchanged from the original.
• The second melody ("A hundred years ... each new home") no longer moves the tune from D to Bbm but goes to the more natural Bm instead. The melody here is new but tries to have a similar feel as the original.
• The third melody ("But I'll teach .. rockets belong") is unchanged from the original for the first part, but swaps a repeat of the second line's melody for the range-busting rise on "where our rockets belong".
• The fourth melody ("It will never ... so far away") is new, and another attempt to make something fitting in Bm to replace something tricky in Bbm.
• The fifth melody ("But I am .. somebody will someday") is unchanged from the original (I had thought it was too hard and recorded a draft version with it swapped to the version from yesterday, but really the only hard part is the first two notes (4, 3 over D) and I think we can deal with that)

(youtube)

Chords:

(in D)
        A           D
Our new world is so close.
         A               D        A           D
Mars has treasures we're only just starting to find.
       A             D            A           D
Frozen mountains and crimson dust waiting for footprints
     Bm           A
That will not be mine.


Bm        A        Bm             A
A hundred years to run the first tests
G          G               A
another to raise the first dome.
Bm             A          Bm    A
The moon, then Mars, then Titan next,
  G            G              A
A life time to touch each new home.


      A          D
And I want it so much.
         A           D         A                D
Close my eyes, I can taste the Mars dust in the air.
       A            D              A          D
In the darkness the space stations shimmer in orbits that
Bm          A
I will not share.


D                  D       D                 D
But I'll teach the student who'll manage the fact'ry
D                D                G        A
That tempers the steel that makes colonies strong.
D                  D            D        D
And I'll write the program that runs the computer
     D              D               G       A
That charts out the stars where our rockets belong.


        Bm        A       G            A
It will never get easy to wake from my dream
         Bm       A           G      A
When the future I dream of is so far away.


    D   D  D          D
But I   am willing to sacrifice
D         D                D           D
Something I don't have for something I won't have
    Bm      A    D
But somebody will someday.


A            D
And it feels like a waste.
         A           D           A        D
All this working and waiting and battling time,
    A         D            A         D
And all for a kingdom that all of my efforts
     Bm         A
Will never make mine,


    Bm       A         Bm       A
But brick by brick the Pyramids rose,
     G           G         A
With most hidden under the sand,
   Bm      A        Bm      A
So life by life the project grows
   G            G        A
In ways I might not understand.


     A       D
I am voyaging too,
        A            D         A           D
We will need the foundation as much as the dome
          Bm             A
For those worlds to come true,


    D              D           D           D
And I'll clerk the office that handles the funding
     D          D          G           A
That raises the tower that watches the sky.
    D              D              D           D
And I'll staff the bookstore that carries the journal
     D           D              G           A
That sparks the idea that makes solar sails fly.


         Bm      A          G          A
It takes so many sailors to conquer an ocean
    Bm      A              G           A
And so many more when it's light-years away,


    D   D  D          D
But I   am willing to sacrifice
D         D                D           D
Something I don't have for something I won't have
    Bm      A    D
But somebody will someday.

        A       D
It's so easy to run.
      A         D                A       D
Hide away in my books, games and fantasy plans,
         A         D          A          D
Let them call me a coward who can't face reality's
Bm       A
Grownup demands,


    Bm    A       Bm       A
But if I love my fantasy worlds
         G       G           A
It's not fantasy love that I feel.
    Bm      A      Bm       A
And so much more I feel for this
    G             G
The world that created them,
G           G
World we create with them,
G             G             A
One chance to make them all real.


      A             D
And I know we won't stop.
              A        D           A          D
We've planned too many wonders for one little star.
       A         D           A        D
Though often the present may seem too complacent
   Bm            A
To take us that far.


    D             D         D             D
But I'll tell the story and I'll draw the picture
    D             D           G        A
And I'll sing the anthem that banishes doubt,
    D           D            D           D
And host the convention that summons the family
     D           D         G           A
That carries the fire that never burns out


          Bm      A          G           A
There are so many chances to give up the journey,
  Bm       A            G       A
Especially when it's so easy to stay,

    D   D  D          D
But I   am willing to sacrifice
D         D                D           D
Something I don't have for something I won't have
    Bm        A
And not only me,

    D   D   D          D
But we  are willing to sacrifice
D         D                 D            D
Something we don't have for something we won't have
   Bm        A     D
So somebody will, someday.