The Meaning Of: SOMETHING LIKE BLISS
Crissi Cochrane
Welcome to The Meaning Of, a series of blog posts exploring the meaning behind each song from my 2020 album, Heirloom. I’ll explain the stories that inspired the songs, and reveal some of the roots and references that helped shape my musical and lyrical choices. If there’s something particular that you’re curious about that I haven’t revealed, leave me a question in the comments below, and I’ll be pleased to answer it.
Track four of Heirloom, and the second of the two custom love songs featured on the album, is Something Like Bliss.
This particular commission was a door prize I offered a Christmas concert I played in December 2016, won by David Burrows, and written for his then-girlfriend (now wife) Lynne Comartin. I remember being especially nervous about delivering a good tune since they are both beloved locally for their careers in the arts!
David told me that upon meeting her for the first time, he “immediately thought she was lovely and wasted no time friending her on Facebook.” (Wasted no time, got right to talking… you were so lovely.) Shortly after, they began a long conversation, and he asked her on their first date. (Asked you out on a date downtown…) It was an all-day affair, spent at the art gallery, strolling downtown by the river, and enjoying dinner. “We both knew very quickly this was something special.” All of this imagery informed the verses of the song.
A lot of the inspiration for the song came from lyrics that he had written for Lynne at the beginning of their relationship. From it, I borrowed the lines, “I’d been going through the motions”… and “your eyes [see] deep [inside of] me”, and the chorus of “Something Like Bliss” is a very close re-working of the fourth verse in his lyrics - “Something close to bliss, to be feeling like this, and it’s hard to resist the temptation.”
At the point in time when I wrote this song, I had been writing custom songs for a little less than one year, and had already written more than two dozen of them. This song was my 28th custom love song, and after writing so many, I knew I wanted to try to take this one sonically in a different direction. With downtown as the setting for their first date, I felt inclined to make the song a bit edgier in feel, writing the verses in a minor-key feeling, but making the choruses feel more warm, major-key vibe. I actually had Corinne Bailey Rae’s style in mind while writing the choruses, and I often try to channel her tenderness when I sing those parts today.
“Something Like Bliss” made its debut before Heirloom, being released as a live performance video on YouTube, filmed by the AVB Podcast in January of 2018. The video is a simplified version of the arrangement that would eventually be expanded on the album, and the personnel is an interesting change-up - because we didn’t have a drummer available on the day of the taping, Keith Wilkinson (who is best known locally as a star bassist) filled in on drums, Mike played bass, and Austin Di Pietro played trumpet. My baby belly was just beginning to show.
SOMETHING LIKE BLISS - CRISSI COCHRANE
It was unexpected
When I met you, everything changed
I'd been going through the motions
Til I first heard your name
Wasted no time, got right to talking
You were so lovely
Asked you out on a date downtown
And then the whole world became
Something like bliss
Feeling like this, feeling
Something like bliss
And it's hard to resist this
You between the frames, you're like an oil painting
You with the sunlight in your hair
Covering the waterfront
Your voice, like music in the air
We both knew this was something special
It was something I had missed
But your eyes see deep inside of me
To something I didn't know was there
Something like bliss
Feeling like this, feeling
Something like bliss
And it's hard to resist
No, I won't resist this
LEARN HOW TO PLAY THIS SONG >
LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR? BUY IT ON CD OR DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
Or find it on your favourite streaming platform here.
