- if you find this song to be mysterious, simply put “Boxing Day Tsunami 2004” in Google.
This is the first new song I’ve written in over a year. Over the last year I discovered recording. It’s become my latest obsession. It’s extremely time consuming and there is an impossible amount to learn. So lack of available time is one of the reasons for no new songs. I’ve got plenty of old ones to record. They’ll keep me going for probably another year.
The other thing that’s happened is the idea that I’m writing for an audience. I always wrote for myself. Hardly anyone would hear my songs. It didn’t occur to me that I should craft a song so that others might like it. So few people would hear them that it hardly mattered.
Of course, now that I’m recording songs the number of listeners has not increased. I feel lucky if 30 people play any given song. If I get up to 50 it’s a hit. But the songs are available on the internet and the possibility of lots of people hearing them never goes away.
Now I find myself thinking about what my theoretical audience might find interesting. And when I think that way I discover that I have no idea. I know that people seem to like “The Best” probably more than my other songs. It’s more emotional. So maybe I should try to write emotional songs. Or funny. Or political. Or angry. Who knows? But thinking about it has gotten in the way of actually writing.
So here is a song about a woman I never really knew. But I remember her name. And no, it’s not the kind of song you might expect with that sort of description. It’s different.
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When I’d finished recorded the demo for this song I had to decide on a title. Without giving it much though I used the spelling “Leone” when writing the song. But when I was putting it up on this website, as well as on BandCamp and SoundCloud, I thought I’d better look up how the name is usually spelled. I discovered the spelling “Leonie” was generally used. Further research determined that Subaru had used the spelling “Leone” for their car. I felt disappointed because the lyrics included the line “her name and her car’s were exactly the same”. Which apparently they weren’t, quite.
However, once the song existed on the internet and I was able to share it, I sent a link to Mandy, the first wife mentioned in the song. After a listen she told me that, coincidentally, she had always used the spelling “Leone”. So the line in the song can stand.
The song is really about memory. I hardly knew Leone and the last time I saw her would have been nearly 40 years ago. But I always remembered her introducing me to the car that shared her name. That memory lives for me more strongly than hearing about her tragic death. Funny what memories do.
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Today I finally decided to look up Leone in Google. Her name was Leone Cosens. She worked in Sydney for many years but was originally from New Zealand. She’d been living in Phuket, Thailand for 12 years at the time of the Tsunami. She was the co-founder and general manager of the Phuket Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). She was 51 years old. There is more to learn but you can look it up for yourself.
Leone
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Leone
Verse 1:
She shared her name with her car
Funny what memories do
Except for the end of her tale
Her name and her car were all that I knew
Verse 2:
I really didn’t know her at all
But even now I remember her name
The thing thing that made her easy to recall
Her name and her car’s were exactly the same
Chorus 1:
Leone was a friend of my first wife
After we split I didn’t see her any more
A Subaru Leone – that’s the car that she drove
They stopped making those cars in 1994
Verse 3:
I’m not going to tell you the story
You can look it up for yourself
Boxing Day 2004
If you’re old enough you’ll remember it well
Verse 4:
She was lost with so many
A quarter of a million on that day alone
So many people died on that day
But Leone was the only one I’d ever known
Chorus 2:
Tragedies happen all of the time
Somewhere in the world every day
We’ve all felt the ripples in time
No matter how far away
Verse 5:
Big stories and small
All those beginnings and ends
Leone’s final story was sad story
It’s mostly remembered by her family and friends
Verse 6:
She shared her name with her car
Funny what memories do
Except for the end of her tale
Her name and her car were all that I knew
That is such an amazing song and holds such special meaning to me.
I am Leone’s sister and feel honoured that this has made about her
She was the most amazing and special person and made such an impact in her short life.
Would love to make contact with the songwriter.
🥰❤️