Cultural Sponge - The Joe Pagetta Blog

A guitar-vocal demo of a new song, inspired by Giuseppe Tornatore’s film, Cinema Paradiso.

Beautiful Then (Paradiso)

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If all of the kisses I’ve had in my life
Were dropped out, left on the cutting room floor
It’d be yours I remember much more

If somebody found them and spliced them together
On to a reel so I could remember I’d be
Alone in the theatre to see
You and me

Oh, wasn’t it beautiful then?

There’d be no premiere on the red carpet
Just me all alone with my ticket in pocket in line
Waiting to go back in time

To that kiss in the rain under umbrellas
Completely unscripted like nothing else mattered but when
We’d be together again
Beautiful then

Oh, wasn’t it beautiful then?

I should have pulled you close
And held you in my arms
Directed another kiss
To turn the camera on

Now I can only dream of a scene
Of when it was beautiful then
It was beautiful then

As we arrive at final embraces
The camera close up on both of our faces we stay
The camera cuts away
Cutaway

Oh, wasn’t it beautiful then?

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By Joe Pagetta
Copyright © 2010

This year at the Nashville Film Festival, the Gibson Corporation was gracious enough to station its tour bus outside the theatre, where it was available for interviews and tours. As the publicist for the Festival, I scheduled many of the interviews, and introduced many of our celebs and out-of-town visitors to its many guitars and charms. But as a singer-songwriter and guitarist myself, it put me in a precarious position.  Just a few feet away was an escape from the busy days of the Festival, filled with some of Gibson’s finest acoustic and electric guitars. To satisfy the urge, videographer Chris Massey and I hatched a plan. We would pop into the bus during some downtime, grab the Epiphone J200 off the wall, turn on the video camera, and I would quickly play one of my latest compositions. This wasn’t an entirely well thought-out plan, though. It turned out that I didn’t know this new composition as well as I thought. At least not at first. I got it eventually. For posterity’s sake, here are the results of the plan, and the new song, “Looking For You.”

Watch it here:

or watch it directly on YouTube.

Drive by your house

Walk down your street

Write you a letter

Call out to you

Run to you

Send a song out to you

Put a dime, quarter or dollar in the jukebox (and then lean up against it)

Go to, or climb through, your window

More elaborate things we never really did when courting you, but still sometimes do in song:

Climb your mountain

Swim your sea

Put a spell on you, or fall under YOUR spell

Take you by the hand, and make you understand, Amanda.

Things we ultimately still want to do, but only certain people can actually do, and that’s why there is song:

Liberate you

Confiscate you

Be your man