Something Beautiful

5. Something Beautiful


Words and music by Chris Sligh


Produced by Brown Bannister & Stephen Leiweke



The Writing:


The original version of this song was written right after HPF had right after we had finished up the 1st HPF album. We recorded a 2nd collection of songs to add to our merch table that we called Besides… (a play on B-Sides), and the original version was recorded for that album. The original was more along the lines of Jason Mraz or John Mayer, with bluesy tones and b-3 organ...it was also a little slower.


As I started preparing for this album, I wanted to explore old songs that I’d recorded before to see if they would work for what I was wanting to do with this record. Obviously, I knew that a few songs from Take a Chance were going to be on this album, so I didn’t want to leave any rock unturned. As I listened to this song, I felt that the chorus needed to be rewritten to really pop like the rest of the record was going to. So, I made it a little less John Mayer and little more U2, melodically. The bridge and verses stayed the same, however.



The Meaning:


I remember having a conversation with a close friend where we talked about how frustrated he was basically with not being in control of his life. There are so many things about God that didn’t make sense to him. As I walked away from that conversation, the optimist that I am, I thought about all the things that didn’t make sense, but really turned out in our favor as human beings. I mean, Christ left heaven to come and die on a cross. Tell me how that makes sense? So, I wrote a song that put all the things that didn’t make sense into a song that basically says that it’s okay that I don’t understand God.



The Recording:


For Stephen & Brown’s co-production, we used Stephen on guitars, Joey Canaday on bass and Will Denton on drums for initial tracking. Will & Joey were in Stephen Curtis Chapman’s band together for a long time and now play with LeAnn Rimes. 


As we started to record, Stephen really wanted to break away from the feel of my new demo, and we tried several different ideas. Joey came up with what is now the opening riff and it stuck. It went from more 80’s pop/U2-ish to Maroon 5-ish in a hurry, but it felt good and it worked.


We did guitar and keys overdubs at Stephen’s studio. I recorded some rhythm guitars and did most of the keys on this one. The keyboard part is from a moog sampler called MiniMonsta. The piano part on the 2nd verse is from Akoustik piano...we threw some distortion and delay on there to really mess it up. Finally on the verses, we used a Nord keyboard to throw a moog-like bass (real filtered and funky) to copy what the bass was doing then mixed the real bass and fake bass together.


On bgv’s Chris Eaton came in and did them all.

There’s something beautiful   * 
About the way you don’t make sense
 *   A crown for a cross, heaven for earth  * 
Beauty for ashes in the dirt  *  There’s something marvelous,
 *   Some kind of mystery in your grace  * 
Love comes from pain, joy comes from loss  * 
Still we find beauty in the cross  * 
And hope from what was lost

 * *   Though I can’t wrap my mind  * 
Around the mysteries I’ll be fine  * 
There’s something beautiful in all I can’t see through
 * *   There’s something wonderful
 *   About the way you break my heart  * 
This world for a cross  *  Riches for shame
 *  Trading this glory for your name  * 
And success for lovely gain   * * 

chorus

 1  * * Though I don’t understand today  * 
The mysteries of grace I’ll be okay  * 
There’s something beautiful in all I can’t see through  * *  Oh, something beautiful  * 
Oh, something beautiful  * * full chorus  * *  bridge