Adam in the Garden (Forbidden Fruit)
September 2022
Key of A
Verse 1
Well you and I don’t need a reason
To spend the whole night whispering
Turns out it is the season
To harvest fruit right from the limb
Chorus
Forbidden Fruit, in the garden, behind the walls
Forbidden Fruit, the need to know so sweetly calls
You can’t go back a one way track
You can not have it all
Forbidden Fruit, me and Eve, in the Fall
Verse (Solo)
Verse 2
They say temptation feeds the fool
A knowing nectar not for me or you
A ruby jewel, A broken rule
A talking snake beneath a harvest moon
Chorus
Repeat last line
Verse
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| I - - - | IV - - - | V - - - | I - - - |
Chorus| IV - - - | V - - - | I - - - | - - - - |
| IV - - - | V - - - | - - - - | - - - - |
| I - - - | - - - - | - - - - |IV - - - | - - - - |
| V - - - | - - - - | I - - - | - - - - |
Adam in the Garden (Forbidden Fruit)Written and sung by me, played on a classic ivory Gibson. All other instruments (Bass, Electric Guitar, Drums) and harmonies played and sung by Jeff LewisProduced, recorded, mixed and Mastered by Jeff Lewis in Northampton, Massachusetts
Liner Notes
Each year we play a benefit dinner and contra dance at Glynwood in Cold Spring, New York. Their mission is to ensure that the Hudson Valley remains a region defined by food, where farming thrives. So there we were under a full harvest moon this last September, supporters dancing romantically beside and almost beneath the outstretched limbs of a nearby apple orchard. I got to thinking about Adam out dancing with Eve in the Garden and what he would’ve written if he were a “country sanger”, crooning to her and the other dancers. And this is what popped out.
I love that the story can be taken literally and as a metaphor. Adam and Eve were tempted by that talking snake to the taste the nectar of “knowing” by chomping on the forbidden fruit. With one bite they began to chew on the knowledge of good and evil, to separate the complexity of life into boxes, and to fool themselves into believing that this is knowledge. When they took those bites they were pulled into an oversimplified view of what is, which sounds a whole lot like hell.
So the song is both a saucy tale of love in a garden, and also a good reminder to be watchful of the tendency to get pulled into stories we tell ourselves about what’s going on. The lure of the mind to get fixated on “knowing” as opposed to simply “being”.
Enjoy!
Bennett