This version keeps the melody for sections where it’s reasonably predictable, simplifies the melody in a few places, and substitutes a new melody only where I think one is needed. Specifically:
The first melody (“Our new world … will not be mine”) is unchanged from the original.
The second melody (“A hundred years … each new home”) no longer moves the tune from D to Bbm but goes to the more natural Bm instead. The melody here is new but tries to have a similar feel as the original.
The third melody (“But I’ll teach .. rockets belong”) is unchanged from the original for the first part, but swaps a repeat of the second line’s melody for the range-busting rise on “where our rockets belong”.
The fourth melody (“It will never … so far away”) is new, and another attempt to make something fitting in Bm to replace something tricky in Bbm.
The fifth melody (“But I am .. somebody will someday”) is unchanged from the original (I had thought it was too hard and recorded a draft version with it swapped to the version from yesterday, but really the only hard part is the first two notes (4, 3 over D) and I think we can deal with that)
(youtube)
Chords:
(in D)
A D
Our new world is so close.
A D A D
Mars has treasures we’re only just starting to find.
A D A D
Frozen mountains and crimson dust waiting for footprints
Bm A
That will not be mine.
Bm A Bm A
A hundred years to run the first tests
G G A
another to raise the first dome.
Bm A Bm A
The moon, then Mars, then Titan next,
G G A
A life time to touch each new home.
A D
And I want it so much.
A D A D
Close my eyes, I can taste the Mars dust in the air.
A D A D
In the darkness the space stations shimmer in orbits that
Bm A
I will not share.
D D D D
But I’ll teach the student who’ll manage the fact’ry
D D G A
That tempers the steel that makes colonies strong.
D D D D
And I’ll write the program that runs the computer
D D G A
That charts out the stars where our rockets belong.
Bm A G A
It will never get easy to wake from my dream
Bm A G A
When the future I dream of is so far away.
D D D D
But I am willing to sacrifice
D D D D
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
Bm A D
But somebody will someday.
A D
And it feels like a waste.
A D A D
All this working and waiting and battling time,
A D A D
And all for a kingdom that all of my efforts
Bm A
Will never make mine,
Bm A Bm A
But brick by brick the Pyramids rose,
G G A
With most hidden under the sand,
Bm A Bm A
So life by life the project grows
G G A
In ways I might not understand.
A D
I am voyaging too,
A D A D
We will need the foundation as much as the dome
Bm A
For those worlds to come true,
D D D D
And I’ll clerk the office that handles the funding
D D G A
That raises the tower that watches the sky.
D D D D
And I’ll staff the bookstore that carries the journal
D D G A
That sparks the idea that makes solar sails fly.
Bm A G A
It takes so many sailors to conquer an ocean
Bm A G A
And so many more when it’s light-years away,
D D D D
But I am willing to sacrifice
D D D D
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
Bm A D
But somebody will someday.
A D
It’s so easy to run.
A D A D
Hide away in my books, games and fantasy plans,
A D A D
Let them call me a coward who can’t face reality’s
Bm A
Grownup demands,
Bm A Bm A
But if I love my fantasy worlds
G G A
It’s not fantasy love that I feel.
Bm A Bm A
And so much more I feel for this
G G
The world that created them,
G G
World we create with them,
G G A
One chance to make them all real.
A D
And I know we won’t stop.
A D A D
We’ve planned too many wonders for one little star.
A D A D
Though often the present may seem too complacent
Bm A
To take us that far.
D D D D
But I’ll tell the story and I’ll draw the picture
D D G A
And I’ll sing the anthem that banishes doubt,
D D D D
And host the convention that summons the family
D D G A
That carries the fire that never burns out
Bm A G A
There are so many chances to give up the journey,
Bm A G A
Especially when it’s so easy to stay,
D D D D
But I am willing to sacrifice
D D D D
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
Bm A
And not only me,
D D D D
But we are willing to sacrifice
D D D D
Something we don’t have for something we won’t have
Bm A D
So somebody will, someday.
I think these are the notes, if someone wanted to make sheet music (I don’t know how to notate rhythm:
Yeah, this version works much better.
Note for guitar rather than voice: I think the chorus where you have all Ds, you could be alternating (in between spoken lines) with some other chord that adds more variety.
(fake edit: actually maybe have the main chord for that section be G, alternating with D in between lines?)