monday song #20: the devil’s dictionary
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[show note: i'm playing tonight at the pub below vios in north seattle - 65th street and 20th ave. i'm going on at 7. no cover. kids fly free. excellent food. see all you seattle-ites there. this will probably be the last show for a while.]
song twenty. it took me ten years to release 24 songs on two albums, and it has taken five months to release 20 songs. i am really enjoying this process.
so i had the general idea “shy is just another word for unfriendly” for at least three years now. i just couldn’t turn it into anything. so i decided that this week i would tackle it. it proved to be a formidable opponent. the fact i hadn’t recorded anything by 5pm on sunday says a lot. but there was a late drive that decided the game.
people often say i sound like billy joel. i will admit that i worshipped mr. joel when i was fifteen. i stood in line at 5am on lincoln and colorado in santa monica for tickets to the glass houses tour in 1980. i rarely think i borrow from him. mostly we steal from the same folks, i think, the beatles mainly. but the little melody in the verse is definitely a lift from the aformentioned glass houses and “don’t ask me why” which is in turn a clear lift from mr mccartney. the context i use it in, though, has nothing to do with the sweet refrain billy used it in.
that’s about all i have to say about this one, except that it can be a painful thing to live with an unbridled critic who questions your every thought. each good intention is turned into a selfish manipulation. sad. but a list a song or two cna come out of it…
so to be a bit forward looking, i am going to change up the format starting next week. i am going to embark a larger piece, with the songs adding up a broader story. i have no idea what that story is, but i will provide context week by week and i intend that the narrative add up to something bigger than the individual songs. i listened to tommy a few times this weekend, and reminded myself that i wanted to try something a bit bigger. my last album “let your heart break” was a narrative at core. i like the concept.
also, i am going to easy up on the piano plus vocal boundary. again, if have nothing specific planned, but if the drama demands a harmony, or a bass guitar, then dammit, i’m going stick one in there.
that’s it.
thanks for paying attention. i am looking forward to what comes next.
