Breathe

Well, the week's over. For some reason, everything has felt strangely disjointed lately. Not sure why. Not much going on this weekend other than the last (please oh please) backing vocals session and a graduation party.

And trying to stay out of the 100 degree heat.

We had a couple of pretty good rehearsals this week, and the new tune is coming together nicely. Still some work to be done on the arrangement, but everyone seems to be taking a pretty stripped down rock n' roll approach to it, which is working well. I've been writing a lot... lots of ideas, but very little actually finished. This whole "trying to write more directly" is hard. It's such a fine line between good, simple, direct writing and trite cliched crap... Or how did it go in Spinal Tap? "There's a fine line between brilliant and stupid."

But I think I'm getting somewhere with a couple of the songs I've been working on. When I have a song that takes awhile to finish, I can usually feel the progress. I can tell when I'm getting close to having something good. And one song in particular, tentatively called "Ark," feels like it's rounding into shape. All the music is there if not a bit muddy right now, and what really needs attention is the lyrics. I have some nice thoughts, a good melody, a strong chorus, and an over-arching concept... but I haven't been able to quite pin down what I'm after.

The first verse and chorus stands like this:

ARK These eyes don't shine like they used to But there's still some light in them These eyes don't shine like they used to But they remember when... (chorus) I'd carry you Through broken rain Until the waters broke And just the dirt remained

I like all of that... the sentiment is there but I think I need to live with the verse for a week or so to make sure there's not something else that might work better. Similarly, the second verse:

These words don't ring like they used to But somehow you still believe That this voice will sing like it wants to And that's enough to carry me (chorus) To carry me Through broken rain Until the waters break And just the bird remains

I like a lot of it, I'm just not sure if it's a good as it could be. So often, I write not by what I want, but by what I know I don't want. I know when things are wrong almost immediately, and I only know things are right when I know they're not wrong.

Wow that doesn't make much sense at all, does it.

Other songs in the works include: "Maybe," "The Losing Kind," "Wide-Eyed Lightning," "Orpheus Rising," and "Light It on Fire, Break it in Half," all in various stages on development. I feel like I'm close to a breakthrough with this stuff, and I think I'll have some good time in the next week to spend writing.

Oh, and I hate The fucking Eagles.

jbg