You know what you can't fuck with?
Time.
It just happens.
And what marks the passage of time (for better or worse) more than anniversaries. A year is an arbitrary time period from the standpoint of actual accomplishment but it does offer a chance to reflect on accomplishments and take stock of what improvements can be made.
Which is particularly relevant because yesterday was the third anniversary of my last day working at Baker & McKenzie, the so-called "day job."
Three years of pursuing a career in music head-on, full-time.
Let me sum up the last three years in one word:
exhilaratingexcitingdepressingreallyreallyhardrewarding-
wonderfulterrifyingdepressinghumblingbeguilinggloriousmoving-
crushingfrustratingmystifyingultimatelythebest
I think that covers it.
While it's easy to get buried in the details and the day-to-day of building success in music (and any career or business I suppose), I try to remind myself as often as possible of how lucky I am, how hard I work, and how far I've come as an artist and a businessman in these three years.
Truly, my worst day as a musician is better than my best day doing just about any other job and that gets lost in the noise from time to time.
The other thing that gets lost in the mundane side of music is the reason why I did this to begin with: the music.
So much of being a musician has nothing to do with music. It's like any other business: administration takes up a disproportionate amount of time, a necessary evil for any measure of true success.
But at the center of this bizarre ride is and has to be music and my love for music.
One of my favorite songs ever is What I Did for Love from A Chorus Line. So simple, so perfect. Captures the common thread of love across so many different things in life, but especially the love for a craft or art, the sacrifices one makes, and the pain and failure one tolerates to pursue it.
That's the song I had in mind when I wrote Love Goes On and the idea of what love means and how it exists has become the subject of this next set of records we're working on.
Recording Love Goes On was a blast. We changed very little from my demo version... added a little interlude and a double chorus and that's about it. The core of the tune (including the rhythm guitar) is from the live tracking with the band. The lead part was done on some weird electronic-infused guitar that was hanging around the studio... it was like playing a live cat. The thing was just howling in my hands. So much fun. The background vocals and hand claps we all did in the big room together around one microphone. The lead vocals I cut near the end of my sinus infection period (it's like Picasso's Blue Period only with less post-nasal drip). And the mix was expertly handled, as usual.
As far as the lyrics... I think it's all there.
Love is love.
Love for people, love for music...
Love is going to face the same obstacles, the same challenges.
When you're weary and beaten up, when you're fighting doubt...
Love goes on.
I believe it.
No, I know it.
Because I'm lucky enough to live it every day.
**************
LOVE GOES ON
Walking the same roads
In these worn down shoes
Singing these worn down blues
Again and again
Waiting for new light
In a darkened place
With a belly full of broken grace
And remedy spent
But lines are drawn
From night to dawn
And in between
Love goes on
Digging the same hole
With a heave heart
Trying not to fall apart
In front of the kids
Leaving the light up
As the darkness crawls
From the windows to the pale walls
Of the heartache we hid
But lines are drawn
From night to dawn
And in between
Love goes on
jbg
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