I was always torn on how much song craft to apply here. I fought myself over two things: one, whether I should leave the lyrics as what they were at the time; and two, the speed. I ultimately left the lyrics alone, and I compromised on speed by not using a click track (this is a live recording straight through, with varying speeds).
We took off “21 Days to Kick the Habit” this week. Thanks for listening.
This one is obviously about competing with someone and acknowledging you don’t measure up to the other person. “Let him win” is a little disingenuous because the narrator actually lost, but that’s part of how they’re protecting themselves.
I think this is one of my better crafted songs, and it got a decent response when it was posted as one of the first 10 at the launch of the site.
We took off “Stolen Time” this week. Thanks for listening.
This one was hard to write. It’s one of my favorite chord structures, but there aren’t a lot of syllables in the tune, and it was hard to cram everything in that I wanted to get in. I’ve poked at it a few times over the last 10 years or so, and I think I got to something I can live with.
We took off “Symmetry” this week. Thanks for listening.
I started this one while waiting for someone to come to my apartment, for what I presumed was going to be the final time, or something very much like it. We’d wound down, I knew I was cutting it off, and this tune was my way of taking in the moment.
I’ve always thought this set of chords was one of my better musical ideas, but the song didn’t work for a long time (actually, it still may not work, but this is definitely better). I wound up in a 20 year battle to find the right balance between simplicity and complexity on it, including rewriting the lyrics three times and putting three different bridges on it. This one was a struggle…but I did finally get to a place I like with it.
We took off “Damage is Done” this week. Thanks again for listening, and please spread the word if you like some of these things…
If only I were capable of conveying my actual thoughts in song…
I’ve gone back and forth on this song at least three times. I really liked it when I wrote it, then not so much, then liked again when I recorded it, then not at all when I listened back, then loved it in the studio while cleaning it up, etc. Right now, today, I like it. The bridge may have finally gotten me over the line (“Get help if you can my enemy…”).
We took off “One Night Fling” this week. Thanks for listening.