Feb 11, 2009

       Here's my song for today.  The attentive among you will notice that the curtains from the other day showed up after all.  Inspiration is a funny thing.   I spent most of the day out and about.   Worked this morning.  Did trivia this evening.   I wrote a bit on the Subway in hopes that I might trip upon some ideas before starting to enjoy beverages with my old roommates.  There was a beautiful sunset crossing over the Charles River.  I wrote out, "Can I capture the colours of the sun setting into a frozen thawing river/ with the fingers of the a hundred barren trees reaching up into the sky/ black against pink and orange/ like they might stain their hands with Easter if they were to catch it."   Not quite a song.  
       Dennis one of my old roommates is a trivia whiz.   He had answers before the questions were asked.  By the end of the evening I was calling him our Peter Lafluer (Dodge Ball reference), the charismatic leader our ragtag trivia team that had the heart to win.   Later as I as futzed and procrastinated through starts and stops of writing my eyes eventually dropped down onto the name Peter scrawled in my notebook.  And that my friends is what inspiration is apparently.  
        A friend pointed out I seem to start most of my songs with the Lyrics first.  This is pretty close to true.   And certainly true in so much as I can only think of one time that I found I melody I specifically wanted to write lyrics too first, then wrote the lyrics.   A lot of times I feel like the lyrics and melody show up pretty much concurrently.   Often enough so that I'll start trying to find the chords I want and they won't sound right until I get the right key.   Anyhoo.  Finding a melody first is a good suggestion.   Tomorrow's song? 

The curtains closing in
I may be taking my last gasp
The world is getting brighter
And at the same time fading fast
I’ve fallen from the garden
And still can’t escape the sin

MMm Hmmm Mmm Hmmm
Peter let me in.

I fought once for my country
It was duty that I served
I made it through the trenches
It’s more than I deserved
I had to fire my gun there
But don’t know if I hit him

10,000 petty slights and lies
I made along my way
May not be as bad as
Things I didn’t do or say
I’d try to be a good man
If I did it again