THESE THINGS GOT A WAY
(OF TAKING CARE OF THEMSELVES)
This is the greatest thing I’m ever going to create.
I think I get to say that. I didn’t toil overly hard on it. It was an evening of about 6 to 8 hours into the wee morning. I was done with it the next afternoon and listening to it on the way to work that night. The words were written out just as you hear them on a piece of grey construction paper that was lying around the place in East Granby. I had a guy ask me once if I did the ‘cutup’ technique that William Burroughs popularized to write these lyrics. Nope. It came out like a poem.
The music is a different story. Literally. I have no idea where I came up with the ….scheme.…(?)….the landscape…(?)…the whatever is going on in this song that just recedes into the background as you get sucked into just how many times a binky can hit the floor before someone loses their shit. This was the first and only time I’ve ever played a harmonica, and I hope Bob is proud of me. Seeing how I don’t, (and am probably never going to), play piano or keyboards, I wanted something to ‘pedal’ (pedaling refers to a sustained note, or pedal point, in the bass that’s held or repeated while other parts of the music play different harmonies) behind the lyrics in the verse. I grabbed the harmonica in my drawer and just BREATHED in and out every four beats. I dug it. The bass line is so caveman and thumpy I just want to ride a camel. I was somehow smart enough to bury the guitar accents in the far corners of the mix so they were like noise that was existing in the scene that plays out for us.
And what about that binky? Was it in the baby’s mouth or the toddler’s to begin with? Even I have questions. The name of the album this was going to go on immediately became ERASER MARMALADE. That’s such a realistic thing to have never been said out loud before. The amount of crossword puzzles I did on Sunday mornings with an iteration of a girlfriend substance was staggering. She liked to use pen, but then again she also liked me. Sometimes, people, we’re wrong. Please: use a pencil.
As for the theme of the song: I’ve just found that things DO find a way to take care of themselves. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it one bit. Stuff never stays buried. Money gets tracked. Nobody’s loyal to nobody. These days, there’s video recorded everywhere. Hell….DRONES! Lol. The ol’ golden rule was “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That was before camera-phones and text messaging. More like “TURN OFF LOCATION SERVICES” and good luck!.
As if something…..was rather stinky.
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