I Write the Songs…
August 13th, 2005
With several thousand songs clogging up my iPod, using the "shuffle" feature is always a bit of a laugh. Sometimes, you’ll get juxtapositions like Eminem followed by something from a Sondheim show with a little Pet Shop Boys to follow. Maybe some Nick Drake and some Modest Mouse. Never the same genre twice.
I’m frequently amazed at how many of the songs I can sing along with. How many useless lyrics do I have stored up there? Of course, other times I hear a song I don’t recognize and I have to read the screen in an attempt to discern how the heck it ended up on my iPod. Usually it is part of a compilation given by a friend or the last track on an album I’ve never really listened to all the way through.
As I was driving to Memphis the other day with the iPod set to "shuffle," on came a song that I recognized but couldn’t place immediately. As the exit to Bucksnort, TN raced by outside the window I realized what it was. It was the last song I wrote.
I don’t know the exact date but it was late 2003 or early 2004. I had a friend going through some difficult times and I was just trying to figure out what I could say. What kind of advice could I really give? I remember I was writing the lyrics in a notebook at Starbucks. I remember taking a call from my friend Regina just as I was getting to the chorus. I remember feeling that it was pretty lame and trite and mentioning that on the phone.
When I got home I started putting together some music to go with it. A couple of hours and a scratch vocal track later, it came to life. I don’t have the chops of Abby or EJ but I liked it. It felt how I wanted it to feel and had it’s own sound. I liked that it felt complete and I could let it go without worrying about tinkering any more.
It’s been performed live a couple of times but I’ve never liked those as much as I like this initial, heart felt version.
It seems strange that I’ve lived in Nashville for a year and not written a line of music. Maybe that will change if I get some free time in Boston. If not, at least I’ve written a ton of songs in the past that will keep me in blog posts for ages.
WARNING: For those of you posses a strong aversion to scooping…*cough*Abby*cough*…if you can make it through the first verse you’ll be fine.