but…uh…

I’m sure by now that most of you are familiar with the phenomenon from the December 17th Saturday Night Live that is Lazy Sunday. 

The trio primarily responsible for that great video are new cast member Andy Samberg and writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.  Prior to being on SNL, they were better known on the internet as the group behind The Lonely Island.  Those 3 are responsible for perhaps my favorite viral video ever created, Just 2 Guyz.  It’s just perfect in so many ways.  You might even say it’s Kablammo.

However, the one thing of theirs I can’t get out of my head to save my life is Wait (You Guys).  It’s impossible not to repeat it over and over.  Go ahead, click on it.  It’s ridiculous and great.  It’s also not safe for kids or some work places so proceed with caution. 

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.