NP: Frank Zappa, One Size Fits All (MP3)

After a brief venture out of the apartment to see my friend Scott play, I suddenly had the urge to get back to songwriting. I don't think it was the show, per se, as I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to write Brazilian music. Although it could have been the frighteningly bad second act on the bill, which more or less drove me from Nevin's before the end of his first song. Which is too bad, because the final act looked interesting. Such is life when you're flying solo on a budget. It can be tough to come up with a compelling reason to stick around.

Anyway, I digress. Maybe that second guy got me thinking "I can write better songs than that," or maybe I've just been around enough music this week to have things percolating in my brain. Or I figured this would give me an excuse to sequester myself in my bedroom while the living room was more or less off-limits. Whatever the reason, I came home, picked up my guitar, and started messing with something I had come up with during the week. It's got that shifting-bass-note-under-the-same-chord thing that I tend to do a lot nowadays. I actually wanted to get sorta heavy and almost industrial, but this came to me first.

And now it's a full-fledged song, with the exception of lyrics for the bridge, and the last line of the last verse. It's pretty good. For me, anyway. It's not a happy song, but it's not one of those true-love-gone-horribly-awry numbers I can be prone to churning out. In fact, I know exactly who it's about, and there never was, and never will be any romantic involvement. That said, it could provide some catharsis for some bad feelings that may still be lingering. Or at least get teased to the fore when I'm around other parties who got similarly affected by said individual, as was the case last night. On that note, I can't keep track of who's on who's good side sometimes in my tangled web of friends, and apparently told the wrong thing to the wrong person back before Christmas. Nothing super-dramatic in and of itself, but it at least contributed to some ongoing drama.

This would be so much easier if I would just name names, wouldn't it? Not gonna happen, unless I can do it in some clever fashion that makes the narrative flow better without compromising the actual identities of people that those of you reading probably don't know anyway. Or maybe you do. Which is exactly the point.

Speaking of last night, I arrived early to the pre-show gathering, and used the time I was unencumbered of company to brainstorm a chapter outline for the book. Fifteen chapters in total, at the moment, although some of them may split. I still think I can use existing source material for a lot of it, but I should be able to get some interviews if I have to. If this does wind up being my last work-free week, I may try to get some serious work done.