12:12pm. I’ve been sitting at the coffeeshop for a couple hours and have come up with the idea for song #3. I’ve shelved song #2 (Shangri-La) until Traci can get her bass part put down. I sent her an mp3 and she’s going to send me back a wav file of her parts- hopefully over the weekend.
There is so much going on in the world right now, and I’d like to comment on some of these things. My work is always pretty personal, but maybe unnecessarily inward. I like to think that I touch on issues that are universal, and that people can ‘get stuff out of it’, but I want to branch out a bit.
Sometimes I’m hesitant to speak out on issues I believe in because invariably people will disagree with me. I feel strongly about gun control, but 40% of American households have at least one gun. So am I going to piss people off if I make an anti-gun song? Well, I’m pissed off that the third leading cause of death for American children is gun-related. And the fact that the NRA, et al is clinging to an archaic piece of legislation to keep the firearms flowing.
I’m passionate about the issue, but my thoughts are a bit muddled as is this very rough draft of my third song of the month “Bullets for the Wake”. I have never shared writing this early in my process, but I’ve had a good time showing my work over the past few days and watching the words and music evolve. So here goes. These are ideas in no particular order
Bullets for the Wake
…must be mental health
our well regulated militia
is shooting up itself
give the kid a gun
teach ’em about power
running through our hearts and minds
at 1700 miles an hour
we’re sending you our
thoughts and prayers
god makes no mistakes
we’re sending you our
thoughts and prayers
and bullets for the wake
from vegas to the eastern coast
voices shout in hate
clearly in the interest of
security of a free state
when the cameras leave
nation caked in blood
it’s a new world now
why should we change anything
’cause criminals break laws anyhow
we’re sending you our
thoughts and prayers
god makes no mistakes
we’re sending you our
thoughts and prayers
and bullets for the wake
I want to put this song to a good beat. When I was in London, I did an open mic and there was a French rapper there who was amazing. It’s a bit of a long-shot but I’m going to see if he’s willing to contribute his skills to this track. I’m a little shaky about the stylistic choice of putting a French rap on a clearly American issue-based song. I could tone down the 2nd Amendment references, but they’re such a fun part of the song. I’m going to let this simmer a bit.
I’m going to go home in a bit and start cooking up some music for this and see where that leads me with the words (and the rap?). Anne is coming over around 7:30 to do her backups on Stay Up Later. I hope to post two sound files later on in this entry. My starting work on Bullets for the Wake as well as a completed version of Stay Up Later.
4:54pm: This what I’ve got going for music on Bullets for the Wake…
