Recently

So we had this argument in public 

and we know each other very well- 

we’re more like two cats playing 

than a married couple. 

And I go home angry and start writing. 

On my itunes, I mostly have ripped obscure 

indie soul singles from a friend from Chicago. 

I hear a familiar two chord strut 

that I can never seem to exhaust. 

The lyrics come out as easy as 

pulling the tape off a package:

“Let’s have a contest/holding our breaths/the winner is the loser/of what you can’t guess/lucky if you had it/free as a child/if you never get it again/you’ll surely die/race to the place/who’s more grown up?/everybody lies /when they’re adults/too proud to beg/to scream and crawl/how long can you live/without love”

And there’s been a riff floating around my head 

for the last month and I take it down 

and of course it’s only a few notes. 

I read something once that suggested that memorable riffs are usually only that much, so I didn’t second-guess myself. 

I tried some hip-hop loops from pro-tools 11, 

threw on some bass, had my friend 

Kevin play some bone and replace the loops, and bang, it seemed done.

I then sent the song to a friend for mixing, 

but was having second thoughts. It went on too long. 

Another friend thought it was too repetitious. 

My mixing friend was missing his deadlines with me as usual, so I cut a slower version, working with a Saxophone/Keyboardist. 

Much funkier. Suddenly the urgency of rushing the song out was lost. 

Why? When I reflect on it, it is because I didn’t care for the overdubs. I appreciate friends helping me out, but they’re not always gonna treat your baby like it’s theirs. The Sax guy nailed the thing, and my love for the first version faded. OK, stack that one on the fire on top of the other bodies, waiting for mixing. 

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