I’m pleased to announce that song #5 went up on the web an hour ago. You can listen to it at rapidshare.com, using my login (tommydean) and password (songwriter). It is called Jesus and Satan, and it is about a pair of Conjoined Twins. (I use the term Siamese Twins in the song because it just works better. My apologies to anyone who might take offense)
It seems I am catching up, and I fully expect to finish song #7 by the end of tomorrow!
That pleases me immensely–that I am poised to finish what I started. I am also pleased to notice that each of the 5 songs I’ve written are in different styles. To generalize, there’s a Country song; a generic ballad; a Rock song; a jazzy song; and a talking song in the vein of John Prine or Bob Dylan. Or Red Sovine! Remember that guy? (I should give royalties to John Prine, because the song is so similar to Jesus, the Missing Years. Someone remind me of that when it starts to sell) I will try to continue the pattern. In fact, there’s a banjo hanging on the wall behind me, and I’m thinking of accompanying myself on that for the next song–which is still a complete unknown.
That’s one of the things about this project that intrigues me. Each day I wake up knowing I will write a song, but I have no idea what that song will be like. None.
I’m curious, like a fan might be when a band releases a new record; but I am also fascinated by the process of creation. I get to watch it from start to finish (thanks, partly, to my new Do Not Enter sign I put on my office door, without which | would never have been able to do this project at all). And I get to reflect on all the steps that go into writing a song.
I would describe that process, but as I’ve said elsewhere, it is different every time. Somewhere I get the idea; somehow the words evolve on a piece of paper; somehow the music is written, the melody takes shape; etc., etc. The order is always different. But the clear thing is, if I sit myself down at my desk with a guitar close to hand, a song will come out of me. What’s unique about writing with this level of discipline is that I get to finish the song, if not in one sitting, then in one day.
While we’re on the topic of the song-writing process, let me mention one thing. I tend to rewrite intensely. It’s almost non-stop, up until the song gets recorded. (And I’m talking about recorded for a record, or something: recorded formally–not sitting in front of my computer using Garage Band, with a pencil in my strumming hand)
I know this is not the way it is always done. In college I ran an underground newspaper, which became pretty mainstream. For one issue I assigned a student to write an article about the college radio station. Remember, the writer/reporters came to me to join the paper. They were motivated to be there–even though this guy was an engineering student. So he interviewed the station manager and a disc jockey, but when it was time to cut and paste together the paper (okay, literally cut and paste the stories onto the page, after typing them in columns on an IBM Selectric typewriter) he still hadn’t written the piece. I had him come type it up (without notes) while I was working on the rest of the paper. After about an hour he was done. I read it. It was not only marvelously written–informative, thoughtful, witty–but it was error free. (I read it over several times and never found so much as a misspelled word) At that point I begged him to give up engineering and become a writer. He shrugged off the suggestion, and to this day he is probably out there wasting time designing bridges instead of working on the Great American Novel.
Anyway, that’s an example of how I don’t write. (Did I mention I hated that guy?)
Oh. The lyrics.
Jesus and Satan(c) by Tom Wernigg
Jesus and Satan were Siamese Twins. But no two brothers were less alike. As babies you might say they fought like sin. But they each put up a different kind of fight.
When it came to mischief, Satan excelled, and he had a temper to fill you with dread.
But Jesus was good, and so the best toys always ended up on his brother’s side of the bed.
With time the boys learned to get along, but Satan never changed his ways. Though Jesus didn’t always approve, he didn’t tattle, and he didn’t like to make waves.
The boys became popular with their peers, but Satan seemed to always be bored. While he needed reasons to do the right thing, Jesus said that goodness was its own reward.
Their mother, Mary, did the best she could, for a single mom with three other kids. Jesus and Satan seemed to get in trouble with every thing that they did.
One day Satan stole some candy, but Jesus never told. He snuck back and paid the shopkeeper, which only made is brother more bold.
As a teen Satan’s troubles really began. He spent a week in jail. Then it was sort of one thing after another. Soon no one would pay his bail.
Then, Satan killed a man. And the judge said that he’d be dead. Jesus sat up with him the day he died, and wrote down everything he said.
Satan said it wasn’t his fault, that he had to live by his own rules. Jesus told him he blamed himself, and he wished they’d both stayed in school.
Mary sat weeping in the audience, until the moment the lever was pulled. They say she never recovered, that she moved away. Some say she returned to the fold.
As Jesus’ life was never his own, he and Satan shared the same fate. Of those who judge and those who be judged, none of us has a clean slate.