Sunday 12 January 2014

CONCUSSION BLUES

    Dec 31st, 2013,  the morning of new year's eve, about 10:30 am, I slipped on a small, unseen patch of ice and fell head first on the ground. Whooosh... pain,dizziness, nausea. Two hospitals, one CTscan and 10 long hours later I was pronounced concussed but ok, then released. Thanks to Supergirl and Plastic Man for finding my car and driving it home, then coming back to the hospital and doing the same for yours truly.
     This didn't radically change my new year's plans as I was just planning to stay home by myself anyway--the only difference was I now felt god awful. Think I hit the sack around 11ish but frankly, I don't remember too much.
     Though I hadn't touched a drop, I awoke early with a blistering headache. I also awoke with a song idea and damnit I dont know why, I just did. Now, when I get these ideas, my frequent modus operandi is to think  "hey, that's not a bad idea..think I'll try that,  umm...but maybe later". Most of the time "later" never comes and, if it does, I usually have lost the "moment" and reject everything I attempt to associate with it. Yes, I know there are ways to avoid that trap and I might try them but, ummm...maybe later.
      In this case though, I just sat down and started writing, 3-4 hours maybe. I ended up with something I thought was pretty good but I did recognize it wasn't quite done. I called it "Southbound Train" but only because I felt compelled to do so because of the lyrics--I really didn't want to call it that. And like I said, it needed  a key tweak or two but my head was starting to hurt so bad that I had to stagger to another room and lie down. It had  been about 14 hours since the CTscan. The song could wait.
      Yesterday, about ten days later, I recorded "Fall So Far" for my next album. The recording went well in every aspect, and the performance, together with a few additions, will likely be the one that is released. When we were done, I offered up "Southbound Train" to my producer extraordinaire JK Gulley, explaining of course, that it wasn't quite complete. Now, there is no chance JK will ever say something is any good if it isn't (a wonderful attribute), so I was quite happy that he embraced it wholeheartedly while acknowledging that it wasn't quite "there" yet.
        Well, I just did the rewrite..added one new lyric line with a few different chords and modified the preceding 4  lyric lines accordingly, then trashed the entire ending which, thankfully, no longer worked. And damn, in my opinion, ..it's "there"! As an added bonus, I can now most assuredly rename the song : "To Love Again" . And that is so sweetly appropriate, 'cause if there's one thing I need to  do in my godforsaken, love-starved life, it's just that--to love again. See, all this stuff is just autobiography y'know, sometimes it just takes a while for me to recognize it. Anyway, pumped I am-- feel like dancing. That, unfortunately, is doubly problematical - firstly, because I can't dance and secondly my head is now throbbing to the nth degree again.
Peace, love
Steeltown
    PS.If you have read this, you have agreed not to tell my mother. Cheers.
   

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