“The Clues Are There” (listen below!) has the makings of a hot mess. My latest recording features two time signatures (3/4 and 4/4), four tempos (ranging from 87 to 135 beats per minute), and four keys (A major, G major, C major, and F major, in order of first appearance). As the song opens, a train whistle—a steamy A6 chord—screams in harmonica and flute. The click-clack of the accompanying locomotive sounds as if it has been lifted from a black-and-white movie (with good reason). Add piano, piccolo, guitar (strummed by yours truly), violin, cello, timpani, and cymbal. Cram it all into two-and-a-half minutes. You can decide if everything works together, but let’s be honest—the odds aren’t good.

Think of “The Clues Are There” as Mary Poppins meets Murder on the Orient Express. With simple lyrics about perceiving the world around us, it started out as a children’s song that a magical nanny might sing (à la “A Spoonful of Sugar”). The idea of “clues” reminded me of having seen a lively stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s celebrated whodunnit set aboard a luxurious train en route from Istanbul to Calais. Doesn’t life seem like a mystery sometimes, full of intrigue and suspense? You need to be Hercule Poirot just to figure out what’s going on.

The Clues Are There

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Title:
“The Clues Are There”

Number:
10

Length:
2:31

Vibe/inspiration:
Mary Poppins, Murder on the Orient Express

Keys (in order of first appearance):
A major, G major, C major, F major

Random perceptions:

• “The best way to perceive this song is not with the ears.”
• “I’m looking through this song to the pure idiocy within.”
• “To quote Hamlet, ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’ Guess what I’m thinking.”
• “Sometimes, two plus two equals five. Or in this case, twenty-seven.”
• “I tried to feel this song with my heart. I got heartburn.”

Lyrics:

I have two eyes
So, I can see
A photograph that’s not of me

I have two ears
So, I can hear
A difference that’s very clear

The clues are there
If you care
And I do
And I do

The clues are there
If you dare
And I do
And I do

I have a brain
I can construe
The summing up of two and two

I have a will
I can pursue
The sussing out of who is who

The clues are there
In the air
Give me more
Give me more

The clues are there
Everywhere
Give me more
Give me more

[Instrumental interlude]

I have a mind
And I can muse
’Bout life in someone else’s shoes

I have a heart
And I can feel
If something is or isn’t real

The clues are there
If you care
And I do
Yes, I do

The clues are there
If you dare
And I do
Yes, I do

The clues are there
In the air
Give me more
More and more

The clues are there
Everywhere
Give me more
More and more