I recorded my latest song (listen below!) last week, while recovering from Covid. Please enjoy the nasal, throaty, almost feverish quality of the vocals. A few days into being sick, as I lay in bed with one of the most impressive headaches I’ve ever had (and I’ve had quite a few), I thought, “Is this the day I die?” Clearly, it wasn’t.
“The Day We Never Met” is unusual, I think, in that it doesn’t have a chorus, and the title appears only in the very last line. For the recording, I utilized my latest (and greatest) stringed acquisition, a parlor-size acoustic/electric guitar from Zager. A gorgeous instrument of solid African mahogany, it’s designed to be easy to play; I haven’t noticed this feature yet, but I’ve heard practicing can be very good for that.
My mother is my most devoted fan, along with her cat, Asher. (You might argue that Asher has no choice but to listen, especially since his favorite spot is on my mother’s legs, but he could hide in the closet if he wanted to.) Mom likes to know what my songs are about, even if I don’t always know myself, so I will try to provide a little background here.
If you’re a longtime lurker of this page, and even managed to keep up during the two-and-a-half-year hiatus (kudos!), you will likely have noticed that I once trafficked in the published word, as a writer, editor, and proofreader. Yet even I am amazed at the sheer volume of words being produced today for public consumption. People look at their screens for hours on end, and they need something to read—in the form of e-books, news stories, magazine articles, social media posts, blogs, advertisements, and the like.
“The Day We Never Met” is about considering the source of what you read—and being a considered, and considerate, source yourself. More specifically, the song’s theme is to be careful when you talk about someone you don’t know. But a theme doesn’t make a song—or, for that matter, a poem or a play or an essay about the queen. So, I crafted a story around my chosen theme, set it to music, and ta-da!
The Day We Never Met
Profile
Title:
“The Day We Never Met”
Number:
11
Length:
2:37
Vibe/inspiration:
Patsy Cline
Key:
C major
What I imagine people might say:
- “I wish I never met this song. Come on, it was too easy.”
- “If this song had a chorus, my disappointment would only have been compounded.”
- “Have I stumbled into the rhyming Olympics?”
- “I’d worry this song might glamorize smoking, but you’d have to have an audience for that to be a problem.”
Lyrics:
Well, you’ve been writing about me
About the man you claim to be
Filling pages
For the ages
Is it fact or fantasy?What makes you think you know so much?
You’ve never even been in touch
’Stead of knocking
You kept walking
Now you’re saying such and such[Instrumental verse]
You flew in on a private jet
You lit another cigarette
I was waiting
’Ticipating
On the day we never—You were late ’n’
Hesitating
On the day we never—You’re narrating
Punctuating
The story of the day—I was waking
Mind was aching
On the day we never—You were making
Plans forsaken
On the day we never—Now you’re taking
Bows for breaking
The story of the day—Monday night ’n’
Not a sighting
On the day we never—Tuesday quiet ’n’
Nail-biting
On the day we never—Wednesday light ’n’
You’re a-writing
The story of the day—A day I can’t forget
I haven’t seen you yet
We won’t sing a duetAbout the story of the day—
The day we never met
Novel-Gazing 