Concept (Part I) Where I Went Wrong

About eight years ago I was pounding on my piano trying to compose a bridge for a new song. I pounded and pounded, but nothing sounded right. Furious that my parents had never made me take piano lessons, I stepped away from the upright and pulled my twelve string out of its dusty case. The strings were rusty and it was desperately out of tune but I strummed anyway.

Then, out of no where, there it was.

The perfect bridge.

I scratched the lyrics out on my yellow pad, took a single moment to enjoy the moment, and then raced into my little studio garage to begin recording.

The song was upbeat, the drums a steady rock tempo, even the out of tune twelve string sounded more alive than ever when doubled. I sang out the vocals with all the heart my diaphram could muster and then put the finishing touches, three part harmony and a doubled vocal on the chorus. It wasn't with the technological saavy garage bands have now, but it was clean, honest, and simple.

It was a perfect demo to send out into the world. So I went to bed.

In the groggy early morning light, I burned up a CD of the new tune and headed to work. I played the tune in my car over and over. Listening for technical glitches, of course.

As I pulled into the parking lot of my coffee shop, the bridge came on. At first I didn't catch it, but as I pulled to a stop, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

The apex of my perfect bridge happened to also be the chorus of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It."

This is songwriting death.

In the intervening years I have returned to the tune to rewrite the bridge hundreds of times, only to be thwarted by the image of Dee Snyder in glam-rock make-up tellin me to give it up.

The title of the song is "Where I went wrong"

I may possibly be rewriting it for the rest of my life.

The moral of this story, and why it relates to the concept of the new album is that sometimes an idea will come out of nowhere, sound brilliant on the first few passes, and then turn into and absolute disaster later on down the road.

And I'm totally cool with that.