An Ode to the Filler Song

Considering the holiday, with my belly stuffed with leftovers and a fridge full of stuff that will be nibbled but not fully eaten, I figured its as good a time as any to talk about the kind of songs that are tasty but have no true value.

I speak, of course, of filler.

Filler in my rough definition is the kind of song that is written to fill out the twelve song quota of the modern album.

These are the songs where we listen to the first few bars and immediately recognize that we've no intention of listening to the whole thing and inevitably hit the advance button on our ipods.

Now filler is not so much a new phenomenon as it is a fact of entertainment.

Act I: Give em a little excitement.

Act II: Give em a little plot.

Act III - Act IV: Filler

Act V: Kill someone the audience likes

Acts VI & VII: Filler

Act VIII: Happy or Sad: the play is over.

House lights to full.

I finished a piece of filler a few weeks ago and I'm not happy about it. Oh sure, there's some craft involved, some nice pieces of lyric, a slightly formulaic chorus, basically a ditty.

I should be able to write a ditty without feeling bad about it.

But I do.

(Quick pause to play baseball out in the backyard with Calvin, more on this later)

So why do I feel bad about a little ditty?

Simple.

I have a lot of rules wrapped around the songs I write. And still even more rules for the songs I'm writing for this album:

No cliches. No bad rhymes. Hummable. At least one stylized turn of phrase. For "Castle Park" the song has to be thematically intertwined with Calvin and myself without a hint of melodrama. Tough bill.

I can break anyone of these rules as I see fit, but there is one rule that is steadfast and unbreakable.

I have to be able to play it for someone without feeling embarrassed.

And filler songs embarrass me.

And, dammit, they shouldn't.

Filler songs let us know the Little Orphan Annie is still in danger.

They're the kids picked for the team between the jocks and the uncoordinated.

They get Tony from the soda shop to Maria's balcony.

Filler songs are the great B Sides that the Baby Boomers relish with glee.

They're a breath of fresh air before John Lennon takes us into "A Day in the Life"

They add volume to substance. They're long eyelashes, platform heels, and the hint of perfume.

And at the end of months of late night dead air, when the body has been saturated with fast food and cheap wine. And the painful feelings of inadequacy walk hand in hand with the shadow of imminent failure. When sleep fails to provide solace. When everyone around you is trapped within their own desperate lives,

A filler song is fucking salvation.

Castle Park has some great songs. It has songs that are fun to play, fun to sing, nice to listen to. Some of it is silly, some of it will reach into your heart and make you ache. What it doesn't have are the songs that give the other songs depth and meaning.

Yeah, I would like to create one more piece of pure magic for this album. But until then.

Its filler time.