WEEK 17: Prufrock's Theme

This mp3 is special to me. Special in the sense that there is a lengthy and complicated explanation behind it's existence! So buckle up, assholes!

My 2nd year student video project was a loose (emphasis on LOOSE) adaptation of the poem "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. It starred Sam Brown (of Whitest Kids U Know fame) in a quasi-serious role, the sensitive J. Alfred Prufrock, but mainly he was playing me. The movie was basically him and a friend going to a party, feeling ignored, lusting after a girl, having a bad time and leaving frustrated. Essentially what every party I ever went to was like for me. And a sort of dumb literal interpretation of the sequence of events that occur in the poem. I think. I haven't read it in a while.

The only music in the video was this, the opening theme as Sam/Prufrock put his tie on, shaved his unibrow and washed his face, preparing for the party.

Now where the music comes from is another story. In 1999, the high school days, I wrote a 27 MINUTE LONG SONG. A song about a girl I had a huge crush on, who had basically crushed my soul after going on a date (my first date ever) and then rejecting me.

Yes. 27 minutes. I didn't have it exactly down, it wasn't some epic masterpiece or anything, but I had pages and pages of lyrics and one night pressed "record" as I played a piano riff and sang the lyrics on top. To my shock and horror the resulting recording was 27 minutes long. I had no idea. I thought it was going to be 5 minutes at the most.

I threw out 26 minutes and kept 30 seconds for the Prufrock theme! The topic of the original high school song made it all the more emotional for me, as this music played under Prufrock/Sam/Me getting ready to have a bad time at a party. Everything came together.

I still may turn this into a real song one day. And I may put the movie online one day too. Enjoy the accordion and the odd percussion. Enjoy enjoy enjoy!


Download it heeeeere.


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-Jordan