This week's MP3 is extremely special and random and rare.
Back in 1999 my friend Matt Koff gave me lyrics for a song he wanted to perform at the senior revue for his high school in Ardsley, Westchester. I put them to music, and the plan was for me to go to the piano and play while he sings. We were really happy with our work, but the people in charge didn't want us to take too much time away from the show (which is crazy now that I think about it..we wrote an original song for ARDSLEY HIGH SCHOOLl!), so the plan got aborted and we replaced it with something a lot weirder.*
This is the 2nd demo I sent Matt -- the first one was too fast -- and even though this was 1999, and possibly the first full song I ever wrote, I'm pretty impressed with how elaborate it is. And it's also fun.
* Matt grabbed the mic, said "and now everybody, CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!" I came on stage in a suit, did a bad Christopher Walken impression and said "The fire exits....are over THERE....And over THERE....Please...remember that...or else you're gonna get caught in a FIRE...!" to much confused laughter and silence.
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!
