In the Beginning...

Finished two songs from the "indie rock opera." It occurs to me that this thing isn’t much like a rock opera at all, in that different characters don’t sing to each other. Like The Who’s Tommy--"Do you think it’s all right to leave the boy with Uncle Ernie." Mainly it’s from the "I" point of view, which isn’t so different from any of my songs. Also, some of the lyrics can be obscure, so I’m thinking about including prose alongside the songs so it makes some narrative sense. Sort of like "in which our hero…" headings at the beginning of some novels.

The first third of the I.R.O., which I’m calling "A.D.," is autobiographical: guy is lonely and depressed, guy meets girl, they have a family, all is well, they move to L.A. to hide out with family because war is coming. War is declared. That’s where it stops being autobiographical (hopefully). Then UFOs land…

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you know some of the story. We moved to North Carolina and had Olivia. "Now is the Time" goes, "Made our way to Carolina, found a home and with it found a way to make our lives a better place." That song was written when S. was pregnant--I was both hopeful and terrified about having a kid.

Also recorded "In the Beginning…" It needs something else, but I’d rather move on than keep tinkering with it. The song shows up again at the end with more hopeful lyrics.

There’s a song before these two but it still needs some lyrics. Might be a lot to ask for people to listen to all these songs I’ve been recording this week, but if nothing else, I’m doing this for myself. It’s been good to get these songs recorded and behind me.

In the Beginning...