So, I didn’t finish anything presentable last week.
Oh, I have excuses. Monday I had a bartending class in the afternoon and a gig at night. Tuesday I was driving home from the Keys. And since Wednesday, I’ve been fighting a cold. Which is, thankfully, mostly a thing of the past already. 🙂
But I committed to doing this on a weekly basis, and to being accountable to you, my reader, on that same basis. So here we are.
The week wasn’t entirely without creative work – no week truly is. I have a collection of one- and two-line ideas for lyrics, and I had a clever idea for rearranging a song I cover to include a nod to a song currently on the charts. But I’m not going to make you sit through 2/3 of a song you already know just to catch eight bars of something else. We’ll save that for a show sometime, I think. 🙂
All that said, I *did* spend some time brainstorming on one idea of mine, and I’m at the point of having a halfway-decent (but possibly not final) first verse and a decent chorus. The music is still subject to change, so all I’m gonna give you is lyrics.
But first let me tell you about the idea.
What a few folks in our “coastal Americana” genre say about their songwriting process is, “I go places and write about what I’m seeing.” I’ve done it myself; my recent song “On the Beach” is one of those. But sometimes, the places I go aren’t that interesting. Englewood FL isn’t Key West by any stretch, and sometimes I go out in search of inspiration and find…an ordinary bar with ordinary people. And nothing interesting to write about.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, but as the old joke goes, “No adventure started with a salad.” And there have been a few awesome songs written about ordinary bars with ordinary people. “Piano Man” comes to mind.
But what if…rather than just seeing an ordinary bar with ordinary people, the tale-teller imagined those people to be more interesting? Being pirates, Rangers, dwarves, swashbucklers?
Thus was born the idea of “Fantasy Night at the Lukewarm Tiki Lounge.” The title is a nod to an old Dan Millman quote about moderation being like “lukewarm tea, the Devil’s own brew.”
So, here’s a verse and chorus from what I hope will turn out to be a fun and slightly offbeat song:
Tonight I’d like to find a den full of pirates
Hear their tales of adventure, see their jewels and gold
And sing songs of the ocean, a broadside and how to fire it
But all I’ve got is the neighborhood watering hole
CHORUS
There ain’t no epic tales going on
So I’ll just have to make up my own
Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to scrounge
Guess it’s Fantasy Night at the Lukewarm Tiki Lounge
As always, your feedback (especially the encouraging kind) is welcome.
