Wednesday, October 05, 2011

back to unfinished business: the wrong raod

"do you ever get the feeling your life could've been
something better, more appealing than what i became?"

the wrong road came along one late night
on my way home from the Barley House
a simple sentiment really
haven't we all made a mess of our lives at one time or another?
then wondered "what if i'd taken another path?"
instead of the one we chose
i think i was thinking of a Nourallah Brothers reunion at the time
i know i was thinking about F singing those words
in his woeful soulful way
i also wanted it to be slyly smile inducing
not to take itself too seriously
because the humor in self-pity is well,
that it's oh-so dramatic
this might be my favorite 2 lines i'd ever written

"you expect the world to hold you in her arms and weep
and the terrible decisions you now clearly see"

here's what i originally wrote about recording the song:

Billy says
"so what do you wanna do?"
uh...
i don't know
i feel like nothing
sometimes the morning is not really my most creative time
i play "it's not enough"
a new one i like a lot
he says it's good
but he thinks the bridge might be too long
and it gets a bit depressing
i don't know
i like the long bridge
and the dark bit
so he says
"what about 'the wrong road'?"
yeah
i know that one is ready
so i play it for him
he kinda perks up and says "that one's killer"
let's do it
"you should play it on electric"
i know what guitar
he opens a closet in the front room
and pulls out an old beat up case
he carefully lays it down on the living room floor
and slowly uncovers a cherry red Gibson 335
just like Carter used to play
i was more than a little stunned
it was weird
so i play this beautiful guitar and sing
live
with no click
and after about 3 takes he says
"i think we've got a good one"
we start overdubbing
some backup vocals first
he puts the vocal mic in the washing machine
and has me sing into it
it sounds like i'm in a cave
then we both play bass
billy is starting to look tired
"i haven't eaten today" he says
i look at the clock
it's already 4
"let's get some food"
so we go to this place called phil's
i order the "78704" with a veggie patty
it's the best burger i;ve ever had
jalapeno cheese bun with sauteed onions
jack cheese and jalepenos
i cannot stress to you how good this thing was
and to top it off
these crazy sweet potato fries
that tasted awesome with it
(and i don't even like sweet potatoes!!)
when got back to the house Billy had a lot more energy
he's like Jayme i think
he forgets to eat sometimes
she does the same thing
so then he puts down some percussion stuff
a shaky thing
floor tom
then we play some floor toms together
he pulls out this crazy cool epiphone guitar
a 1960s red number
totally rare
i've never seen one like it
he does 2 takes of guitar
it's fantastic
then we set up two mics facing each other
and play dueling acoustic guitars
Lisa and Lee show up to get me
at 9:30
another 10 hours gone
in 5 minutes