Two more songs i debuted at the Riptide open mic this week - "The Raw Dog Blues" and "Sexy Fuckers". When i walked out of the bar at the end of the performance, i laughed at the trainwreck i'd just left. The second song felt pretty great, like i'd won the crowd back, but the first one...i never imagined i'd post this link for you here. I very nearly stopped performing mid-song, to put everyone out of our misery. It felt just horrible...i could barely hear my own "bass" plucking, the bar background noise never quieted down like it did for my second song, i kept screwing up the fingerings, my kazoo string got caught in my uke strings, pretty much no one was doing the shout-backs i'd given them...and the song itself is so strange that i was suddenly sure it was a writing disaster which i should never perform anywhere ever again. Which was a mortifying thought, as i'd already promised to perform it later this week, as part of a set with another singer who has a very well-written PRO-condom song. That was my inspiration for this song - his infectious tune was so lyrically banal, that i decided the world needed an anti-condom song to balance galactic karma. I initially abandoned my effort after about a week, convinced that not even I could write a bitchin' anti-condom song. It finally came together...
But as i got to my bike in the street, a funny thing happened. This fellow followed me from inside, saying his girlfriend had dared him to tell me how amazing they found my song. I smiled and said "The second one?" And he said NO, the first! My mind was blown. We talked for a few minutes, his smile never fading. I guess the lesson is, disasters are not always what they seem. Listening to it now, it's not nearly so awful as it felt. It's rough, to be sure, and the bass line is way too quiet...but perhaps you'll hear the seed of a rip-roaring crowd-pleaser which will be performed by me (and covered by others) many thousands of times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLOZXGdFzoA
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