Riptide 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txTyED_gRmw
Two new songs, "The Yoni Symphoni" and "Smiling Blues". The first has an alternate version in which i solve all the world's religious problems...it's a good song, and has the potential to kill the right crowd, but it's probably not good enough to make my concert. I'm at a funny point in my creation of the "perfect" 27-song concert - with over seventy songs written, it's becoming very hard for any new song to crack the list. And it can be brutal dismissing one i've nurtured for over a year.
The second song will almost certainly make the concert, and there is a curious irony in knowing that this song about death might live longer than i. It just felt so beautiful and powerful as i created it. It's about death and cruelty - the greatest horror of all, and the horrible way we all treat each other. Instead of being a perpetual comfort in the face of our own frailty, we exploit and damage each other from cradle to grave. Yet the song is sweet. You can cry, you can laugh, so let's laugh.
As a songwriter, i'm at the point where i'm striving to not create songs that sound like each other, understanding that too much sameness in lyrical structure impacts that. I'm constantly seeking different chords, which is fascinating as i don't know proper chord names, i just find string combinations that evoke a certain feeling. This approach might make me both a weaker and stronger songwriter. When i found the four chords of "Smiling Blues", my first thought was that of COURSE i would discard them for something more exotic. But the more i play it now, the more poignant and perfect it sounds. Did i almost outwit myself as a writer, by fearing simplicity? The strange thoughts that pass through one's mind...
This first-ever performance is embryonic...i fumble some words, and i've already figured out a way to re-structure the lyrics so the narrative arc is more seamless...but it's amazing that this poignant song turned a bar crowd into a pin-drop experience. That's not supposed to happen.