Nobel laureate Barbara Kingsolver once said that whenever she starts a novel she begins at page minus 250. In other words, she tosses roughly one out of every three pages she writes for a 500-page novel. No matter how clever or pretty or fine the material, like all good writers, she has learned to “kill your darlings.”
The same is true of songwriting. Ask most songwriters and they will tell you that their inventory of incomplete or unacceptable songs often eclipses what they’ve produced. Case in point:
After DJT lost the 2020 election I wrote a song called, “Commander in Con” (keep reading, my red-capped friends—I promise you will like how this tale ends). I crafted a good scratch draft and got to work on finalizing the lyrics and various horn, guitar, and organ tracks. Then life got in the way and, four months later, I came back to the song and it was already old news. So, back on the proverbial shelf it went.
Fast forward to fall of 2024 and, while sorting through some lyrical and musical scraps, I came across this song and thought, “Whoa, I could try this again!” After all, it was (IMHO) a catchy tune with an important message—I just had to giddy up and get it out before the election. And, of course, there was one other minor detail: DJT had to lose again for it to be relevant.
Well, dozens of tissue boxes and several busted knuckles later, we all know how that turned out. So, I cancelled all remaining recording sessions and quit updating and polishing the lyrics. The song was, once again, to be mothballed.
“Record it anyway,” said my marketing person. “We’ll send it to media and your community. You might find some way to rewrite it later but, for now, tell the story of a failed song, one that winds up on the cutting room floor. People might find that interesting. And besides, it's your point of view.”
So, dear reader, here you go—my first blog. It’s not about the making of my first album, Elsinore; nor is it about my latest release, He Smokes With God. Instead, it’s about a song that failed to make the cut. And if you don’t care for the tune, at least you might delight in its failure.
Either way, “The Joke’s on Me.”
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