I woke up one morning with an idea for a song. It had a stock 1960’s I – vi – IV – V – I progression. I wasn’t sure if I should blame my baby boomer parents or the fact that I spent some quality time in orchestra pits for both Grease and Zombie Prom last year. I wanted it to have a beat like this one:
Or this one:
I envisioned it having an arpeggiated xylophone sort of like the unidentifiable stringed instrument in this one:
After work I sat down at the keyboard and hammered out the song in the space of a few hours. I hadn’t ever written a song faster than that before.
At this point, I’ve only recorded the sappy solo vibraphone version of this tune. I have an all-percussion arrangement in mind, but perhaps I will concede to the 1960’s style and include guitars. Either way – there will be timpani involved. Because life is better with timpani.
I certainly hope that writing angry rap songs like No Te Quejes does not preclude me from writing tunes like this. I guess if it does, someone will have to kill me…because it’s too late now!