"King Of The Castle"HOW THE SONG CAME ABOUT
The main riff was written on my Dad's old 1970's Guild D40NT acoustic guitar. I write most of my songs on acoustic (even the heavy stuff)....and for all intents and purposes is my Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”. I wanted a solid, four to the floor, groove to close out this album and not unlike the Led Zeppelin hit, King Of The Castle did just that... MAKING THE VIDEO: Cheaply produced from the comfort of my couch, I created this video on my iPhone. Using a video editing app, I compiled the visuals and video content I've used over the last few months to promote the album in addition with the lyrics. Some visuals accompany what is happening in the song, some of them are related to themes from the album. Some are just in there 'cause I liked the way they looked. I incorporated shots taken by Micah Schmidt way back in 2015 because A: I don't have any updated press photos of myself and B: since most of this album was recorded years ago, I felt it apt to show myself back in 2015...and not today. ya dig? Additional photography by Scott Clinton & Tom Bush IV. I hope you enjoy the song and get a lil sense of what I was trying to say lyrically. SONG NOTES: 'Sidewalk" may be the oldest track off The Darkest Of Summers. I started this session in October/November of 2012, right around when Super Storm Sandy hit NYC and Long Island. In fact, I may have been recording scratch guitars on this very track when we first lost power. This tune was written in the same batch as 2 songs from my album Acquiescence. ”Swimming Through Sand” and “Headhunter”. Both of which were intended to be within this collection of dark songs I had brewing...but when it came time to finish up Acquiescence, I wanted to add the 2 aforementioned tracks because by then I’d spend ALOT of time on them. "Sidewalk", not so much. Either way, it’s a song that’s been sitting on the shelf for quite awhile and if memory serves this may have been one of the first songs that inspired me to begin to collect the “dark” songs. It wasn’t too long after I came up with this guitar line when I got the news that my Grandmother had passed away...so a lot of my grief and sadness began to seep into aspects of this song. The chorus’ of the song are a slight departure to the rest of the text. In a nutshell “I’m dying for no company...I just wanna be alone”...was my reaction to the ever needing attention my kids needed from me..and me just wanted to be alone to work on my music, or just chill. The never-ending task of finding the balance between work/family. MUSIC NOTES: Whenever I write a new song I always think to myself "Man! this is the greatest thing I've created! such original! such riff!" NO. As any songwriter can attest, you're a byproduct of what you listen to or what you've listened to. So in hindsight, these are the famous tunes that I hear when listening my song:
FUN FACTS:
  The Darkest of Summers is a collection of songs that were written periodically over the course of the last 8 years.
Songs that were inspired by not only the untimely deaths of people close to me, but me beginning to take a deeper look at my own mortality and just what the heck I was put on this earth to do...and what I'd leave behind. It’s been quite a challenge getting back into the mindset of where I was when I wrote them and to recollect what I was going through at the time....  Hello there! Got a few new things and a few new old things on my workbench for the rest of the year and into 2020 and wanted to share some updates about them with ya...
 In my last blog I described the tune musically as if “Frank Zappa wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody” while wearing a flannel shirt while listening to Grunge in the 90’s”.
After sitting on the “digital” shelf for a few years, the song slowly made it way back into my peripheral in early 2019.  Forgive me Father, for it's many months since I've last blogged...
Anyway, on Friday, September 13th I released a new song called “I’m So Happy For You!” It’s one of those songs that has been sitting on the shelf for quite awhile. Lingering around for least 4 years now as I couldn’t find the right melodies or lyrical content that seemed to jive with what I had done.  Happy New Year everyone! As I reflect on the last 12 months, 2018 was a half way decent year. I managed to release Acquiescence, and in the interim got alot of work done on a couple other secret projects, some new Citizen 603 tunes as well as working dillegently on "The Darkest Of Summers", which is shaping up very nicely and will be out this year. (I have a release date, I'm just not gonna tell you right now)
Alas, the other half of the year was not-so-decent.... If you know me, you know I’m a recovering prog-head. As much as I try to deny it, DT is part of my DNA and my musical make up unfortunately....
Among my love for progressive rock, one of my other favorite genre’s is musical theatre.
As you may you know already, when I was in my early teens I reluctantly went to see The Phantom Of The Opera on a chorus trip in Toronto...thus began my obsession with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music and musical theatre in general Here’s me covering “Stranger Than You Dreamt It” from POTO. It’s a bit of a deeper cut from the show, but by far, my most favorite song from the musical. I dare not cover the title track or a song such as “Music Of The Night”. That’s like doing “Stairway to Heaven” or Freebird IMO Enjoy! G |
