Starting Today – MP3

I spent a few hours trying to multi-track this one, then returned to the original demo.

I was trying to write something that balances the protest of Bob Dylan or Billy Bragg or Woodie Guthrie with the romance of… well, everyone else. Which was a dangerous proposition cuz no one hates preachy, dogmatic songs worse than me. And no one is more sensitive to avoiding treacle.

But I had this idea — inspired by a great song written by Smokey Junglefrog guitarist Jamie Dunphy years ago — that nothing could be more romantic these days the going ex-pat with someone you love. Unfortunately, the song presented itself in 3/4, which always sounds like a sea shanty to me (and renders it unlikely that I’ll ever record it for an album). And the verses are suspiciously like a song I recorded years ago, “The Michael Song.”

But I like some of the lyrics (“I’ve sketched out a map on a napkin / And sewn up a flag from some clothes / That I’ve thrown in a bag I’ve been packin / For a trip that tomorrow might know), and, well, it beats watching football.

[audio:startingtoday.mp3]