SAW 2009 #9: This Conversation by Chris Devine

This was another song I wrote in its entirety before sitting down to record. Usually, when I go to start my 'SAW', I have little or no idea what I'm going to do. I just sit down at the computer and start with something ... A chord progression, a melody, a drum beat ... Something that sparks an idea in my head, and then I get to work, usually working on a section till I'm happy, then moving on to the next.

The consequence of that approach is too often that my SAW contributions end up a little fragmented -- a string of only dimly-related songlets, rather than cohesive songs. The songs I write ahead of time and then sit down to arrange and record are much more cohesive in general, and able to tackle bigger lyrical ideas over the arc of the song. But the section-by-section approach is very effective for pushing through writer's block and general lack of inspiration by demanding less of the subconscious and the creative impulse at any one time.

It was while writing this song that (a) I got really bored with the unadorned chord progression in the verse (I like how the repetition helps it build toward the minor-chord bridge to the refrain, but it is, of course, necessarily repetitive) and (b) I started hearing a melody in my head, and it was being played on a fiddle. But it was a pretty simple melody, one that wouldn't take a lot of time to record and wouldn't justify having Becky Wolfe, fiddler in my band, drive halfway across town to record at the Yella Hoose Studio.

So I just had her play into a microphone after one of our frequent Sunday afternoon gigs at the Irish pub and restaurant Lis Doon Varna in Peoria. I had to tweak things a bit to fit the tempo and rhythm of the music (thank you, AudioSnap, the coolest feature of Sonar that I've discovered in a long time!). Plus the original clips were quite noisy and didn't quite match up volume-wise, but I still thought they added a lot to the finished song.

I played it for my bandmates in Inis after it was done, and I think they liked it. We might start working on it for our own performances! Though how Becky's gonna play that bit where I layer both little fiddle snippets at the same time I'm not sure. I'd love to see her try, though!

The lyrics:

This conversation is over and done
And this conversation should have never begun,
But it dropped like a wet towel into our laps.
Now the walls that we built up are about to collapse.
Don't look at me with that tear in your eye.
Don't look around, there's no sea and no sky,
And don't look ahead or the future will fly,
And this conversation was a fraud and a lie,
And I don't understand
At all.

This invitation I wrote, never sent,
But this invitation won't say where it went.
I don't understand all the words that you said,
But I followed the trail just wherever it led.
How can I build up and never destroy,
How can you drone on and never annoy,
What would it mean that I've broken this toy?
And this conversation, it was no cunning ploy,
And I can't comprehend
At all.

Fortunate people and fortunate lives,
Fortunate husbands and fortunate wives,
Wielding fortunate hammers and fortunate knives,
Because they don't understand,
No they don't understand
At all.