Last Night's Wine

I am on the verge of a long trip abroad (2.5-3 months in Australia). During this time I am going to be doing some recording with my amazing friends Julz and Leeza (of the Hussy Hicks). The week before and after I am in Australia I will be doing more recording in LA with my great friend, Frank Perricone, and after I get back in the States in the early spring I will be scheduling a recording project in Muscle Shoals and yet another in Belgium. So ......I have a LOT of space for songs.

I believe it is for this reason I have been on somewhat of a tear lately. I'm finishing partial songs that have been laying around for months, I am having drastically more successful co-writing appointments, and I'm just generally feeling good about my productivity. All of these things are happening partially because I have been fortunate enough to be around a ton of inspiring song writers as of late, but more so I believe because I just work better with a deadline. When I know there is a due date my mind just kicks into overdrive. Perhaps this is a personal flaw, but it is a flaw that I recognize and therefore (when all goes well) I can use to my advantage.

As the flood of new songs comes pouring in it makes me think of excesses, and the natural ebb and flow of things.

It is with this mindset that I entered one of my recent writing sessions. This writing session was with one of my all time favorite writing buddies, Amanda Williams. Amanda is as real as it comes and she is one smart songwriter. I'm always impressed by her ability to think mechanistically and factually about the music industry one minute and then as if flipping a switch go immediately and effortlessly into creative, flowery zen type thoughts about the specific piece of music we are creating at the time.

Amanda is a rare breed. I'm proud to call her my friend and always happy with the results of our writing.

For this last writing session I brought in a strange kind of idea (musically and lyrically). (NOTE: In addition to working better with a deadline, another thing I have learned about my creative process is that if I have a piece of a song stuck in my head I had better go ahead and finish it by any means necessary because otherwise my mind will continually jump back to that one idea no matter what else I am working on. This piece of music was one of those. I call em splinters. They must be excised)

The idea was a hangover song. I kept replaying the line "Today we pay for last night's wine" in my head. And because it was a hangover song I had kind of a jarring, peculiar feeling intro chord progression. I thought this uneasiness fit well with the subject matter.

So far the idea doesn't sound too terribly strange. Well, leave it to my twisted brain.

I told Amanda, this is a hangover song idea, but not really about a hangover per se.
It was no surprise to me that Amanda was now more enthralled. She said, "Go on".

My idea was that our country and the society therein is in a hangover state in a sense. Politicians can call it economic downturn or recession, or any other myriad of expressions but what it looks like to me is a hangover. We partied fast and hard for a few centuries and we are dealing with that morning after headache now.

I envision the "upper class men" (England, Germany, France, etc) watching "the freshman" show up to the party and just indulge and indulge and indulge. The "grown folks" at the party are sipping beer and wine. We are funneling Whiskey. We have been the life of the party for a bit, but we are learning we may need to reign it in a bit before the next kegger.

Although the song depicts the miserable scene surrounding the realization that some of our actions from last night weren't necessarily the wisest, I believe there is a lighter side to this in reality.

Much like a hangover in real life, our nation may need to take a few Tylenol and drink a ton of water in order go forward, but we will go forward having learned a little something about ourselves and how to conduct ourselves at the next party.

(NOTE: We will still be the life of the party and we will always proudly drink our whiskey.....maybe just not the entire handle next time)

Anyway, enough of my babbling, here are the lyrics:


"Last Night's Wine"
 (written by Amanda Williams and Eric Erdman on 11-7-12 )

Such a mystery

How things got to be

This cacophony of grift and grind

Painful to perceive
Freedom to extreme
Is it destiny with bloodshot eyes

Chorus
We had our fun
But now it's done
Today we pay for last night's wine
Today we pay for last night's wine

Teenage fantasy
What you've done to me
Responsibility nowhere to find

Like a melody
Way to high to sing
Let the chorus cut you down to size

We had our fun

But now it's done

Today we pay for last night's wine

Today we pay for last night's wine

Bridge
We joined the party late
But we caught up
One's ok
Two's too much
But three's not enough

We had our fun
But now it's done
Today we pay for last night's wine
Today we pay for last night's wine

We had our fun
But now it's done
Today we pay for last night's wine
Today we pay for last night's wine