Whistling Clarabella: 100 Awesome Things - Part 26

Part 26 of 100 Awesome Musical Things, dedicated with all my heart to the Marquise Rachel, Mr Rachel and Small Rachel.

~~~2013~~~

I'm a quarter of the way through this particular challenge and it's been more than a month since I last posted. There's a whole lot of reasons for the absence, of which some are good and some are not.

One of the reasons was that I spent the last month listening to Bowie a lot. That was a good reason.
Another reason is that I was really sick the last couple of weeks. That was not so good.

The main reason was that I spent most of the energy I reserve for creative endeavours on rehearsing for a particular performance which meant rather a lot.

My dear, dear friend Rachel got married a couple of Saturdays ago. Some months ago I got an email from her asking if I would possibly consider performing at her wedding during the register-signing. I couldn't have said 'YEAH' any quicker, so the only question left was 'what to play?'

The bride and groom's requirements were as follows:

"All we really know at the moment is that we wanted you, we wanted something not traditionally wedding-y, and it mustnt't make me or Mr Rachel want to throw up on each other!".

On the other hand, I'm a Doors fan, so finding straightforward love songs in my iTunes library is not that easy... lots of songs like "I Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You" and "She Caught The Katy and Left Me A Mule To Ride", or "I Smell A Rat" and "I'm Movin' On"; not much in the way of uncomplicated, sweet songs. Even songs like Rory's "Moonchild" have an edge of some sort...

I also needed a song which I could play by myself without too much hassle. I sent a list of songs which included "Because You're Mine" and "Speak Softly Love", "Nature Boy" and "True Love Ways" but it turned out 'not traditionally wedding-y' wasn't the same as 'something essentially obscure in this year of 2013'. Whodathunk?

Then the groom came up with the subject of today's Awesome.

Bright Eyes - "The First Day Of My Life"

Now, let me first say that I was very glad he picked a song with a simple chord structure: C E Am F G C, basically, with a D7 chucked in occasionally.

Confession: According to the tab I found online, there's a "Dm sus2" in there too, but I didn't like the sound, so I just went for a straightforward Dm. And in my arrangement I only picked out the bass line. But I had to sing at the same time so ner.

Before I lose everyone but the guitarists, that's as 'technical' as I intend to get. Basically, it's pretty easy to get the guitar parts sounding OK. The words? A trickier proposition.

To be honest, they gave me the song in September or October. On 22nd February, the day before the wedding, I still didn't have the lyrics set in my head. I do not know why but they just wouldn't fix themselves where they needed to be.

Second Confession: The first perfect run-through I managed, after months of rehearsals (on and off), was the morning of the wedding. To suggest I was a bit nervous is to understate. I was stood in a Cornish holiday cottage with my newly-short hair wet from the shower, and only then did I get it, with fully fifteen minutes to spare before I needed to leave. I say 'to spare', I mean 'to dress and find my shoes and then leave, trying to actually remember to take my guitar'.

Long story short: It went brilliantly. The vocal performance was very different to the one I'd rehearsed, but I somehow found the magic key to the vibe of the event and it was on, despite the cold weather threatening to take my hands out of commission.

If I had fucked up, I don't think I would've forgiven myself, not at her wedding. This is a friend who has saved me from myself many times since we became friends, so this really was about the least I could do.

It's not a song I would have chosen to listen to. Bright Eyes aren't my bag, mostly because I don't dig Conor Oberst's voice. I hear Bright Eyes, I think "ah, hipsters...", rightly or wrongly. I don't say they're bad, just not my thing.

But I like that it's pragmatic and honest about love. It isn't 'I love you loads and loads and loads and I've never loved anyone before or since and it's all gonna be sunshine, roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and it ends at Happy Ever After.'

Because that isn't realistic. It's also not love.

Love is way, way more powerful and entirely more complicated than "Happy Ever After". There is magic in the big moments to be sure, but the power is in the little things and the everyday. The power is in the decision one makes each morning to say "Yes, this is what I choose for myself", the power is in the choices made to bear witness to another person's life, to (sometimes) put them before yourself in matters both minor and major. That's what Disney lied to us about.

I couldn't get the lyrics straight in my head for months. I kept switching lines in my head and because of the rhyming structure, the song fell apart each time that happened.

It was not easy and it took more persistence than I would've liked. Just like most worthwhile things.

C 2013.

100 Awesome Musical Things

Part One - Statesboro Blues - The Allman Brothers Band

Part Two - Octopus Jig - The Dubliners
Part Three - Got To Give It Up - Marvin Gaye