It was one of those days where I woke up before the alarm and that always freaks me out because I always imagine that I need more sleep than my responsibilities allow and when I wake up earlier it usually means that I have slept enough, and that means that my desire to sleep exceeds my need to sleep and that means I must be a layabout, haha. I don’t think they use that word in America, in fact, I don’t think that we have used that word in England since 1973 – layabout, groovy, step out, outdated words, still stepping out with a groovy layabout might not be so bad.
We were starting on a new song today as we attempt to record lead vocals on two songs each day, leaving Saturday for instrumentation and anything that we might have missed. Brian has been doing a great job of singing all the songs, with the occasional appearance of me in character and Olivia on backing vocals. Today I was on backing vocals again but then on one of the songs we started today, I will be playing a major role as Paul the Apostle. It’s almost like being Ian Gillan who played Jesus on the Jesus Christ Superstar concept album released in 1970, although Brian gets to play Jesus in this song. I suppose we are working on rock operas with religious themes, the first mixed and mastered tells the story of John the Baptist, the second which is near to completion, the story of Paul the Apostle. Brian is prolific, but today he gave me a credit for one of the songs, yay. What a fascinating project this has become, now how do we reach its audience?
Olivia went off to see the sea and Ocean City on a choppy day for the Atlantic and few people braving the cold on the boardwalk. Bill the engineer’s partner Dawn came to visit but had to leave before Olivia got back. We ate dinner and after we managed to get to a third song, which means we are right on track for completion.
Last but not least, Brian gave me an interesting book today, The Beatles from A-Zed by Peter Asher, released in 2019. It’s his story about his Beatle experiences.
Music today has been Pearls Before Swine’s second album, Balaklava (1968). It is essentially an anti-war album in the style of psychedelic folk. Leader Tom Rapp retired from music in the seventies to become a civil rights lawyer, he sadly died in 2018.
If you are wondering about the album cover, it is called The Triumph of Death by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, painted circa 1562. Brueghel also adorns the wall in The Archive, which by the way has 18 days to go till the big move.