Well, “Angel in Chains” has a chorus now, I think, and a possibly compelling Keith Richards-style riff (not actually original, though—I robbed it from a piece of pop music, and simply applied it to metal, which I don’t think anyone’s ever done before). I’m still not clear where the song is going. From the chorus, it sounds like the guy is leaving the girl (or girl the guy—like most of my songs, it’s gender-unspecific)—because said girl (or guy) is plumb crazy. Said girl (or guy) may even have just—finally—successfully commited suicide.

Since it’s supposed to be a death metal song, the lyrics aren’t supposed to make a lot of sense—they’re imagery, rather than coherent thoughts. (I am taking a rather large conceptual leap, I think, by allowing the chorus to be semi-coherent.) The verses, with luck, bring out that the guy (or girl) leaving has been more touched by his (or her) partner’s madness than he (or she) thinks. And wait a minute—if you commit suicide on me before I split, who left whom, anyway?

For the verses, I thus far have just lines and snatches of lines here and there—nothing I’m really happy with. It’s tempting to forget the whole idea—but that guitar riff keeps calling me back. It is hard to forget, and that alone suggests the song maybe ought to be written. I can hear how the guitar(s) should be played—though I’ve never played a guitar like that, and am not sure I can. The way I play it, it’s likely to sound country no matter what I hear in my head. If I add all or part of the Steve Goodman litany—Mother, trucks, trains, farms, prison, dead dogs and Christmas—maybe I could call it “country death metal.” The litany might at least provide a structure for the verses to follow. Right now, I don’t have one.

I discovered I’m completely out of copies of the “Santa’s Fallen” CD again. I suppose I had better get more made. This will be the seventh “pressing,” and I have expected each of the last two “pressings” would be the last. I have milked this album for 4-1/2 years, but people have continued to buy it (on a small scale, of course). If I were going to invest money, I would invest it in a new album—before my money runs out.

The fastest (if not easiest) way to do the album is to record a live performance—and I would like to be doing a live performance in June (another Failed Economy Show benefit for the Food Pantry). As noted earlier, I know a local minister who has the equipment, and says his experience is all in recording live Gospel shows, and he might be enlistable in recording this one. (If not, there are people advertising this service on Craigslist—though they charge money for it.) We record the whole show, pick the best 12 tracks, and those become the album. There’s a possibility we could do DVDs, too, if I could get our area Video Lady to film the show (she’s said twice she wants to do that). A prime consideration: will drummer Chris be recovered enough to play?

Two job applications have gone off to their respective rejection bureaux; a third is off today, and yet another is en route to me in the mail. The Census? Very, very few hours this first full week of work; I get the impression (without having anything firm to back it up) that they’re about to do a weeding-out of people they don’t want, and that I’m one of those. They haven’t called, and I’m trying to decide if I should call them (and wondering if that, too, is a test). At least, my column for the paper is done, and an article (as usual, I will have to go to the Library to see if the paper actually printed it), and I have another article to do. I do not seem to have any problem keeping busy. It’s making a living that’s challenging…

Joe