So, of late, the musicmakers on BARNSON have posted about their music, so I thought it might be fun (Matt, Ben, Sam, Rowan, others..) to name your best 2 (or more) songs (with links to mp3s if you got em) and what they’re about – or at least why you wrote them.
Additionally, if you like someone else’s songs on the site, ask em what they were thinking (for instance, I loved the explanation of headrun).
So, I’ll start… There are about 10 sonngs I would put on a Greatest Hits CD (based on what others have said, and somewhat my own opinion), and of the 10, the two I think are probably the best are “Starbucks Nation” and “Long Way Home”
Starbucks Nation (http://www.timpane.com/starbucks.mp3)is a snapshot of society today with an emphasis on the ills of corporate mind control of the general population through media. Specifically, it pokes fun not at the corporations but at the public’s willingness to be controlled through a variety of means ranging from groupthink to medication to peer pressure. I wrote the song based on the 1st rhyme “Capitalism has Replaced Catholicism”, and just kind of let it go from there. (Oh, and the Rap in the middle is based somewhat on my brother Kyle, who loves Tupac Shakur, but is also a “honky goin golfin”). Favorite line: “Justin and Kelly on TV (ref: American idol) but We’re (Reference me and my wife Kelly) what’s missing here.
Long Way Home (http://www.timpane.com/long.mp3)is based specifically on a random drive by my old house in Bethesda when my mother had vacated it. I saw the new people living there.. and it was right after my mom and Stepfather divorced. I was newly married, and driving by there was a harsh reminder that “Home” didn’t exist anymore. Fave line: “Look through Kaleidoscopes back at the years, at the fragmented pictures of a life that just seems such a long way home”
Okay.. and my questions: Matt: Explain Leave it All behind (not your best, but I want to know), and also, if you could, I’m Still me
Ben: What inspired “House of Dreams” and the song that starts “God’s Easel”
Sam: Breathless, please.. and Who is responsible for Mad Mad World
and Rowan: You should tell the folks about your writing stuff (The one from the thing where they walk down the street and its snowing.. – make a link)
LIAB and ISM
Leave It all Behind was a piece I wrote shortly after I returned from Especially For Youth, a youth summer camp for young Mormons, in 1990. It was supposed to be some kind of comment on crass commercialism, with inspiration from Winger and the folk song “Little Boxes”. With a bridge that expressed my frustration with my situation: I knew I’d have to go on an LDS mission, and yet I wanted to be a rock-and-roll star.
I’m Still Me was written to express my frustration (again!), but this time at the condescension and scorn sent my way by family and friends for leaving my church. For about two years, it was laid on very thick in emails, telephone calls, and several conversations at family gatherings. I got sick of it :sick:, wrote this song, and felt better afterwards, able to just brush off the comments and criticism rather than taking it so personally.
Oh, and for “Breathless”? I have to claim credit for the opening theme 🙂 I was noodling with it on my piano, and Sam, sitting on the couch, said, “Dude, can I use that for a song?” After some wrangling about credits, which if I recall ended in his offer to buy me pizza, we agreed and a few weeks later he recorded the piece up at the studios at UMBC.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Breathless
I don’t remember borrowing the opening theme. Even if true, your version of history is a little inaccurate. It couldn’t have been recorded at UMBC studios a few weeks after completion because it went through a recording on the aforementioned recorder and then proceeded to serve several dedications. This lastest at least the length of summer 1991, before it was ever tracked at UMBC.
There was a girl involved (okay, a couple different girls), and for the sake of the innocent let’s keep names clear of the site!
See other post..
And your favorite songs??
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
Please sent a check
How much is my silence worth, Sam? 😉
Actually, probably not much because most of those names would have occurred before UMBC. I’m only good for blackmail from Fall of 91 and later…
I still choose Wrong Words and Hamlet In My Mind as my two favorites.
My $.02 Weed
Oh but I know
I remember a bunch of names. And I even know who “Jennifer” is, and how Sam could’ve gotten either arrested or shot if he’d followed through. 😉
— Ben
See
That’s not fair. Just because I’m not Jewish and didn’t get to go to Western Maryland camps for those of Hebrew ilk…
Anyway, we all know there were no girls before Shani. She was the first.
Just like Amy was my first 😉
My $.02 Weed
Excellent.. thank you!
Very nice.. but I’m still curious as to what you think are your two best.. and the stories behind them..
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
Behind the Muzak
Matt, you forgot to mention the “Synchronicity” reference in “Leave It All Behind” — “shiny metal boxes”. I love that.
OK, I’ll answer the questions first.
House of Dreams: If I remember correctly, Sam and I wrote the opening theme (the C-minor bit, after the piano solo) on a rinky-dink little Casio keyboard while we were on vacation with my family at Deep Creek Lake. I think that was probably the summer of 1991. It was my grandfather’s 65th birthday, and we went to Deep Creek Lake for a week. And it rained the WHOLE TIME. We swam in the indoor pool, and played some friggin’ awesome video game down at the arcade (Sam, what was that thing called?). And, sometime during that week, we wrote the theme for House of Dreams. I think.
We brought the theme home, and filled it out at a jam session at Matt’s house. Matt wrote the awesome G-F guitar riff, which led into the verses. And then I wrote the rest of the song.
To this day, I’m not sure what the lyrics mean. I was going for a gothic/horror feel, something along the lines of Genesis’s “Home By The Sea”. General teenage angst, and that sort of thing. I was going more for a mood than a literal story. Although my mother still insists that the song is about repressed memories following childhood trauma. Dunno.
The Big Picture (“God’s easel perched on the night”): I had some time to kill in college, and I was hanging out in the recital hall with no one else around. The piano had just been tuned, and I was just messing around on it. That’s when I found the three chords that became the centerpiece for the song (Eb9, Gbmaj9, Absus4). I played that riff over and over throughout the next week or so, and finally I sat down in a practice room and just wrote the rest of the song in one sitting.
This is one of my few songs where the lyrics make literal sense. This is a song about the beauty of the sky. It’s not technically religious or spiritual, but it can certainly be interpreted that way. I was referring more to a metaphorical God than a literal one. The overall idea is that we get so mired down in the details of life, in the little things that happen from day to day, that we fail to see the Big Picture (ahem) that is around us all the time. When you look at the majesty of nature, the sheer hugeness of everything around us, you can’t help but feel part of something bigger than yourself, whether that’s God, or The Force, or the human community, or whatever.
The song proceeds chronologically: Verse 1 (God’s easel, perched on the night, painting pictures of shadows and light): Sunset Verse 2 (Spheres of fire in random array, brilliant white on a canvas of gray): Night (spheres of fire = stars) Bridge (Sunrise, new day begins): Sunrise (duh) Verse 3 (God’s easel, wonders untold, painting pictures of silver and gold): Day
I imagine someone sitting out on their front porch, deep in thought, watching the transformation of the sky from night to day, and feeling that transformation within themselves. Blah blah blah…
Mad Mad World: I take full responsibility for this. I was young. I have a tendency towards the grandiose, and if I’m not careful, this tendency can turn into camp. The lyrics are pretty much self-explanatory — there’s a lot of crazy s*** out there, but as long as I’m with you (generic imaginary chick), everything’s cool. The music was just way out of control. My chorus teacher, my sophomore year of high school, asked me to write a song for the show choir to do. I had already had an early version of Mad Mad World that was about half as long, and I added a whole bunch of stuff to make room for dance breaks for the show choir, etc. That’s the version that ended up on the album. The show choir rehearsed the song once, and announced that they absolutely hated it, and so it was scrapped.
And now my faves:
Afterlife: I wrote this song during my senior year of high school. I just loved the deep sound of those octave F-sharps, and I built a song around it. The lyrics came out of that depth naturally. This song is about the pressure I felt being a “gifted” and/or “talented” kid. I always felt like I would never be able to live up to the high expectations of those around me – my family, my teachers, etc. I often felt like I would rather hide away somewhere than be recognized as “different”. The first verse illustrates this feeling: “I’ve tried so hard/ why can’t I reach/ all the things that my parents teach?”
All the references to the afterlife might make it sound like I was suicidal, but I was actually talking about creating a new life for myself, separate from the expectations of others. “Got my one-way ticket/ and I’m through my strife/ with constant dedication, I’ve made my reservation/ for the afterlife.” The line “I’ve made my reservation for the afterlife”, by the way, is a reference to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books. At one point, the characters think they’ve died, when in fact they’ve been transported to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe – and when a waiter asks if they have reservations, one character says, “Do you need a reservation for the afterlife?”
My sister contributed the second verse (“for we are all the realities of dreams”), but it doesn’t really fit the rest of the song, so I think if I ever re-record it, I’ll take it out. That would at least make it shorter than 8 minutes. 😉
Sidewalk Chalk: The first song after my self-imposed 9-year songwriting hiatus, this tune was inspired by, believe it or not, Mary Poppins! Dani and I had been talking about how quickly time seems to pass now that we’re parents – you blink an eye and suddenly your kid is walking and talking and saying no to you. I have a feeling that if I don’t pay close attention, he’ll be in college before I realize it. At the time, Joey’s favorite movie was Mary Poppins – he wanted to watch it every day. And one day, I was struck by the scene where Burt is painting pictures in sidewalk chalk, and when it starts to rain, all the pictures are washed away, as if they’d never existed.
It occurred to me that trying to commit every moment to memory, as time was rushing by, was like trying to draw sidewalk chalk pictures in the rain – each moment slips away almost immediately after it happens. Kinda melancholy, I know, but I’m pleased with the imagery. It’s not a very good recording — I need to go back and redo it when I get a chance.
I’m looking forward to hearing from Sam, Matt, and the rest about their favorites.
— Ben
HOD Lyrics
I recall writing lyrics for HOD while sitting in a college campus apartment at Syracuse University. I’m guessing circa winter 1989-1990?
lyrics
Yeah? Maybe I’m remembering wrong. This was a long time ago.
It had to be later than that though, because I didn’t join the band until the spring of 1990, and I’m fairly sure we didn’t start on HOD until at least 6 months to a year after I joined.
— Ben
2 Tunes
2 of my faves are “Birdfeeder” & “Sunday Chores” (www.rare-medium.com), written at a time when I was transitioning both musically and geographically.
“Birdfeeder” was written for a close friend’s brother who was serving overseas in the Navy. At a gig the concept of the Birdfeeder was demonstrated to me. Due the family nature of this site, the Birdfeeder cannot be explained in detail. One of the best live performances of the song was at a prominent summer jazz festival which takes place outdoors in downtown MPLS. Tons of people were in the street plaza in front of the main stage.
“Sunday Chores” became a hallmark of the band during my 3-year tenure and was a crowd favorite.
I’m not sure I would consider these my best songs, but they capture an essence of time and mood for me.
Enjoyed the tunes!!
Heh.. didja see the name of the guy who reviewed your album from CD baby? tee hee
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com