Circus Devils: See You Inside
On my first bout of composing, I decided to tackle the more conventional songs, or at least those that struck me as more conventional based on Bob’s melodies and phrasing. These were ‘Deliver Ice Cream,’ ‘Great Orphan,’ ‘Subway To Human Nature’ and ‘We’d Be Alright.’ The work on these four songs took more than twice as long to complete as the album’s remaining 13 songs combined. My mistake was assuming that I had to put myself on top of the song, and force it into a definite shape. Having a narrow road to follow meant I had to think carefully about where to go, or so I assumed. Thinking led to tension. Tension led to jumpy legs and a stiff neck. Sometimes I threw down the guitar and got up to pace the room. This may not seem like hardship worth mentioning, but I wasn’t accustomed to discomfort or a sense of ticking time while making music. Usually it was just the opposite. I would lose all sense of time. I was reminded of what Tim had told me once after I’d asked him to add vocals to my music. He said that his brain didn’t work that way. I wondered if I should tell Bob the same thing about my brain not being right for composing music to raw vocals. Thankfully it wouldn’t come to that. But not before I’d made a few missteps in the name of experimentation. One sidetrack led me to disregard musical pitch and take a free form approach to notes and chords. The results were the musical equivalent of goulash, only without the flavor. One thing about Circus Devils; we never went in for free form jamming, not counting the song ‘Hot Lettuce’ from Sgt. Disco, where I “jammed” with myself as a joke. Our brand of psychedelic music was free of noodling, with everything kept tight and tidy. I was also never a fan of dissonance for the sake of dissonance, so I quickly put myself back on track and abandoned the unstructured approach.
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