20 april 2000
dayenu

I've got music on the brain, or something close to it. It's like I've been holding back all of this passion for over ten years, and now, suddenly, the floodgates are open. All of this stuff in my head is just begging to get out, and I can't keep up with it. Every minute, I've got a different melody stuck in my head, and 99 times out of 100, I lose it before I can write it down. I need to get me one of those little personal tape dictation machines to sing into when I get an idea.

Driving back from Brutus's on PCH tonight, another melody popped into my head. Another popsong, but more Latin-infused and soulful than the last one. But it sounded special enough to me that I made an effort to keep repeating it in my head, over and over, until I was sure that it stuck. And I've got it now, and I've got a chord progression, and the words for a chorus, which are rather mundane in a placeholder sort of way.

So now I want to stay up and write lyrics for the whole thing, but I'm too tired ... should be happy that I have what I have, which I need to write down anyway, lest I forget ... I could do it right here ...

Say oh-la-la, say oh-la-lay, I need you now, can't wait another day, say oh-la-la...

Or something like that ... it's a weird tune ... lots of major seventh chords (for those non-musicians out there, think lounge-lizardy a-la "You must remember this, a kiss is but a kiss...") -- but the song itself is more bluesy and groove oriented, so it's kind of a hybrid. It's gonna need a good month's worth of thought before I even consider giving it to the band to learn.

Wrapped in Pesach, off bread for a week. Seder at Fritz's last night was way cool, although I didn't get home until after 2am. We flogged each other with bunches of green onions, which I guess is a Persian Jewish tradition in the spirit of "Dayenu."

Dayenu. "It would have been enough." As I was taught, God did a lot of wonderful things for the Jews, and the whole concept of "Dayenu" is something along the lines of ... If God had only saved the Jews from Pharoah, it would have been enough. If God had only helped Moses, it would have been enough. If God had only set the little bush on fire, it would have been enough. But God did all these great things and more, but we still say "Dayenu," -- it would have been enough.

Now what this has to do with beating each other over the head with bunches of green onion, I have no idea...

I really need to catch up on my Jewish history.

"Dayenu" makes a really cool song as well. "Ilu, nawsan, nawsan lanu, nawsan lanu, es hah torah, es hah torah, nawsan lanu, dayenu. Day-day-enu, day-day-enu, day-day-enu, dayenu, dayenu ..."

Jews like to repeat stuff a lot.

I wonder if our band could do a decent version of "Dayenu."

Nah.

I'm way too burnt out to write tonight.

20 april 1999: way too burnt out to write, maybe?

20 april 1998: rhythm in blues: I picked up a pair of nylon sweatpants to replace the generic "Rutgers" ones I've been wearing religiously. Now I just need some new sneaks, so I'm not the only fool practicing martial arts wearing green Chuck Taylor hightops.

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