Song of the Month - September 2024 - "For Some Weird Reason"

The Song of the Month for September is one of my favorite cuts on The Brightness of an Ordinary Star. It’s called “For Some Weird Reason,” and it’s a rocker. I don’t know what made me think, as a fella this side of 50, I could pull off writing and singing lead on rock songs. No one has ever mistaken me for Steven Tyler.

Like “Strut” from my last album, “For Some Weird Reason” just made a lot of sense to me from the outset. It’s got verse lyrics that more or less deal with who I am as an artist and where in the world my work might belong in this day and age. Then the chorus gets nonsensical. The one couplet I really liked was “Everybody knows what you want, but they won’t give it to you/For some weird reason.” It’s a song about being an artist and knowing that to get your art into people’s collections in 2024 is pretty tough. That’s more or less the crux of the problem for the narrator.

And, yeah, that narrator is me.

When Bret and Kevin send me a hunk that rocks, it’s usually not too hard to find some frustration in the lack of response from disseminating my songs into the world. It’s a common refrain for songwriters, and not just contemporary ones. To make an album like The Brightness of an Ordinary Star is to take a shower, put on your finest clothes, apply some great smelling aftershave, polish up your shoes, and go out amongst the people of the world—only to have the vast majority of them ignore you. No one comments on the clothes. No one smells the aftershave. No one notices the polished shoes. It’s hard not to ask, what gives?

All this to say, when it’s time to write a rock song, I find the frustration caused by the lack of interest in my creative work fertile ground for lyrics.

I know the reality: I’m one of the few folks who managed to make a living from original rock music. I’ve got nothing to complain about, but that doesn’t keep me from complaining, at least when it’s time to write a rock song.

This all leads me to Band People, the new book by Franz Nicolay, whose resume as a musician includes his time as keyboardist of the Hold Steady. In his book, Nicolay interviews the “musical middle class,” or “the anonymous but irreplaceable character actors of popular music.” These are the folks who fill out the stage around the star of that touring act you go to see at your local venue. Think 20 Feet From Stardom, only contemporary pop and rock sidemen. Take a peak at my review of Band People at Rock and Roll Globe to learn more. Short version: I’ll be buying five copies to pass out to my musician friends at Christmas. By the way, this is my first piece at this market, so feel free to impress the editor with all the clicks I can get!

Finally, Budapalooza is happening on Friday, 9/20! You can watch me from the comfort of your home play solo acoustic for a half hour at 5 PM PST. I’ll touch on many of the songs you hold dear—assuming you hold some of my songs dear. The date hasn’t been officially announced at Bandcamp yet. I want to make sure folks don’t forget it’s coming, so I’ll put that off until the week of. The best way to get all the updates of my online shows is to be a subscriber to my Substack (you’re good there) and to follow me at Bandcamp.

Happy fall, all.