Songs to Play at my Funeral

In this new phase I found myself writing and recording a lot of things. Mostly, little minute long or shorter, tunes. Many were just strumming and trying to find some rhythm or inspiration. I continued to use that same cheap Sony recorder with a built in mic, that we recorded that first song on. I have many cassette tapes of very archaic sounding guitar playing. Very simple stuff. Some good, many not so good. I would ultimately purchase that same 4 track recorder that I admired, that Mike had, as seen here:

With this 4 track recorder, I could now plug in a real microphone that picked up the guitar sounds better and had to get used to playing very close to the mic to get a nice clean sound. I could also plug in an electric keyboard that would now allow me to play a backbeat drum to strum along to as well as record piano, etc. So Track 1: Guitar / Track 2: Drums (via my new keyboard) / Track 3: Vocals (using that same mic that I use on Track 1) / Track 4: Maybe some strings from that same fancy keyboard. The point is, I was able to really start experimenting with my songs and it was fun to learn how to use this recorder that took some nuance on how to use it playing with sound levels, etc. Making sure you didn’t record over a track switching from one track to the other. It was a fun part of the process.

One of the first songs I recorded on this new recorder is a song called Better Man. It is only 1:45 long and to this day is unfinished as it is only one verse and a chorus, but I have always had a fondness for this one as it was one of the first ones that I felt had a good structure and depth to it. It is a bit cheesy with an “ocean sound” at the beginning courtesy of that keyboard mentioned previously, but the words are honest and introspective. Just a song about a man who knows he has flaws and wants to strive to be better. Ain’t that the truth. I think my favorite line (and there’s only a few) is “Staring at a photo of a face unrecognized, when it occurs to me that those are my own eyes and I am blind“.

Better Man

I realized today, I’m not the man I used to be
But, lately all I know is that I never want to see that man again
Staring at a photo of a face unrecognized
When it occurs to me that those are my own eyes and I am blind

I want to be a better man
I want to be a stronger man
I want to be a happy man
I want to be a better man
And now I know I can