kidmercury

As I previously mentioned I'm working on a rock opera. This will be my little side project for 2010. I still can't fully explain why I do this crap. I suppose part of it is the burning desire that lots of writers/publishers have. Certainly a part of it is to help create a culture of truth and awareness, and that is the part I take the most pride in.

Anyway, I spent the past week developing and listening to a playlist of songs that I think would capture the mood of Act I of the rock opera. To recap, Act I should serve as an introduction to the main character and the fundamental problem of the story. I've decided a few things:

1. I'll go primarily with third person.
2. I certainly want to use the project overall to help educate people about the fundamental problem in the world -- monetary policy -- and how solving that one problem will basically be a major step towards solving all major problems, and creating the utopia that is a part of many 2012 prophecies. Remember prophecies are not etched in stone; they represent possibilities, not certainties. And they do require the use of your free will and belief. So if the prophecied utopia does not come, don't blame the ancients. Look in the mirror instead.

Anyway, while I do want to use the project as a vehicle for education, I don't want the factual aspects to be too dominant; it ruins the poetic nature, and most people are generally too willfully ignorant to be interested in uncomfortable (but extremely important) facts anyway. Or, perhaps more correctly, I simply find it difficult to talk about economics and conspiratorial facts in a manner that is poetic and engaging. Though as longtime Kid Mercury readers know, I certainly try!

Instead, I'd like to use the parts between the acts as vehicles for going all factual. The Business Plan That Saves the World, which will be the intro to the rock opera, is an example of the kind of interlude type thing that I'll be using between acts to help explain facts. Got that?

Okay, now that that's out of the way, here's the playlist I created that to help me get inspiration for Act I:

"Richard Cory" -- Simon & Garfunkel
"Keep the Customer Satisfied" -- Simon & Garfunkel
"I am a Rock" -- Simon & Garfunkel
"No Particular Place to Go" -- Chuck Berry
"Ghetto Religion" -- Wyclef Jean featuring R. Kelly
"Long December" -- Counting Crows
"Mr. Jones" -- Counting Crows
"What's Going On" -- Marvin Gaye
"Carry Us All" -- Oasis
"Half the World Away" -- Oasis
"Welcome to the Jungle" -- Guns n' Roses
"Yesterdays" -- Guns n' Roses
"The Stranger" -- Billy Joel
"Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" -- Billy Joel
"My Life" -- The Game featuring Lil Wayne
"8 Mile Road" -- Eminem

I selected these songs because I was looking for the following for Act I:

1. I want to create a protagonist who is poor, depressed, alienated, and frustrated/trapped -- feelings that I think are characteristic of many Americans. At the same time, I wanted to portray the protagonist as a sympathetic and likable character. A bit like the drunk guy at the pub. He's a bit too drunk, and thus largely responsible for his own misery, but still wears a smile on his face.

2. Musically, the Counting Crows songs were selected because of how whiny Adam Durtiz, Crows' lead singer and principal songwriter, is. Though I can't stand whiners (especially when their millionaire rock stars who date models like Adam Duritz does), I think a dash of whining will be appropriate for Act I. And "Welcome to the Jungle" makes it because it's such a great song to start anything. And because Axl is in a league of his own in terms of musical vision. Hope some of it rubs off.

In terms of proceeding, these days I always start the songwriting process with the lyrics, which I use to guide me in finding the right chords, tempo, and rhythm. This time, I think I will write the lyrics for the whole thing first, then go back and do the music. I have most of the lyrics for the first song done already.

I also won't be listening to any Carole King, probably my #2 songwriting influence overall (#1 of course being Noel Gallagher) for the duration of this project. This is to ensure that the songs do not get too sensitive and wimpy. The Goffin/King songwriting team is the greatest in American history, in my opinion, and I've spent a lot of time analyzing their stuff. But I think it's rubbed off too much, and I think I have way too many corny songs as a result. That's why I prefer to position myself as a songwriter rather than a performer. If you're a songwriter with 50 corny songs, you can spread them around 50 different performers -- everyone needs a corny song or two, even metal hair bands. But if one dude rolls out 50 corny songs then it's just like lol wtf is going on here. Although don't think I'm a wimp. I studied martial arts for 8 years actively, got hit hard plenty of times. I've also had my jaw broken and wired shut for a month. And of course I'm a 9/11 truther, like one of those lunatics who goes to street actions and shouts at the top of his lungs that 9/11 was an inside job. Lord knows you wimps ain't doing that. (Unless you are, in which case rock on!) So clearly I'm tough as nails, in spite of my corny songs.

Now that I've compensated for my insecurity by establishing my toughness, I want to conclude with a quick comment on the business side of things by highlighting the latest from TuneCore, one of the coolest Internet companies in the history of the world. TuneCore now has a service that lets you put your music in Rock Band, the video game that lets you pretend to be a rock star. That's definitely a part of the future of music. TuneCore is hands down the best service I've seen for enabling bedroom rock stars, which is another way of saying their the best service for disrupting the music industry and shifting power away from the six companies that control pretty much all of mainstream media.

Unregistered

Coolest companies in the history of the Internet!? Can I get that tattooed on my arm?

Thanks for the kind words, Kid M.

--Peter
peter@tunecore.com

watergirl

Anything Billy Joel is fantastic in my book! Great playlist!