The Story
Say. Have I told you?
Good! Let Me Tell You Again
Background
My first job out of college required a 1.5 hour commute…one way, placing me behind the wheel of a vehicle 3 hours/day, 5 days/week. I was also on call for this job, leading to me receiving pages 6-7 times/night, minimum, 7 nights a week, every other week. I also lived in an apartment in a house. The residents in one of the other apartments had torn a banister out of the wall of one of the staircases of this house, had slammed a door hard enough to shatter a window, and had caused other forms of general mayhem. The sleep deprivation and stress nearly drove me insane. There were times I would enter states of depression that led me to sit on a couch with the Maggot Brain album on loop for an entire weekend…or I’d enter into states of mania that led to me talking incessantly about whatever “brilliant” idea I felt I had come up with. This song is an attempt to portray that insanity, as well as to depict the insane experience of “having a conversation” with me during the time when I was being made crazy by this job, by my neighbors, and by life in general. Yes, it does, at times, get better. This time it did.
I wrote the spoken word and the music. Weird meters are fun. Also, the “Sinclair” mentioned here is John Sinclair. I had played in a band that backed John and Country Joe McDonald at 3 annual gigs in Detroit. At the last one (December of 2000), he gave me his email address…He chose…poorly.
John passed away in April of this year (2024). RIP, John. You will be missed.
The motif in the music for this is in 13/8 time. The spoken word was recorded via many different tracks that were intentionally spoken out of sync with each other.
—MC
Lyrics
Have you heard the
story about the story about the story about the story about the story about the
story about the story about the thing I'm going to write about the story
about the nights without sleep while writing the story
I'm telling you about the story about the story I'm going to write about the
recursive it will be self referential because it's a story about the story
have I told you about the endless conversation to everyone encountered about the story
about the sudden moments of rage oscillating to despair while travelling oh the story
I almost forgot to tell you about the story about the story about the story about the trips
all over playing in bars and closing out bars and cleaning up bars and walking up the stairs and listening to the neighbors screaming
through the walls
The neighbors tearing bannisters off the walls
The neighbors shattering windows
The neighbors blowing smoke to the police
and listening to pages in the middle of the night pages and pages and pages of the story about the story about the story
about the interminable soliloquys and Yorick -- I knew him Horatio -- and Benjy as they were hitting and days listening to Maggot
Brain ceaselessly Maggot Brain until Sunday evening
Writing Sinclair in states of despair
Who really cares
Before driving some more and thinking about the story about the story
Driving somewhere
Driving anywhere
Like a brown bunny
Going down
the drain.