I originally conceived this song as a statement about how I hate my neighbors and they probably think I’m anti-social, when it fact, they are the inconsiderate, selfish slobs and don’t deserve my respect. I thought it would make a great punk rock song at about 160 bpm or faster. I wrote out a bunch of lyrics including my favorite line, “I have respect for all living beings, except you. I don’t need you. I don’t want you. I don’t like you!”
I also had this line floating around for a different Bodhidharma inspired song, “When the mediocre becomes sublime. And the trite becomes profound. And you’re in the dustbin of evolution. You didn’t stand the test of time. (or you’ve been left behind).” Songwriting is a process. I usually have one stanza and don’t know if it’s a verse or a chorus. It could be anything. Then, I start adding lots of lyrics and start playing around with tempo and chords on guitar.
This song is was subconsciously influenced Mudhoney’s “Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More” and The Psychedelic Furs. Mudhoney’s riff is a fifth higher and in a major key. Mine is in a minor key and starts on F# minor. I slowed down my original version to 120 bpm because it’s grungier. I did not use Drop D tuning.
I discovered that some of my lyrics are a direct homage are from The Psychedelic Furs’ self-titled first album. Lastly, it’s all a rehash of my usual Zen Buddhist crap. It probably doesn’t matter, all streaming platforms are algorithmic so having 10 songs of varying styles all saying the same thing is probably a good thing, a shotgun blast so to speak. Also, this song went through nine rewrites of lyrics, riffs, chords, drums, everything. Whew!
Here is some information about the Mudhoney song:
My new music distributor doesn’t like me using one image for all my releases so I help destroy the planet more quickly by using AI to create the cover art. Some of it is fanciful, beautiful, and cool.
However, this time I was going for something different. I wanted to merge my photo with that of the Bodhidharma’s. Here are the original images:
And here’s the results:
Man oh man, AI is stupid. It can’t think beyond the text prompt. So I end up with a “face swap” of a photo into Japanese art, a strange image that looks like me imitating Kash Patel wearing a tallis, the Jewish prayer shawl worn by men who have had a Bar Mitzvah, and the one in the middle. That’s the one I chose.
I will, as I always do, post links to the song when released.
The song title “East Meets West" refers to a poem I wrote that was published in our local paper when I was 15. This song was originally called, “I’m The Fucking Bodhidharma”.
Enjoy. Peace.