I had this song title kicking around for over 40 years. Initially it was a statement about “myself, my beautiful selfish,” as Johnny Rotten sang in “No Feelings”. I used to sing horribly horribly off-key. As I practiced my singing I learned to sing a fifth higher because I heard the harmony part instead of the lead part. I still do that sometimes, a perfect fifth off. Now I sing closer to the actual notes most of the time. I have a range, I have keys that work and keys that don’t. I also have pitch correction plugins in the digital audio workstation I use (shout out to REAPER for making a robust easy to use application that allowed me to use it free for years before I decided to pay the $60 fee to register and license it).
I liked the idea of not just being off-key, but being off-balance as well, as in stumbling through life always confused and unsure. I registered the song title with BMI and decided at some point I would write and record it. Recently a friend of mine went through a difficult time and seemed “off-balance.” That was my incentive to begin. I wanted to rip off Marvin Gaye’s cover of the Isley Brothers “That’s The Way Love Is” with the cool electric piano riff at the beginning. Trouble is, I’m not that great a musician. I couldn’t quite pull it off and I didn’t want a direct copy, just the feel.
I started in March after finishing “This World’s Too Good For Me”. After two grungy punk songs with angry lyrics I wanted to do this Motown/Stax thing. I worked on many drafts of the chords, lyrics, etc. I shifted the off-balance to my struggling friend who I feel I failed in some way. It’s very much like “A Carefree Soul” in that I address my life and then relate it to theirs. Anyway, I finished it a week or so ago and it finally got released.
My recording fails as a Marvin Gaye or Otis Redding soul song because I’m an old white Jewish New Yorker. I’m not sexy or black. But I’ve suffered, just as we all have.
Have a listen!