17 Days

Prince again. Love him. Hate him. Whatever. But the little purple such & such is probably the best composer of our time. He doesn't always write hits but that's usually because he just doesn't want to write a hit. As an old (& I mean old) bandmate of mine once said on the way to a gig (in a very deep gravelly voice wrapped around a club sandwich), "see, the thing about Prince is that he'll put out a tune & it'll be in style but he won't put out nothing else for a while & the style will drift away from him. But that little [multiple expletives deleted] will take something he wrote before his last hit that's been sitting in a can collecting dust, put it out there & the style will come right back to him. Plus you can't go to a strip club when Prince is in town - all the girls call in sick & you're left getting a lap dance from some skinny [multiple expletives deleted} with a goatee." Course he's the guy who taught me to look at Mozart in a whole new light...

Anyway the tune 17 Days is a perfect example. A very simple tune in form; it has a verse, chorus & a simple but very nice little melody surrounding a reference to the title of the song (sung by Brenda Bennet of Vanity 6) with a breakdown featuring a recitative part before the song kicks back in. When that melody is juxtaposed on the chorus it's a joy forever (according to Keats). The rhythm is complex but that complexity is composed of simple parts intertwining as a two chord vamp (with motiffs, figures, melodies & a quasi-pedal point motif in the bass). Lyrically he's as poignant as ever.

"Here I sit in my lonely room, looking for my sun [something or other that rhymes with "mine"]
All I've got is two cigarettes & this broken heart of mine
so let the rain come down, the rain come down, let the rain come down down"

The chorus (let the rain, etc..) is one of those simple almost childlike melodies that you find too easy to sing along with. & simplicity in a melody is 90% of it being catchy.

I thought I was only going to be able to offer you the lyrics as Youtube didn't seem to have this tune, but luckily I found this site which has a play-in-browser live version. It's got a longer intro, it's a little snazzier (with the horns & all) & it's a little fast compared to the studio track (here's a sample of the studio version from Barnes & Noble), but it'll give you an idea of the tune.

But where Prince speaks of 17 days since his lover left him for someone else I want to talk about something (that's hopefully completely unrelated) 17 days away.

On the 25th it'll be 4 years as a blogger.

It's been a long 4 years. Aside from all the personal stuff that I try not to bring up here (sometimes w/o much success) we've seen gun laws come & go, nationally & locally. We've seen innocent folks jailed for victimless crimes & we've seen a victory here & there. We've seen folks in the gun culture pass on & we've seen our enemies stubbornly cling to some sort of vile half-life like they've learned Keith Richards' secret. We've argued with anti's & pro-gunners alike over matters big & small. & it’s not just me; there are about 7 others who post here on occasion. Just look under the Guest Authors section on the sidebar to see for yourself.

I ain't gonna get all mushy on ya. There won't be a group invite over to Casa Pub to sip some Maker's Mark over a bubble bath (least I hope not). But it does give me pause for reflection.

Going by Sitemeter's info I've had hits from every continent except Antarctica. Traffic has gone from 0 in the beginning to over 300 visitors a day for any length of time (closer to 1,000 or so during the AWB debates in the Senate of '04). I figure there are about 200 or so of you who visit me with any regularity (that's not counting the various searches that keep bringing folks here) & that's probably not totally right since my writing frequency does fluctuate (i.e. more folks visit when I actually write & less visit daily when I get slack). Oddly enough I posted only a few days in November & almost every day in December (including through the Solstice, Christmas & New Years Eve) & discounting the Instalanche on New Years Eve the traffic was about the same for both months. Hmmm.

But I must admit I do get discouraged. Oh I doubt I'll give it up anytime soon as I write much more for myself than I think I realize but I do wonder what (if any) good effect I've had on the outside world.

An ex-lover used to read me but as far as guns go we were close to the same page anyway & I doubt she stops by too much anymore (I really don't write well enough to keep someone's attention after a severing of ties). Another ex-lover used to come by & she might have gained a better understanding of the Absolutist position but honestly I'm not sure because we never discussed things too deeply when we chatted. An ex-girlfriend read my site a few times before we split up but between her green-socialist politics & quest for yet another degree in a PGFZ (Practically Gun Free Zone) I don't think she ever spent too much time here (any political discussion flung her into a Tourettes-like diatribe against Bushitler & honestly we had too much to argue about w/o politics figuring into things). A cousin dropped by once or twice but he leans heavily socialist/democrat (I know - that was redundant) but we never got around to discussing things too much. A few real life friends visit but not too often & they're not too chatty about things I usually discuss on here, with the exception of one pal who relies on me to look at the political stuff for him (he claims he's busy but I'd rather have someone look at politics for me too - it's a nasty biz). Of course a few other bloggers & friends I've made through blogging check things out from time to time but in general I don't get too much feedback from anyone.

So with minimal feedback I plug away on here, demonstrating that typos have no real limits & segueing songs into gun related topics is more foolhardy than you'd think. I haven't thought of giving up yet but that's really because I do this as a cheap version of politically therapy, but I won't deny having enough ego to wonder if anyone digs what goes on here or if this blog is just a good example of a gun nut with way too much typo time on his hands. :)

So I figured I’d get the musings about the ancient-ness (in internet years) of the site (as opposed to just the ancient-ness [in Earth years] of the psuedononymous namesake) out of the way. Honestly I’m feeling kind of apathetic (which I suppose I better feeling just pathetic) so I doubt I’ll give it more than a brief mention when it comes around. Sorry; no cake on my blog’s b-day. It’d probably cause cancer in California anyway (like those other know-to-the-state-of-California-to-be-carcinogens such as Dihydrogen monoxide & Hydrogen hydroxide).

Ayup. 4 years.

Here I sit in my lonely room looking for my sun something or other; & all I've got is two (hundred) cigarettes & this broken sentence of mine...

Posted by Publicola at January 8, 2007 06:56 AM | TrackBack