I wrote my first song back in 1972 when I was still 8 years old. It was a one-line ditty called "Wentworth Street." By the time I wrote my second song, in 1977, I was a bit more sophisticated. Still, I recorded that song on a tape which got erased, leaving me with only my memories of it. A few years later, I took what I recalled of that song and encorporated it into another song, "Jump on the Bandwagon."
It was in '78 that I got my real start songwriting. Not being able to play any instruments, I relied heavily on the rhythm. I had been exposed to Top 40 radio for a few years by this time and was at least somewhat familiar with how rock and roll sounded, although I owned no records. "The Cataleptic" and it's flipside, "Silas Marner," were written on behalf of some friends who were not as interested in the novel we were reading (in school) as I was. I actually sang "The Cataleptic" in class one day late that year.
"Not Crazy," my third song, was more true-to-life. Unlike the two that preceded it, "Not Crazy" was about me. I was writing from my personal feelings and would consider it my "best" number until 1981. The remainder of 1979 and 1980 saw quite a few songs come from my pen, which I collected into "albums." These included "Crazy," "We All Prisoners," "Colors," and "Mr. Smooth."
By Christmas break of '80-'81, I was starting a new album project. By now I was into the Beatles, and I thought it would be interesting to write and draw the story of a fictional day in my life (called "A Day in the Life," of course), in which I would portray the people around me as they didn't want others to know they were, or as caricatures of themselves (at my whim). I decided to make the whole project a musical and began writing songs for it. That's where things got interesting.
The first song I wrote for A Day in the Life was called "John Howard"--for a friend of mine. At
first, the music was experimental. There would be bongos in the background and no melody. Instead of
singing the words, I would say them along to the beat:
"I'd like to talk to you about John Howard.
Most folks laugh and say that he's a coward.
He's really great. It's just that he don't care.
He's not square.
Insult him, and he'll tell you 'Go to heaven.'--
Or maybe not: he'll give you the 11.
Say a dirty word, and he will laugh
And kill Dave Graff."
I wrote three verses and no chorus to the song, and as I performed it, I realized that it was different than
anything I'd ever heard. [N.B.: Although there were black rappers as far back as 1979, I had never
heard them. White rappers were a long ways off. It would be five years before this sort of thing became a popular genre. All my friends were still on the tail end of disco, and those who weren't were
into Billy Joel or Nick Lowe.] I was afraid people wouldn't accept it--they already thought I was weird--
so I added a chorus, slowed it down, and gave the song more of a melody:
"Fa-la-la-la....He don't really give a--
Ha ha ha ha....We know he wants to live a
Life alone like Vaux.
Hey-hey-hey-hey."
The next song written for ADITL was about a teacher of mine: Al Manning. People always
thought he was bizarre, so my new style (rap) seemed perfect. I wrote a rap for Mr. Manning and
left it that way. January of 1981, and here was this honky writing rap. "We're all here
to learn God's word, but don't tell anyone what you've heard....I'm going to Big Daddy's, you bet,
and then the Plaza Luncheonette." It wasn't about society in general, but the rap did
showcase MY society. I was very pleased with the rap about Mr. Manning and began to write another,
this time about my friend Jim McAdams (who had nicknamed himself "Little Adolf," after a
comment made by Mr. Voos).
"He's a Nazi Commie sympathizer.
In Communism, no one's wiser than Little Adolf.
...
He always picks the nitty gritty.
Shoots birds at the Discipline Committee.
Little Adolf."
Again, the song was very different. No chorus, no instruments. Just a beat and my spoken vocal. Furthermore, the song said everything I could want to say about Jim. It was just right. But when I sang it for a couple of the guys, they thought it was too bizarre. I remember Jim liking the lyrics, but no one seemed to like the tune. So I added a chorus--sung--but this time I left the rest of the song intact. I had liked it the way it was, but apparently this wasn't the style people were interested in. The song after that, "Maddie's Son," contained one rap line, but the rest was written after the negative feedback had come in. I would never write rap again--until I converted the hymn "Lamb of God (Just As I Am)" to rap form in 1992. I wonder how different my life would have been if people had taken a liking to my raps back in '81. Who knows? I might have been Vanilla Ice.
ADITL also featured a song I co-wrote with Tom Hubeart, called "Dr. Bob." I'll post that one of these days. "Dr. Bob" remained my 'best' song for a couple of years, and Tom and I seemed to write well together--when we weren't mismatching song sections. After moving to Gainesville, I wrote Weaver Fever and Back to Basics, but the first song I remember being pleased with after high school was the ballad "Two Lonely People". After that, there was a string of good songs, including "Another Drop of Rain" and "A Two Dollar Hole," my first Country-styled effort, and (so far) the earliest song to appear online.