Dazed Days
This one is the MMB version of the old "which one of these is not like the other ones" kids show thing LOL. The main verse chorus riffs were actually written in the late "90s during my hiatus from music. I was concentrating on the software career and a growing family, and my music had been reduced to plunking around occasionally in the evenings or on a weekend.
I had this little shuffle pattern on a cheap drum machine, so I let it play and found this old analog style synth sound, and just sort of worked out this chord progression. When I got to recording the album, I needed a song for the "Dazed Days chapter", and I figured maybe I could make something out of that riff. The result was the "almost swing feel" song that ended up on the album. I figure it would actually make a pretty good country song if you lost the synth and got some steel guitar in there!
The bridge though ... now that's another story ... and usually catches everyone by surprise ... and usually in a positive way. I knew I wanted a bridge, so as usual, I just started fooling around with chords, and out comes this almost jazz thing that I probably should apologize to Donald Fagen for. Running with that idea, I asked Rod to do a Carlton-type solo, which he nailed perfectly again, and thus you have this "song within a song" going on. My one regret is that the upbeat feel of this song doesn't really fit the "down" feeling in the story it tries to convey, though perhaps the "dazed" part of it actually fits nicely.
Rock on the Bottom
Oh man was this ever fun! As I mentioned earlier, this is one of only two songs written specifically for this album, and this is actually the last song I wrote. Again, I knew the subject and even had a working title of "Rock Bottom Rock," which obviously changed a bit.
So here I am, starting to feel my deadline in spring/summer of "09, knowing I needed a song to represent the "low point" in the album story ... a song about crawling under a rock at the bottom emotionally ... and having know idea what to write. I tried various things from a real slow 3-chord blues to another fast shuffle, but nothing was working, and I was getting frustrated. Then I heard one of my old fav songs on the oldies station, and thought maybe a beat along that line and something with that kind of general feel might work well. So I worked out the basic drum beat, started whacking out chords as usual, and VOILA! ... a song appeared.
I'm not sure where I got the idea for the chant, but Rod came up with the thought to switch the drum beat on it, which really makes it groove. I recruited a bunch of people to sing on it, and next thing you know we have this cool chant happening. The organ solo was very deliberately meant to sound "mean as hell" and no question the production vibe goes back to my roots. This is probably the "funnest" song on the album.
Perfect World
Wow ... where to begin describing this one. Written around the same time as Pieces of My Heart, this song is the key to the whole album. It's fitting that it's the title track. An unapologetic "piano song", this was conceived as almost a classical piece with different movements. It was always intended to be "big", but even so, this one almost wrote itself. All the parts came very easily to me.
Like "I Can't See the Reason", my group Ruckus attempted to put it together as a full piece, but before we could, I made the move to Pennsylvania and the song went to the foot locker. Despite that, I knew that if I ever did do an album, it would be around this song. For what it's worth, I also knew that it would be followed by Sunshine Girl, as those two songs really were the cornerstones I feel like the album was built on.
Recording this song nearly killed me. I think it took 9 months or more. I knew I wanted a Choir, but had no idea how to get one. I thought of everything from hiring a choir to faking it with a bunch of idividuals singing multiple times to trying to find some weird effect that would do it from one or two voices. I ended up buying actual choir software that allowed me to built a choir singing ... one syllable at a time. This was incredbily tedious and painstaking, but I think it came off reaonably well in the end. While I would have preferred a large real choir, there is a certain ethereal sound that came out of this software that I kinda like - especially on the "oohs and ahs" behind the guitar solo and 3rd verse.
Speaking of the guitar solo, Rod really out-did himself on this one. More than one person has said that this is one of the best guitar solos they've ever heard .... period ... and I have to agree. From my point of view, he absolutly nailed again what I asked him to do, which in this case, was to try to pull something off "Gilmore'ish" ... he always manages to be whomever I ask him to stylistically, yet adds his own unique stamp to it ... incredible talent he is!
