Another of my new songs is about to sprout wings!
My longtime associate Brennan de Soto is conjuring up a new, witchy indie film project about a spooky book, a world in chaos, some messed up magic, and one poor dude trying to hold it all together. It’s called Possum Ray Bill, and it’ll be filmed in New Orleans.
Brennan has licensed an unreleased song of mine called “Bad Business” to be part of his fundraiser video for the project! I’ll post when that video goes live. For now, you can get a feel for what Brennan and Bill are up to at the project’s website – click here.
“Bad Business” was one of my prompt-inspired songs from 2015. It’s become one of my favorites from that song-a-week challenge. The prompt was “better arguments”. The song ended up being about fairy tale monsters, shape-shifting predators who can’t help their own nature, and the nature of stories themselves, kinda from the inside. It’s got some Big Bad Wolf, some Rumplestiltskin, some Nixies, and maybe a Pied Piper or a vampire or two. Check out the lyrics and you’ll see what I mean.
Spending my midnights with a shifter of shapes
and a cup of tea gone cold.
My guest has set aside that treacherous violin.
Deep in the hour of the wolf, we hunt for
better arguments and oft overlooked sins,
treading lightly near nightmares, for we know
we are not ever truly safe inside our skins.
Every huckster knows, there are times when
you’ve just got to go someplace dangerous
to find what’s worth bringing in.
Everybody knows it’s bad business
to tell the whole truth
when mystery’s your hottest thing.
Everybody knows it’s bad business
to spin out every yarn right into gold
before their eyes, and never leave them
wanting more.
Magicians and mischief-makers
rarely bank on time to apologize.
Best figure out quick who’s here to
quicken or quench the light in your sweet eyes.
Me and mine do our best to tantalize,
but if the wolves who hold your heart
should show their teeth, please don’t act surprised.
Everybody knows it’s bad business
to tell the whole truth
when mystery’s your hottest thing.
Everybody knows it’s bad business
to spin out every yarn right into gold
before their eyes, and never leave them
wanting more.
Oh, trust the spirit, not the skin.
Never mind the shape I’m in.
Trust the dreamer and the dream.
Are we ever what we seem?
Trust the spirit of the wild.
“Come away, o human child”
The gentleman wolf is at your door.
Honey, what are you waiting for?
Cup of tea is a long lost cause, violin forgotten.
We carry on the hunt for all that
shimmers in the deep.
I’ll know that we’re well in the black,
once I finally lay me down to sleep.
Everybody knows it’s bad business
to tell the whole truth
when mystery’s your hottest thing.
Everybody knows it’s bad business
to spin out every yarn right into gold.