Meyer / Gourlay Cabaret: Notes

Notes by Jonathan

First Set:

The Blue Above, The Blue Below: A song about heaven being, you know, as much in the coral reef as the sky. The line comes from a 19th century sailor’s journal about the island of Pohnpei, where we wrote the song.

Somewheres Else: People tend to move around, far from home, close to home, wherever, looking for something that’s not there — “In life we make our heavens and hells, all the time looking for somewheres else.” That’s the thing. Dan Meyer calls this my theme song. LOL.

I Want a Man with a Lived-In Face: We lived on this island and the older foreigners there were a bit… grizzled. And I was becoming grizzled myself. (Drinking too much sakau.) So I imagined a character who wasn’t in to pretty boys but into, you know, men who are liked well-seasoned iron pots. A bit of wish fulfillment I guess.

Stone of My Heart: All the songs so far are songs we wrote for a (too long and complicated) musical called Ascension Island. This song from that is a spell sung to a rock. The trick is to put the rock under your intended’s head while they sleep. Then they fall in love with you. This kind of things still happens.

I Don’t Smell like Smoke, I Smell like Fire: I wrote this about my wife before we were married — originally it was “you” and not “I” but Dan suggested turning it around and it plays 100% better and less pathetic. So it’s about someone who can completely ensorcell you sung by the sorceress. Have you ever felt that way?

The Muddy Des Plaines: Not sure what this is exactly. But it’s the result of wandering around Thatcher Woods with the dog. Just down Division Street from Grace Lutheran Church and School where I spent K-8th grade. A lot of fakey people there who thought they knew what was heaven and what was hell and that they oughta make kids sing songs about it. The river seems a bit wiser than those phonies. So does John Lee Hooker who inspired this with his song Burning Hell.

The Blue Above, the Blue Below (reprise): Thus concludes our little heaven / hell section.

Second Set:

Stationary Man: Was sitting in my basement in high COVID days listening to a bunch of songs about rambling men who just can’t stay in one place or with one woman. What about a guy who doesn’t go anywhere? Dan recorded this as a four-part doo-wop with him doing all of the parts. COVID was wild.

Common Sense Made Difficult: “There you are at the end of the bar with a single malt and a double standard.” A cheating song but from the perspective of someone who knows what he/she does to those who desire him/her. This song is a whole journey. Dan Meyer is amazing!! It’s both sexy and Brechtian? The title inspired by my professor who described most academic articles with that phrase, “Common Sense Made Difficult.” Very useful phrase for when tempted to cheat or when reading Derrida.

Flavored Seltzer: I wanted to write the most serious possible song about flavored seltzer. A liquid that is oddly prevalent in my life. And here it is. Straightforward and, one hopes, touching: when the singer trades alcohol for seltzer, the whole world gets bubbly. If you’ve been around AA meetings, you know what I’m writing about. If you don’t, now you do. We cut out the jokes — I miss the one about the “Stations of La Croix” but maybe it’ll go in some other song. Also rhyming cemetery / razzleberry. Kill your darlings, I guess. It’s not that kind of song.

I Still Drink About You Sometimes: OK, so you’re young and you fall in love and then you split up and later you realize… hmm, we broke that off too soon. Maybe we thought life was going to be an endless parade of fallings in love. “Not knowing the difference between over and never begun.” And now, when the ice hits the glass, I still drink about you. (Even though, obviously, I’m just fine! Really!")

One Hour: This is a lullaby. The melody is partially a Pohnpeian one. I used to sing it to my daughter. The words are probably my oldest — from my Writers’ Workshop days circa 1995. Anyway, it’s a time passing song. It makes me cry. (Which probably sounds really conceited but the song and I have a history.)

Do You Really Wanna Stick Around? “Just to put me in the ground?” A marriage song. Not a cheating song. “Need a cane getting over the hill. But I love you and I always will.” That sums it up.

Left Undone: If I know you well enough, you might get lyrics. And if the lyrics work OK, then you might get a song. This one is for Dan Fox and his former band, Left Undone. But more it’s about doing lots of crazy stuff when you’re young. And being glad later that you did it and survived. (We had to cut this one!! Hear it next time at Cabaret 2.0)

If I Could Clear My Mind of Love: We re-jiggered this from its former spot at the end of Act I of the aforementioned too long musical. It feels like a thesis statement. Think of all the things I could do — five-year plans, retirement accounts, practical choices concerning real estate, if only I could stop being human. It really gets in the way!

Ass is For Everyone! A Feast of the Ass holiday song. It’s for anyone who gets kicked out of the house at Xmas (or is in someway unloved by their bio-family bc of their identify). Instead of feeling sad on Xmas, feel excited for 1/14, the Feast of the Ass where everyone is invited because Ass is for Everyone. “No matter the bathroom door or sign on the door. It just takes an ass to join and every ass is welcome!”