I realized it’s been about a year since I finished recording a song and posted it here. I’ve made a few attempts at recording since then, but none of them came out particularly well, so I haven’t put anything up. A few weeks ago, I hauled out an old song I had half-written years ago. Back then, it was a song about the third-tier Golden Age comic book character, The Spectre. For those not familiar with the character, he was a cop (Jim Corrigan) who was killed, stuffed in a barrel, dropped in the ocean, and then resurrected as the spirit of vengeance. I never quite got the verses down, and the choruses got thrown off when I realized I had misremembered what city he lived in, so the lines I had no longer really fit. The whole song was also in waltz time and, in general, ended up slipping into “Abigail, Belle of Kilronan” whenever I tried to play it.

Anyway, I decided to take another crack at it, keeping most of the chorus, but switching the subject to another comic book character who got dumped underwater and approached by a supernatural entity. It’s now a song about the (much more well-known) character, Jean Grey. I’m reasonably pleased with the song (even if writing a song about a comic book character is fairly embarrassing). My vocals aren’t great, but I got tired of recording them after the twentieth take or so, so I pretty much gave up trying to get them perfect. It’s also worth noting that I am playing every instrument on here (guitar, banjo, ukulele, bass, keyboards, drums), in addition to singing. This is the first time I’ve used my own drumming, and, while it was a pain to record, I think it came out pretty well. Feedback is always welcome.

Oh, I’m also now using the moniker “F. S. Merriwether” for my solo stuff. Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Jamaica Bay