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about
This one's about how I've never been high, but pondering getting high sometime and what that would be like. (I've still never been high.)
I actually wrote some of it on 4/20 at Club Helsinki in Hudson, NY. I asked someone who was working there at the time what Makers Mark was (I don't drink either.) because I'd heard of it but wanted to get it right.
I thought it'd be fun to try more tight musical theater rhyming. My favorite lyrics are the type on Pet Sounds, but I also like musical theater rhyming like some Stephen Sondheim or Frank Loesser or Cole Porter.
The "It's my FU to the alpha males" line was the first one I thought of. As often happens to me, I thought of a line before knowing what the song was about, which makes it hard to find the rest of the lyrics. So I did that line and wanted to keep it but went through a few drafts of the rest of the song, lol, before settling on marijuana as a subject matter. I think that that line doesn't quite sit right with the rest of the lyrics, but it's so true that I think it's OK. I imagine smoking marijuana feels like an FU to a lot of things.
Also, I think it's interesting I don't hear more songs about marijuana since so many people do it. Once, when I hosted the open mic at Helsinki, a performer told me he had a terminal illness and all sorts of people he never would have thought were smokers started offering him pot. I think it's so tragic it's illegal. I don't not smoke for some kind of moral reason. I'm mostly just scared for mental health reasons and wanting to avoid a bad experience. And there's something kind of funny about making it to my age and not doing any drugs. I kinda don't want to mess that up.
Going back some years, the original idea for this subject matter came from a time I went to a friend's home in Athens overlooking the river. He, a jazz fan, and another friend were smoking and we were just sitting watching the water and boats. And I thought what a nice experience to be out here watching this beautiful day and river while listening to this music and smoking. I didn't partake but I enjoyed the moment nonetheless.
In my head, by the end of the song, the singer has taken taken a puff and lost his sense of time. The "everyone's in on the joke" is maybe the paranoia or the laughter during a high or just that everyone's enjoying the high while you are not.
I thought of "I have a seed and some April showers" as being a reference to sex, SAD, actual plants growing, and just personal development.
lyrics
I have a seed
and some April showers.
I have a seed
and some April showers
and a sharp mind—
I'm never drunk nor high.
I want some weed
to help me rest, unwind,
and watch the sky.
When I'm upset,
I sing my scales.
It's my FU
to the alpha males.
Though Makers Mark
can make my friends get tight,
it never fails
that their mood's too dark
without a light.
Someone bring me brownies and champagne.
Cheers to April showers.
Here's to happy hours
listening to jazz on THC
just to cure what ails
it's my FU
to the alpha males,
If I just breathe
that air inside of me,
it's so serene—
there's a side of me I've never seen.
Everyone's in on the joke but me.
Everyone's in on the joke but me.
And I have no sense of time.
And I have no sense of time.
credits
from Stephen Bluhm,
released September 17, 2017
Drums: Otto Hauser
Recorded and mixed by Godfrey Nelson at The Playground, Hudson, NY
Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering, Boston, MA
Assistant Mastering Engineer: Maria Rice
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