tunesday -- coronavirus edition ("do you think of me (now and again)")

Wreckless Eric, one of my favorite musicians, has COVID-19. You can read about it on his blog, here.

I've been a fan of Eric's since I was in high school, and bought a copy of The Whole Wide World, which was an American compilation. His best known song was "(I'd Go the) Whole Wide World," but it was "Take the Cash" that really got into my brain. I've followed his career since then, and I still enjoy the music he's doing today.

This is a song that, if I'm gonna talk myself up, I'll simply say I cowrote with him. But there's a longer story than that. I initially wrote it and ran it by a friend, Scott Milner. If I recall correctly, I had two ideas for a second verse, and wasn't sure which would work better. Noting that the song was on the short side, he suggested making each verse twice as long. He wrote a second half for the first verse, and suggested I concatenate the two second verses I had written. At that point I had a song that Scott and I had co-written.

A few years after that, Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby were using Kickstarter to raise funds for A Working Museum, the album they were putting together*. For the appropriate support level, you could spend a day in the studio with Eric and Amy recording a song of your choice. I signed right up. Amy and Eric were targetting that reward at bands or singers who want studio recordings of themselves. I'm not a band or much of a singer. But I like to delude myself into thinking I'm a songwriter. So I read their pitch as meaning that they would record themselves performing whatever song you wanted them to -- and you could be in the studio with them.

Oops.

When I spoke to Eric about it, and the misunderstanding became clear, he could have easily backed out of the deal. But, ever-graceful, he was willing to go along with what I thought was the deal. I sent him a lyric sheet and a recording of Scott singing the song. Eric and Amy did a bit of wordsmithing, improving the lyrics in the process and rewrote the melody for the bridge.  It was enough of a rewrite that we all agreed they should get co-authoring credit -- and a share of royalties if there's ever money to be made from this song, which to date there hasn't.**

But, while the song -- technically -- has four authors, I think of it as mine. It was my idea, and the lyrics and melody are mostly mine. I have to admit that Eric's and Amy's arrangement is inspired.

So that's how I came to cowrite a song with one of my musical idols.***

And, Eric, if you're reading this -- and I know you're not, but if you are -- please take care of yourself and get better. The world is a better place for your existence.


*spoiler alert: It's a great album. If you don't have it, you should buy it. If you do have it, you should buy another and donate it to a musically-deprived child in your community.
**If you're a record company executive, please feel free to suggest all your top bands record a version of this song for their next albums. 
***If you're one of my musical idols, please feel free to coauthor a song with me. I have plenty of partially-written material to choose from...