When I was growing up my family lived on Chelsea Street. Sometime after I bought my current house on Avon Road (less than a mile from where I grew up) I made some innocuous comment about the years it took for me to go from Chelsea Street to Avon Road.
I kind of liked the phrase and stored it away in my mind for future yes. I knew I wanted to use it for a song, but I had no idea how. Then, at some point I thought it could be purposed as a lamentation of lost youth. The Monkees have "Shades of Gray." Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby have "Genovese Bag." And I have "From Chelsea Street to Avon Road."
Interestingly, there's a guy at work who almost became a co-author. I was talking to him about the song and mentioned that I was thinking of rewriting the bridge. He suggested a concept -- no lyrics, mind you, just a concept -- for the bridge. I figured I could work with that, and asked him if he wanted a co-author credit. He said he did. I asked what percentage ownership he wanted. He said he wanted 41%.* That seemed kind of high, so I made a counter-offer -- I think it was 6.25%. I came up with a formula based on number of verses, assuming that lyrics and melody are of equal value, and assuming the concept was worth half of the lyrics.
My colleague didn't accept my counter-offer and I took the bridge in a different direction. His loss.
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*It's worth noting that 41 is his wife's favorite number. And, no, that has nothing to do with Tom Seaver.
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