Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Tattooless Tattoo Man
I don't do tattoos for the same reason I don't do bumper stickers or buy clothes with the manufacturer's logo emblazenoned on them. I don't want to be that identifiable or stereotyped. I'm open minded. My thinking can evolve. I can evolve. And no court order can stop me. There IS no design I want on me that badly that I know I'll be happy with for life. I don't care who you voted for, what you'd rather be driving, how many of your kids are honors students, or what you believe or don't believe. And I will not bore the crap out of you with my personal philosophies, habits, etc. as you tailgate me up the interstate.
That being said, there is a very useful and appropriate metaphore in the act of choosing a tattoo. During the recording of my CD (which you can buy from me postage free for $10 by sending me a message through my Contact button on the left) my producer, Mark Zampella soothed me when I was unhappy with my sound on one particular track. I was just unsure about the choices I had made and recorded. He said, "Look, it's like my tattoos."
"Huh?" I said taking off the earphones.
"People ask me," he said,"if I ever regret my tattoos. I tell them no because they represent who I was at that time in my life. You have to accept who you were and that you may be somebody else now. And eventually somebody else again."
So that's how I started to relax about my CD and not be overly self critical. I knew I'd get better. And I am better. And although I am not a tattoo kind of guy, what Mark said spilled into a lyric. Naturally it became (evolved into) something else. Another love song of sorts for Cathy. It's unusual for me because I had written the music separately on one of the last visits to our Amelia Island condo before we sold it. I rarely write music without a lyric in mind but this time I did and somehow the lyrics, written months later, and the music fell together without too much adjustment.
I'm just giving you the first verse and chorus to listen to. When percussion and bass and harmonies and all come to this song, it should be a different tattoo altogether.
TattooSample.mp3
My Tattoo
Copyright 2005 Bud Buckley
Bad ideas seem so perfect when they first inflame your mind
Possibly they'll show no mercy going from bad to worse in time
The taste of now, sweets that sour, not rich enough to stay
Need something to last something thicker than what's so phat today
My tattoo shows you where I was at that place in time
My tattoo advertises my one time state of mind
That's why I wrote this song, I wrote it all for you
Years from now I'll hear it like an audio tattoo
Bad idea, though you were too much I should have snatched you on day one
I just watched, I couldn't touch, afraid to take you on the run
Your voice, Your smile, your every move printed on my mind
Indelable all the while, obvious but I couldn't cross the line
My tattoo shows you where I was at that place in time
My tattoo advertises my one time state of mind
Don't need a dragon, a bleeding heart or creature from the zoo
I wear you in my voice and smile, you're my infinate tattoo
posted by Bud @ 10:51 AM
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