All Songs (re)Considered #2: “Cocktail/Baby If You Let Me
THE STORY
For some time, I’ve been infatuated with playing with the line between violence and affection. Both share many metaphors – conquest, scoring, being broken – and both require a level of vulnerability that people don’t normally entertain. So it is with this song, particularly in the chorus line, “Lovers come with hatchets; surgeons and theives come with knives.”
It’s been my experience that the vulnerability we allow to closest to us results as often in injury as in romance and reward.
I’ve always admired Marianne Moore’s poetry. One of her defining characteristics is her use of the title of a poem as its first line. Also, I’ve always loved Bob Dylan’s song, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.”
The title, “Cocktail/Baby, If You Let Me,” serves as a shout out to both Moore and Dylan.
Also, If you ever want to buy me a drink, Knob Creek Manhattans are the way to go.
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WHAT I LIKE:
I’ll stand behind these lyrics until the day I die. There’s only one verse, repeated twice, but that’s all it needs. Writing it required a fairly intense headspace I’m not terribly interested in revisiting.
Though there are other versions of this song floating around both on the Internet and in my iTunes library, I feel that this version captures best what made me want to pursue the song in the first place:
- A fairly dry delivery of the most intense lines
- A good, simple lead guitar part in the chorus
- The lead line right at the end that sounds straight out of Ravel’s “Bolero”
- This song doesn’t need drums to be what I hear. (I don’t yet have a drummer enlisted in the project – though if you know one interested, drop a line in the comments)
WHAT IT NEEDS:
- Better recording quality. I did this in GarageBand with the built-in mic in the bathroom of my old apartment while my mom was asleep on my couch.
- The same arrangement with my mom meant that I was pretty much whispering the vocals. I’d like to try those again, too.
- Lead parts for this are already written; I’d like to flesh them out with a louder guitar.
- I want to add a keyboard part. I think something like a Hammond organ would sound nice in certain parts.