PSRSotwNotes02.11-10

Peter's Song of the Week Club!

11/10/02

Filled With Hope

Peter's Comments:
The Hideout occasionally does this thing called "One Night Band," where a bunch of talented musical improvisors form an imaginary band for an hour and a half. Before the show, they have a bunch of blank slips of paper and two coffee cans -- one for band names, one for song titles. Whenever I attend, I always toss in song titles. These song titles are always ignored.

One night, I thought, "Hey, I'll write in a song title that forces them to be positive (for a change) and forces them to change their usual musical style (for a change)." So, I scribbled "Filled with Hope (Beatles cover)" on a slip of paper and dropped it in the can. The One Night Band picked it out during the show, tossed it aside, and rooted around for something more inspiring.

But the title lodged in my head, and I started mulling over how I would have handled it. The chorus gradually worked itself out. Verses started cropping up. And I thought at the time, "Oh well. Not like I'll ever be in a position to improvise on that song title." It never occurred to me to actually write the song and record it. :)

Still infuriated by my off-key singing, but oh well. I'm content with how I wrote something that wasn't quite identical to any actual early Beatles song, and I'm glad I managed to finally write a happy song.

Footnotes