To continue my trite pattern of opening each post with a reference to the song title, it’s hard to find the influence for this week’s song, “Hard to Find a Friend“. It’s kind of either everyone or no one. I’ve been writing songs in this vein since I was about thirteen, and I don’t think too much when I’m writing them. Randy Newman? Billy Joel? Sinatra’s “saloon songs”? Andrew Lloyd Webber? Springsteen? Your guess is as good as mine… we all drink the same water.
As for the subject matter, we are definitely in a neighboring area code to last week’s song, “Kathleen”: nostalgia, or what your local alternative weekly might call “missed connections”. The narrator is singing to a love interest who repeatedly comes into and departs from his life. In the end, he throws up his hands and goes back to basics: “What does it mean? / We come from slime / Just do me on time / Do me on time.” (Note: this post not sanctioned by the Creationist movement.)
The arrangement, to the extent that there is one, could be classified as “no-frills”. Piano-vocal, just like it was 100 years ago. The vocal performance is a little uptight, in my opinion — the performance of someone proving that he can sing on-key… a rather clinical exercise. But the piano coming through that dictaphone — ah, there’s nothing better. I’m quite tired and beginning to drool on myself, so the rest of the commentary is up to you, dear reader.
