The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - Inheritance - 3

3. Inheritance

Here is my favorite songs from 12 Brothers. Really, this song, Business, and Balance are all so close in my mind. This song gets the edge, though, for a few reasons:

1. It was the first song that I wrote for 12 Brothers. Let's face it, if this didn't go well then the rest of 12 Brothers doesn't even happen. Without this song there is no Business or Balance. That's critical. As it turns out, I was so tickled by this song that I felt the burst of inspiration and quickly was able to get the other songs written.

2. This is probably the only song where I feel I hold legitimate claim to the melody. Right from when I first started writing the lyrics I had a melody in mind. And it was a decent melody. It contained changes, it had a whole two-part chorus, fantastic! And you know what? The version that Joshua recorded is very true to my original melody.

3. The dual chorus ("AT LAST! at last... A SON! a son... that's unlike every other one") is spectacular. It jumps out at me as the type of effective technique we never would have come up with years before.

4. I love how quickly the song turns from a bright happy tale of birth to some strange twisted family drama. The music complements this change in direction perfectly.

5. The song quickly takes you through three points of view in a rather quick manner. Yet it never feels forced or awkward, and you never lose your place, so to speak. I tried the change of perspective in old the Moon Is No More songs without as much success.

6. I finally included an exitlude that worked and actually made the cut ("And all eleven walked away to bide their time for some later date").

Joshua's recording, which includes guitar, drums and vocals (and maybe some hot ash bass, I'm not sure) is great for a quick one man show. In fact, because he did such a thorough job on this demo it probably let me down a bit when the other songs he sent weren't as polished from an instrumentation perspective (guitar-only). Maybe that gives this song another artificial boost. In any case, one of the best!

We're getting so close to number #1. Can you feel the endorphins? I haven't felt this excited since I sunk a birdie at Fore Kicks. Which song do you think will be #1?

The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - Business - 4

4. Business

OK, let's see if I can finally finish this list off.

No surprise to see a more recent song near the top. I think both Joshua and I showed a little bit of our experience when we finally got to the 12 Brothers EP. This song is an exceptional example of that.

Some lyrical highlights for me:

- "Our mothers used to say..." The reference to mothers in the plural indicates that various women were involved in the conception of this family. And that lines up with the original story.
- "The customer's right always so stay open late but make sure you get paid." I'll never forget my moment of enlightenment when I changed the word "and" to "but."
- "All's fair in love and war between brothers at the family store." I don't remember when this part was actually written. It almost got thrown away but Joshua showed his skill and worked in. Perfect! With time I like the line more and more and it provides a great ending to the song.

I never get sick of listening to this song.

Overwhelmed 2

I was going to write this as a preface to a 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs post but it got too long so it has become it's own post.

I just want to convey that I have been extremely busy ever since the beginning of December. Molly and I are going to be leaving our cozy little home in Franklin for the next 5 months and heading down to Louisiana. We'll be assisting with the relief work that continues on down there. Once we had been there in October we knew we couldn't resist if an opportunity arose to visit for a longer period of time. The atmosphere is infectious. My final day at work is January 31st, and we'll leave on a three day drive that night.

In the meantime, we've been busy doing everything that could possibly be crammed into two months:

• Thought about selling the house (even having a realtor out twice to evaluate and compare) but that just didn't make sense in the end
• Tried renting the house to people we know, but honestly, who wants to rent for 5 months?
• Had someone in to plaster two bedrooms/bathroom, and add tile above our shower
• Painting two bedrooms/bathroom
• New faucet on our sink because it was leaking (then this morning we found out the new faucet dumped tons of water into our downstairs neighbors' closet - just the thing I need right now)
• Selling my car (which hasn't sold yet; click here to see the Cars.com listing)
• Bought a truck (2001 Nissan Frontier)
• Packing stuff
• Selling stuff on eBay, which is fun but physically and emotionally draining ... kind of
• Trying to have one last "hoo-ray" with people around here
• Watching the Patriots in the playoffs, which is very nerve-wracking this time around
• Found an apartment in Baton Rouge
• Still trying to get the lease officially signed
• Trying to plan finances for the next 5 months without any income
• Canceled unnecessary home services for while we're gone (say goodbye to the excellent Franklin home phone number we've had for the past 4 years; we'll never find a number as good as that one, it was truly a sleeper, underappreciated at first, it took time for the beauty of that number to sink in)
• Watching the Celtics stink it up on a nightly basis
• Planning a route to Baton Rouge
• Got people to help us drive to Baton Rouge
• Getting plane tickets to get the helpers back to Massachusetts (thank you, Gary)
• Putting in a change of address at the post office (but I'm still not sure what the address will be)
• Worked out a leave of absence with my job
• Trying to finish numerous projects before I leave my job
• Three theocratic parts in three weeks leading up to our leave (demonstration, highlights, and book study conducting, the last one just two days before we leave)
• First snow of the winter just hit

Whew! I can't wait, though!

If I can think of anything else (and I'm sure there's something else) I'll add it to the list.