Birthday in Black

mp3 available by email request

Kind of an odd one this week. This is how it came about:

Last week, I received a nice email from a friend, informing me that (a) I was right between Ian Dury and Matthew Sweet on his iTunes, and (b) today was his birthday and he wanted "...a birthday song right now! Write now!"

Never one to deny someone who flatters me with irrational demands and cool e-neighbors, I set out to write a birthday song. A cheerful, uptempo birthday song. One that you might hum on your way to the store to raise your mood and keep you from plotting revenge on your partner/roommate/dog/sibling who has used up the milk, leaving you with dry cereal. A HAPPY tune.

Oh well. I listened to too much depressing NPR news this week, and all the happy ideas sounded dumb and unrealistic. That's when I remembered that my friend (can you tell I ran out of time and didn't get a chance to ask if he minds my using his name here?) is a huge Goth Rock fan. Hee hee. So am I. A few left turns later, I was writing a gloomy little number about how the world is going to hell but your friends make life worthwhile anyway. A little tongue in cheek, a little pretentious, Birthday in Black is the result. I hope the birthday boy is amused.