Secret Hidden Bonus Track
Video coming soon · check back for the official track video
Well, it wouldn’t exactly be a “secret hidden bonus track” if it announced itself, so you’ll find two songs here: first, the purported secret hidden bonus track, and then the actual one.
Both songs fall into the category of too painful to share, at least on the album itself. So, I’m semi-burying them here, a little out of the way, for you to discover if you’ve made it this far.
The heaviness of some of the album’s subject matter isn’t lost on me, along with the possibility of wearing the listener down. But my assumption of risk—to use lawyer speak—only went so far — and stopped short of these songs.
Until now.
One of them, “Interlude: The Scene of the Crime,” was developed beyond the demo stage and would’ve appeared on the album as originally conceived. The other, “Fly Away,” remains a demo.
Interlude: The Scene of the Crime
Its Place in the Story
I know what you’re thinking: two preludes, an interlude, an epilogue, and a postscript. What? No preamble?
But that’s what this song was meant to be: a short transitional piece.
In my experience, certain situations and places take on a charge and power of their own, and sometimes the only way to diffuse that charge is to get close. That’s how I felt about Miami after I left.
So, once I had recovered my health, I returned to Miami for the winter of 2023 and ended up staying much longer.
Something had broken during my previous visit, and I thought I might heal it by returning. Not in the form of a reconciliation, but by somehow healing the breach inside.
As the song goes:
As if things might fall together
where they fell apart
the shattered pieces of a broken heart
by returning to the scene of the crime.
I’m not sure whether returning to Miami helped things fall back together, but it did allow me to make friends with Miami again, a place I love, before that charge became an impenetrable force field.
A few words.
The biggest argument against pulling this track from the album was the beautiful viola playing of Peter Voronov, a musician I hired on Fiverr who also appears on Prelude South: Living in Dadeland.
For quite a while, the song existed with me “playing” the violin on a keyboard using Logic Pro’s string library, but the sound simply didn’t cut it. Much more expensive string libraries exist, but in addition to the cost, they require a level of finesse I didn’t have.
Peter’s playing brought the song much closer to what I heard. I’m grateful for his contribution. And I’m really happy to share his playing here.
While our story has more than one crime scene, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas near “the table in the plaza where the deed was done."
My Martin D-28. A real workhorse.
The Vault
Demos · Alternate Takes · Behind the Curtain
Early demos for this one were so different you might not recognize them.
Interlude: The Scene of the Crime
Fly Away
Its Place in the Story
This one came from the rawest part of the story.
Presented here in demo form, “Fly Away” is about something beautiful that felt irretrievably lost: a last chance at true communion with another soul. The song’s arrangement was never developed the way the album tracks were, but I’m happy with the lyric, which I’ll share here.
More than any of the other songs, this one captures the depth and sudden shock of that time:
Combed out
brushed off
summed up and shrugged off
seems so simple now it’s done.
Instant distance,
non-existent,
Even Pluto was a planet once.
Fly away, fly away
wish I lived to love another day
fly away, come what may
I’m lost inside a dream I guess
where I’ve been tried and dispossessed.
Have you ever thought about it,
what happened then,
was anything other than a false pretense?
Or have you never dreamed
such a big dream?
I never dared to.
Always climbing,
never cresting,
sliding backwards down the hill
try to fake it,
hoped I’d make it,
now I know I never will.
Fly away, fly away
the sun will never shine the same again,
fly away, come what may,
fly away.
Dictating these words from memory, I’m reminded — a bit uncomfortably — of the depths from which they came.
Four years later, I can still feel the sadness in these songs. But I no longer live in the place from which they were written. Seeing things from the other end of the telescope, one might easily wonder what all the fuss is about. All I have to do is listen to remember.
If one person can relate to these words, or find some comfort in this song, sharing it here will have been worth it.
Thanks for following me this far, whoever you are. I’m extremely grateful.
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union strippped Pluto of its planetary status. To my knowledge, no ceremony was held to mark the occassion.
The Vault
Demos · Alternate Takes · Behind the Curtain
Early demos for this one were so different you might not recognize them.
FLY AWAY
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Prelude South: Living in Dadeland
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Boyfriend