March 7, 2023

I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to go back to that April 2020 Dave Fleming and ask, "what the hell were you thinking with this 365 songs for 365 artists in 365 days series?" Clearly I would have slapped the fool upside the head.

2023 David: Why the hell did you have this stupid idea?

2020 David: Why, what's the problem?

2023 David: You name it. What isn't a problem: writer's Block, no creativity, mental exhaustion from this song series.

2020 David: Probably bound to happen. What day are we on?

2023 David: Day 232.

2020 David: Day 232?  That's actually really good. . . . Wait, how can the 2023 me be on Day 233? That should have hit sometime in late Fall 2020.

2023 David: Well, we took a long break, pretty much after the last time I cursed the younger me.

2020 David: Where did we stop then?

2023 David: September 8, 2020, Day 135, with The Doors' "The End."

2020 David: Clever. I thought, though, that we were saving that for the actual end, day 365.

2023 David: I had reached the end, and if we ever get to the damn end, I have a better song. Sadly, no one mourned the end or "The End." We had long since used Elvis Costello, so I had no capacity to reference that the "world had wiped its mouth since then/or maybe it was yawning."

2020 David: So, is that why you stopped, because no one was reading?

2023 David: Well, that was part of it, but there was also just the stress of producing something every day.

2020 David: This is all kind of depressing. Which song produced the most feedback?

2023 David: "Knowing Me, Knowing You." ABBA.

2020 David: You have to be kidding me. ABBA? Sigh.

2023 David: Long-term, Cocteau Twins have easily gotten the most hits. Five times anybody else. So, there really is no predictability.

2020 David: Oh, great, so if not Euro Pop, we have the incomprehensible to comfort us. Anyway, given that I am graced by my presence in 2023 (You/I look really tired, you/I know), I assume you are back at it.

2023 David: Last year, I decided to resume but not on a daily basis. It's helped a lot with the stress. Now I write one when so moved.

2020 David: Seems like you have righted the ship. So why are you bothering me today?

2023 David: Honestly, you can't smell the desperation on me?

2020 David: Dude, I've smelled death upon me; I'm not sure anything would ever compare.

2023 David: Don't kid. I am feeling the stress again. I would like to come up with something somewhat original.

2020 David: 233 days into it? Even I knew that originality would suffer with this timeline. I just figured our passion for the songs would win out.

2023 David: That's still there, but I quickly learned that writing about great songs from a fan's perspective is pretty limited. I don't have the musical chops to write so frequently about artists' chops. You know us, we're much more accustomed to the budget chops.

2020 David: And the pork chops, speaking of the smell of death upon me.

2023 David: I've burned through a lot of our favorites, Zevon fell recently.

2020 David: So, who do you have left?

2023 David: A lot, you always figured that. We always knew we could write about any of a thousand artists.

2020 David: Well, this little reverie has been punctuated by the smell of death and desperation. I am sure you haven't done Lynyrd Skynyrd. Do something with "That Smell." Talk about how it was the feature song on our McTeague mixed tape, right after "Get A Leg Up" and "Even A Dog Can Shake Hands."

2023 David: Doesn't it seem a bit harsh, given "That Smell" was released three days before the Skynyrd plane crash.

2020 David: We're going to make that argument? The same guy(s) who earlier made a smell of death joke about our cardiac arrest in July 2017.

2023 David: It's one thing to mock our own near death, but someone else's actual?

2020 David: Look, I am sure even the most fervent Skynyrd fans (not that we would know any of them) probably still appreciate the irony of that song in light of that horrendous event. After all, Ronnie Van Zant was writing of what the band already knew, Gary Rossington having already driven his car into that "Oak tree. . .in my way."

2023 David: Yeah, but I still need an angle.

2020 David: Angle? What do you mean?

2023 David: Well, it doesn't take us long to realize that we can't keep churning out blogs basically discussing song and performance analysis. Often we will use the song to focus on the music industry, other times we will apply social commentary. As much as we can, we use personal associations, and when we really need to, we sometimes just simply go goofy.

2020 David: Go goofy? What does that mean?

2023 David: Taking a dog's perspective, writing dialogues between God and St. Peter or younger me/older me.

2020 David: Wait, is that what you are doing right now?

2023 David: Well, I didn't start off that way. I preferred to do it once, with Boston.

2020 David: Ah, the infamous concert, right?

2023 David: Of course.

2020 David: So, you've got one little problem that confronts you, what are you going to do? I say you go Skynyrd. You got the McTeague angle, our own near death angle, and the overall stench of your desperate time travel bit, done for the second time.

2023 David: Me?

2020 David: Yeah, you! Can't you hear the song all around you? Besides, can you foresee any other scenario where you can use Skynyrd to get one day closer to our goal?

2023 David: No, you are probably right. We're going Skynyrd. After all, I am just trying to get through this latest blog. You set up this damn addiction. As Van Zant sang, "just one more fix, Lord, might do the trick."

Lynyrd Skynyrd. "That Smell." Street Survivors. MCA, 1977. Link here.

Day 231: The Boomtown Rats "Here's A Postcard"

Day 233: Mary Black "Song For Ireland"

Unfinished list here.