The First Couple Songs I Wrote.

I distinctly remember not being a songwriter. I didn't begin writing songs until I was already more-or-less an adult. I guess I wrote my first song at about 17. Before that, I didn't want to write any songs, because...can't sing. Why write any songs if I can't sing? Write them for some other guy to sing? FUCK him! Fuck that other guy. He doesn't deserve my songs. I knew that even then, back before I had any.

It turned out later that I could sing, I just couldn't sing like my then-favorite bands. I have a surprisingly OK voice. Arrestingly nondescript, yet savagely nuanced, yet sort of boy-meets-girl-next-door. Yet not at all androgynous! If that's what you're trying to infer by that. But anyway, back then...let's just say that my vocal stylings didn't fit with my influences. The first song that I wrote was a parody of sorts of an AC/DC-style song. It was intended as a very sincere homage, but the end product was unmistakably a parody. Or perhaps travesty would be more accurate. I remember it was called "Devil May Care" (note the Hell angle, very -esque).

My next song after that was called "Aquired Taste." I misspell it now, because I misspelled it then. This was a pretty catchy number, marred only by my rather confusing attempts to express my ripening sex appeal by comparing myself to vegetables. I remember in particular the references to myself as being "Jersey-Fresh," a la the fresh produce trademark then in vogue at markets throughout the Tri-State Area. If the first one was more like AC/DC, the second one was more like Poison.

I took a couple years off from songwriting after that. Sometimes it takes a while to find your voice.