Polishing the past: a remix of an old song.

Way back in 2010, I woke up with an idea for a song. The night before was a big one. It was the night Catherine and I got married and the song idea was just a line, as song ideas so often are for me, and the line was nothing more than "happiness, won’t you come on in?" The idea was there because I was feeling good. I felt so fortunate to be married to Catherine, to have had such a beautiful wedding, to have had our union witnessed by the people closest to Catherine and me. And I wanted that feeling of happiness to know it was welcome in me, to not feel spurned, as it so often surely had been all my life. And that’s what the song is about, nothing more. I just wanted that feeling of happiness to stay a bit, the rest of my life, really. I wrote and recorded the song fairly quickly, at least by my standards. But as is the case with so many of my recorded songs, there were a few things about the final mix I felt I had gotten wrong. For one, the harmonies in the chorus were way too loud. I’d been listening to a lot of CSNY and got a bit infected. The other issue, which only struck me as a problem recently, was a chorus extension. And so, as I go about reviving my too-long dormant songwriting efforts, I’m starting with this remix of Happiness. It’s one of my favorites of my songs and certainly among my most meaningful to me and now it’s all the more so.

HAPPINESS

Happiness,
Won't you come on in?
It's been so long, it's good to see you again

Happiness,
I hope you've come to stay
I've got so much to tell you since you last went away

'Cause I have changed inside
I've turned away from money and pride
And I see I was blind
So, happiness won’t you please come inside?

Happiness
I can see you hesitate
I know you have your doubts, but you are not too late

Happiness
Just tell me what to do
Tell me what you need, I'll do anything for you 

'Cause I have changed inside
I've turned away from money and pride
And I see what I once denied
So, happiness won’t you please come inside?

So, happiness, there’s nothing to decide
No excuses to try
So, won’t you please come inside?

And don’t make me guess
Won’t you put my fears to rest?
You know just what I want
All you need to say is yes

Happiness
Won't you come on in?
It's been so long
Won’t you please
Won’t you please
Won’t you please, please, please come on in?

Vocals: Elliot Randall
Guitars: Tim Young
Bass and Piano: Sam Bevan
Drums: Scott Siever
Engineering: Jaimeson Durr
Recorded (mostly) and mixed at Hyde Street Studio C, San Francisco
Written by Jeff Shattuck

OLDER, WISER (I HOPE) AND READY TO GET BACK INTO WRITING AND RECORDING SONGS.

I've not written and recorded a new song since I moved to Austin back in 2014. Weird, right? I mean, Austin has a reputation -- and rightly so -- as a vibrant town for music so why haven't I done a damn thing here in the last 3 1/2 years? I think the one word that sums it all up is upheaval. 

Moving here (to Austin) from SF has been exactly that, upheaval. New home, new schools for the kids, new friends, new career (I am no longer in adland). I've had massive hard drive failures, even my main recording computer died, its mother board degraded by use and a few hard knocks during the move. Plus, I miss SF. I miss being near to my parents. I miss the sea. I miss my friends, Hyde Street Studio C, where I did all my recording. I miss so much.

And then there is free time, which I seem to have none of. I'm not sure how to explain this other than the fact the I am working full time and my two little girls are less little and and being both a good employee and a good parent takes up a lot of the day; it also leaves me tired, I can't deny it, at 9:00 PM I'm ready for bed, not a songwriting/recording session.

But I refuse to just let music fall by the wayside on the path of everyday life. I need to be making music, it's important to my mental health and the longer I go without working on songs the more miserable I get. So I am ready for my come back. Look for new stuff in the next month. As always, thanks for reading and listening.