3. South Park

Prior to writing all the tunes for the album, I went out with a girl from South Park.  I found the place really quite cozy.  Sure, there are lots of weirdos living there, but that's part of the charm.  When I wrote this tune, the main bridge, known as the 14th/16th Ave. Bridge, was being replaced, so there was no direct way in from the east.  That's what the whole "you can't get there from here" thing is about.  I mean, of course you could get there; you just had to go around, up, under and through.  Well, those dark days are over.  There's a new bridge that is a lot less susceptible to collapse.  That's real nice, but it kind of makes my tune obsolete.  Oh, well.  Like I've always said, a lot of these tunes are snapshots of what was happening at the time.  What hasn't changed is the vast toxic plume (mentioned in the song!) beneath most of the neighborhood, so some of it still applies.

Perhaps of slight interest to any songwriters, except for the intro and the outro, which are the same, the chord progression doesn't change for the entire tune.  The melody changes three times (two vocal, one instrumental), but all three follow the same set of changes.  And no, it's not I-IV-V.  It's something else.  That I can't remember.  Anyhow, sometimes I like to see how many coherent melodies I can get out of a given progression.  The record is four.

I made a video of this tune on location, right at the former bridge.  Sure, it's in the vein of "Subterranean Homesick Blues," but it was a lot of fun to make.  I'm trying my best to look like a doofus.  While we were filming (which took about 45 minutes or so), nearly every weirdo in the neighborhood decided to visit.  It was slightly disconcerting, because some of them seemed to be completely against us filming anywhere near them.  Like I said, weirdos.  Here's the video.  It has a whole 64 views: