Speakin' The Queens... Pt. 4

As the release date for my new album, "Queens English", approaches, I thought it might be a fun idea (if only for me) to try and maybe dissect the record here at the old Blog space. A bit of a behind the scenes look under the hood so to speak. Since I've always dug reading about some of my favorite albums track-by-track, I thought that might be an interesting way to approach. Eleven tracks in eleven installments? Can I pull it off without boring even myself? Got me. Stay tuned and find out. And by the way, has anyone seen my apron?..

Track 4: "Muffin in the Oven" -

When I first began working on this album, I kicked off the sessions by recording a track called "Neighborhood Girl". The lyrics of the song weave the tale of a young girl living in the outer-boroughs of NYC, dreaming big dreams, longing for the day when she can finally shake off her working-class reality and pursue her ambitions amongst the shining lights of that so-close-yet-so-far Manhattan skyline.

"Big pillow windowsill daydreaming
Subway car rattles her floor
Sounds of the city they set her scheming
One day she'll make for the door..."

Ultimately, as the song comes to a melancholy close, we learn my heroine never reaches those bright lights. She meets a boy, falls in love and as with this life, sometimes things just sorta happen...

"Rocking her baby
She sits daydreaming
Subway car rattles the floor..."

Unfortunately, as is also the life of many tunes recorded for an album project, "Neighborhood Girl" never reached the bright lights of the final running order. In the end I felt the song, although lyrically in keeping with the theme of the record, just didn't fit well musically from a stylistic standpoint and as such, a tough decision was made.

Today's focus track, "Muffin in the Oven", was written as sort of a lighter-hearted companion piece to "Neighborhood Girl". The other side of the same coin so to speak; the ill-fitting neighborhood boy, he too with big plans detoured by the sometimes harsh realities of life and responsibility.

Not surprisingly, at the time I began to write "Muffin" my wife and I indeed had a real life bun in the oven replete with all the sides of fear, doubt and what-will-become-of-me selfishness customarily served up with first-time parenthood. What started as a silly phrase I absentmindedly sang to myself while nervously strumming my guitar, "Muffin in the Oven" somehow morphed its way out of my jittery head-space and into a song.

I suppose, as with this life, sometimes things just sorta happen...

Muffin in the Oven

He’s buskin’ around,
Waitin’ downtown
This sunny day
Birds are singing…

Her train is late,
But make no mistake
She’s on her way

Biting her lip, she is thinking of ways to say…

She’s got a muffin in the oven
Wasn’t supposed to happen this way
She’s got a muffin in the oven, yeah
Only thing she managed to say

Their seventeen years,
Showed in their fears
She starts to cry

Knew he should stay but he wanted to run and hide…

She’s got a muffin in the oven
Wasn’t supposed to happen this way
She’s got a muffin in the oven, yeah
Only thing she managed to say

He’s a scared little man, yeah
With a cheap guitar
All his plans of eye-lined bands, yeah
They won’t get too far
She’s got a muffin…

Oh, now what will they do, yeah?
What will they say?
Think her father’s unglued, yeah
His mother thinks he’s gay

She’s got a muffin in the oven
Wasn’t supposed to happen this way
She’s got a muffin in the oven, yeah
Only thing she managed to say
She’s got a muffin…

Next time on "Speakin' The Queens...", we visit a place more frightening than Guantanamo.

PS - Looks as if my "Neighborhood Girl" will get to see those big city lights after all; The track will be included on the CD-EP "Brooklynese" slated for release 5/18 as part of the "Queens English" Deluxe Edition.