Originally Posted By: Pat Marr

As always, I like the way you take everyday elements (ie. dinner and making the bed... topics with which any audience can identify...) and spin them into pathos, making them uniquely applicable to the person in your story. The net result of this approach is that the audience gets a glimpse into a daily routine they've never lived themselves. That's interesting.

I like how you put that. "Story" songs should "take you somewhere" - a place or a feeling - and do it without "hitting you over the head". It should be an "easy telling" that doesn't get in the way. It shouldn't be cliche or contrived - just "natural"... hopefully that happens here...


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And when it comes to pathos, nothing says it quite like strings. I thought your decision to add an extended passage of "strings only" was the perfect segue between the story and the listener's reaction to it. I imagine it to be the functional equivalent of the way one's thoughts wind down as they lay on the couch, drifting off to whatever is on TV, after eating a frozen entree... alone.

The BIAB string quartet is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for this application. Generally, I use a String MIDI Supertrack for background strings, but the quartet was just what I wanted for this....


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On a completely different note:
I thought Ember's opening comment was interesting: "IF marriage is something you are striving for..."

More and more, I think marriage is not as compelling to either gender as it once was (but for differing reasons.)

I'll go so far as to say that in some circles this song would generate kickback because it relies on certain stereotypes that are no longer universally accepted (and in some cases, strongly resisted.)

It's becoming harder to write stories and songs that resonate with a wide audience. Society is not only divided politically, but also in terms of social norms... and that really intersects with the spectrum of topics that are typically addressed by music as a form of social commentary.

I did address Ember's IF comment in my response to her. This IS a somewhat "dated" concept/perception. At the time that I wrote this, it was a lot less so - though it was evolving at the time. The world has changed - dramatically. Of course, it seems that at least half the country would like things to return to the way things were in 1955 - regardless of how maniacally crazy that might be. So there are, likely, still plenty of people who are raising their daughters to still think this way. Some evovle, some don't. Different strokes... Personally, I consider this a "snapshot" of how things were at the time...

Almost forgot to mention... this is also about the "ticking biological clock" of wanting to have children. That angle still holds for the most part...

Thanks for such a thought-provoking commentary, Pat!

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