a little madness...

looking over the color proof for the artwork for side four (live)
eric commented on the name change I've made
for the song madness from side one.
on the live record the title is now a little madness.
there are two reasons why:
first, on the live version I say "a little madness" over eric's drum intro,
but second and more importantly it's a money saving device.
how so? you might ask.

when I was writing madness I considered singing a lyric
about a young musician who believes he is being "visited"
in his dreams by aliens, who are teaching him ways
to do incredible things with the healing sounds of music.
he believes he is learning to cure certain diseases
just by playing specific sounds which radically affect
and alter the listener's molecular makeup.
the problem is:
it's driving him crazy!

as part of the lyric I had written a speaking part as an intro
before the massive blast of music begins.
fittingly I remembered a scene in the movie
2001: A Space Odyssey
the music in the scene had a profound effect on me.
it was a piece by Katchaturian.

so for the intro with the spoken voice
I decided to play a small portion of the
Katchaturian piece on guitar
with a bed of synthesizer "space" sound beneath it.
the whole bit was 50 seconds long.
the song was nearly 7 minutes.

eventually the vocal/lyric idea didn't pan out.
I guess I'm not a good enough actor.
but martha was convinced the music was my masterpiece.
whether or not you agree with that assessment
trust me, it is much better without my vocal idea.

I dropped the vocal but I still liked
the 17-second guitar intro so I left it that way.
I didn't even think the Katchaturian music
might not be public domain.

just before side one was to be released
we received a call from the dead
Mr. Katchaturian's publishing company.

it was too late just to leave off the 50 seconds of
Katchaturian (the record was already mastered)
so we had to bow to their demands for
50% of the publishing
on my seven-minute masterpiece
for the privilege of 50-seconds of the dead Mr. Katchaturian's music.
evidently the afterlife must be an expensive place.

and that is why there is a new piece on side four (live) called
a little madness.