Allright, NOW it’s officially a project! Finish one song and that doesn’t really solidify things. But two songs? Yep – project time. This one is a few days late, but that’s because this song took more time than I expected. Oh well – it’s a good problem to have, really…
Musically, this was a pretty tough one. I have been a bit out of practice on the drums, (no) thanks to my time in Ohio, so this song was more difficult than I anticipated. BUT I got through it and they turned out allright. As for everything else: I like off-beats. A lot. Music would be boring if everything was on the beat, you know? But besides that, I wanted this heavy, groovy thing in 4 through two verses and two choruses, then drop all of it and have the rest of the song be completely different. Sure, that caused the song to clear the six-minute mark, but I’m still really happy with how it turned out. The ending section was definitely inspired by the band Tesseract (one of the absolute best “djent” bands out there now) and I guess is the minor key equivalent of the 50s progression. I like how it starts quiet and builds right up until the end…
That ending section also helped dictate where the lyrics went. The chorus was written first again. I’ve always been fascinated by “The Code” – it’s hockey’s version of baseball’s “Unwritten Rules.” As I went on, I started writing from the perspective of an enforcer… and that drastically different ending helped write the rest of the lyrics. He does something bad in verse two, gets thrown out of the game, and starts to deal with the repercussions in the ending. The weird thing, though? The John Scott Incident between the Sabres and Bruins happened within 48 hours after I wrote these lyrics. My brother thinks now I need to write a song about the Sabres winning the Cup…
So, here you go. Enjoy!
See you next time for a MUCH shorter song than this one… that’s, oddly enough, also about fighting. Hmm…
Ed Makes Things 
Years ago, the Amerks had a goon, John Wenscik (sp?). One game for us he knocked an opposing player out with the first punch then sat on his chest and pummeled his unconscious head. I thought his career ended with that but Don Cherry liked him and brought him to the New Jersey Devils and his freakin name is on The Cup.
Later on, he was retired and Gretzky was tearing up the league, someone looked him up and asked his opinion. He seemed puzzled, “Why doesn’t someone just beat the hell out of him?”
Wow. That’s insane…
And I’m sure Don Cherry will come up at some point during the course of this project.
Surprise! There is a wiki article on him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wensink
The guy he beat up, Len Dunning, does not have a wiki article.