"Crazy Man's Mind" (from the 2009 album, "Music After All")
In 2008, I saw the Scorsese film, No Direction Home, and had what you might my “Dylan Phase”. I absolutely got Bob Dylan like I never had before. Almost immediately, I set out to write a bunch of songs in the style of Robert Allen Zimmerman. I approached my long time writing and producing partner, Tim Kobza about recording “an acoustic album,” that I thought should take “a month or so tops” and “would consist of mostly acoustic guitar and vocals only.” A year later we completed Music After All. The song, “Crazy Man’s Mind” started with Tim picking up the guitar and very quickly writing the intro guitar progression. Instantly, I remember being mesmerized by it. Tim sent me home with a demo of the guitar by itself. Over the next few days I wrote the lyrics and melody while driving in my car around L.A. At the time I had a job that required me to be in the car for many hours each day. And I just let the track play over and over again. I used a small digital handheld voice recorder (that I still have), and recorded one word, one note, one idea at a time, until the song began to take shape.
The basic idea behind the lyric, was of a man who has a dream, in which he sees a vision of heaven. The dream is so vivid, and so real, that it ends up breaking his heart. He can’t cope with living in this world after having even a glimpse into a perfect heaven. Yeah, I know, it’s depressing! Welcome to my mind lol!.
The production came together very naturally. We recorded the song at Tim’s home studio (in Glendale at the time). We lucked out and got Mike Bolger to play accordion and horns on the track. Tim also had the genius idea of adding high strung guitar over the top of the track, which sounds like a sort of mandolin line. Finally, we got Dominic Massaro to create some super subtle soundscapes underneath it all just to create an ominous, eerie vibe to it all.
I’m very proud of the result. Hope you enjoy it! Check out this live version as well! CLICK HERE :)