First Verse Fuck Up

Man, that blog post title sounds like something you’d see in my fiction, doesn’t it? Believe me, I played with the idea of what Mitchell would do if he screwed up his own lyrics. It wouldn’t be pretty; he’s awfully hard on himself.

So. What’s this First Verse Fuck Up all about?

It ain’t a new band I’ve created here — although that’d be a great band name. Nope.

Over the weekend, I stopped in to visit author Tim Ellis. Because I’m talking — again — about how music influence my writing, he prettified the post with some videos. He’s got some Black Sabbath (yum!) and Zeppelin (Classic!) and … at the end of the post, an awesome version of Metallica doing Fade to Black live.

I’ve never seen this version and I have to admit, the musical intro almost moved me to tears. Maybe it was my mood. I don’t know. I don’t even know which show it’s from (although it’s clearly post-2001, as Robert’s playing bass). All I know is that it hit a chord (ha) and … then James started singing.

I’ve heard him joke about skipping the second and fourth verses in his own songs, but I’ve never heard him say ANYthing about flubbing the first verse so spectacularly.

Go check out what *I* had to say (author and rocker Jeremy Wagner agreed about The Blue One and The Red One, he Tweeted to me), and then this version of Fade to Black. Let me know what you think about my hero fucking up his own first verse.