Singled Out: Bobby Long
08/07/2009
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(antiMusic) Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Bobby Long tells us about "The Bounty Of Mary Jane" from his brand new album "Dirty Pond Songs". We now turn it over to Bobby for the story:
I wrote this song during a sleepless night. I had done everything to try and sleep and was reading magazines and books, hoping my eyes would dwell on some words and knock me out. I played endless DVD commentaries, but everything seemed interesting and drew me in.
While looking for something I found a free DVD from a paper called "The Bounty". Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins are in it, and it's based on a boat during the times when Britain ruled the seas. I watched it and dreamt my way through it. At the end of the film I drifted off into a sleep and dreamt the whole film ending in my head.
It's not a particularly great film but I ended up falling in love with a woman in it. I woke up having a kind of intense sympathy for her and tried to write a song for her. I had previously written a finger picking riff for a Jesse James film I was working on, but I decided to use it for this song. I felt it was a good starting point. I wanted to push myself playing wise with this song and get away from the folk finger picking that I usually do. I tried to keep intensity with this song by having space and simple picking in the root chord, giving it rhythm. I never usually like the ohh and ahhs in songs. Sometimes they can be an easy replacement but they gave the song a morose and melancholic feel that somehow seemed to give a good crossover between parts.
I tried to re-watch the film and I quickly realized that my interpretation that I had dreamed was nothing like the film, even the woman was different. It's quite funny now because some people think its about weed, but then again maybe it is. Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album - right here!
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