Christopher Blog

5) Salt – 2:23

 

Not available since 1999

Dance ye merry wench

Salt is an abbreviation of the word `Saltarello’ which is an Italian Medieval dance circa 14^th century. The dance is a fast pace where skipping is the dancer’s motif.

The inspiration for `Salt’ is from the Medieval players group `Hesperus’ who probably did the greatest rendition of a `Saltarello’ back in 1991. Use a search engine and type in `Hesperus Saltarello’ and you’ll find some goodness. I could not find their rendition on Youtube.

However, the track `Salt’, sounds like a primitive ringtone.

There are sound samples in there that were to `soften the stench of aged MIDI cheese’ but unfortunately I cannot recall where they came from. I worked so quickly on making these songs that things like sound files are just a fleeting blur.

Recollections: It was one of the songs re-recorded at the same time as `Longing Is…’ The timeframe where I intended to make `Orchid’ a vicious tome of intimacy. Aside from that, I have no other memories relating to `Salt.’

So let’s discuss something else brought up previously: The Cocaine Cougar

The Cocaine Cougar:

Let it be known this `name’ was not meant to be derogatory to the person in question. It was meant to be solely titillating to you, the reader.

She was someone I met through a friend of a friend at a bar in the fall/winter of 1999. She was a bit older than I and very cool to be around. For about a year we were good friends until our paths diverged.

She, the wiley gal that she was, had a boyfriend of a similar age as I and constantly bitched about him. I bitched about #1 and the ridiculous games that tortured me. Cocaine Cougar (who I will abbreviate to CC) was very patient and advised me as best she could. Really, all the advice she gave she should have used herself and we both would have ended up being better, healed people.

Actually, she did follow her own advice in the end. Last I heard (which was 8 years ago) she ended up in a great relationship and dropped the load that occupied much of our time together.

She had a tendency towards melodrama, somewhat akin to the aging Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. But it was harmless and quite charming.

CC had a predilection for cocaine and driving a Porsche very fast. And she was unapologetic for the almost `80’s’ approach to living. Personally, I thought it was awesome. Even to this day I think that way; even if it was a foil for psychological pain.

A 6’8 pony tailed cable guy would deliver a small parcel to her home weekly. It always made me rather uncomfortable to be there to see the transaction. He was garrulous and brash which could only lead to everyone’s demise.  However, if I ever needed free cable, he was the man who could get it for me. I never took up the offer and made an effort to avoid his presence. He wasn’t a bad fellow personality wise, but he had bad juju.

However, CC had great friends who would ebb and flow through my life; some that would leave slivers of wisdom along the way. There was one who was supposedly terminally ill who came from California as I was reworking `Orchid.’ I think she might have been the one who helped put the album out to pasture.

I remember her giving me feedback about me playing around with making it a double album (BAD IDEA) and inserting tentative tracks like `999.’ (Never recorded, but I have lyrics.) But I think her zen-like disposition and her facing the finality of her life put some of my life into perspective. My memory has been warped by time, so who knows if this is true or something that I would have liked to have believed.

CC had breast implants and, my god man, she was proud of these mammalian adjustments. So proud in fact that she had a professional photographer take photos of her from the chest up. And there was a fairly large portrait of this photo in her house. What was a little unsettling about the picture is she had that perfect corporate executive smile while proudly displaying her new enhancements. From the neck up it was as if you were looking at a shot of a Director of Financing. Again, awesome.

I mention the Cocaine Cougar in this story because she did play a role in the ill fated re-creation of `Orchid.’ I would play her tracks, she would listen. Though she did not influence the tone and direction I was intending to take, she was my only sounding board at the time. I cannot remember if she ever gave any feedback. Regardless if she did or not, she did help me through a very rough emotional winter.

I think we will see the Cocaine Cougar make a reprise in later tracks.

Salt: Original Version

A bit more vocally involved than the re-recording. A voice through a wah wah, me whooping it up in the background. Some Christmas bells. I don’t know why I didn’t bother to re-include these features in the re-recording. Aside from being lazy takes, they were decent ideas.

Otherwise not terribly different from the re-recorded version except for the last 20 seconds.