I use public domain samples of Indian instruments, which I love very much. Love that. Love that. Love that.
This song tells how love is defined by 3 different classes of people, using some personal experience as well. In the first verse, I refer to my AA days in military after my DUIs. It was a ragged group of criminals, liars, cheats, whores, and broken animals, but I learned to love them and be honest for the first time in my life. So the song’s first verse refers to these disenfranchised lower classes and what love meant to me during that particular personal experience. In the second verse, I refer to my very middle class self but primarily to my sister–an iconic working middle class America–who struggles to be something else. In the third verse, I refer to the upper, privileged classes and just slightly to my more current life experience. All 3 verses talk about their personal definition of love and being loved, in terms of ownership or “having.”
I placed harmonized American-Indian-like chants over the Indian subcontinent percussion, which were all placed over the 3 primary drum beats. That primary drum rhythm is a combination of 3 separate samples. When I put them together in (repeated) sequence, I started playing 3 of my favorite guitar chords over it and from there the song just wrote itself.
I worked more quickly this time, and the entire song was quicker to finish than previous songs; I think I’m getting better and more efficient. Still had to tweak a lot though. Ugh.
At the end of the lyrics, I say that what matters is not necessarily the material wealth we have, but our willingness to have a look at each other and really begin to discover our value. From whatever walk of life, we can make us feel good about ourselves.