January: Calendar Girl

A previously unreleased novelty hit...

Happy New Year, Folks!

I hope you had a good night and, more importantly, I hope this will be a good year for us all. We deserve it.

This is my 50th post and 1st Substack anniversary! It’s also the beginning of my now monthly Sunday morning offerings. Which, when I sat down and wrote January in the subject line, reminded me of two things I hoped I’d erased from my memory…

Remember the good old Myspace days? When life was simple and the future was bright?! Well, as a couple of you may hazily recall, I used to change my profile picture once a month. It was an ambitious undertaking, costumes and post-production… some of the photos even moved... I think enough time has passed that I can start looking back on it with nostalgia rather than embarrassment. Evidence below!

Around the same time I recorded a song called Calendar Girl. It was actually rejected by the label for my first album! I do see now that it wasn’t really radio material… it’s very long… has no chorus… and requires an immense amount of concentration to follow… but you know, listening back for the first time in 13 years, it’s pretty wild! It was recorded with bass and banjo (only..) courtesy of The Two Man Gentleman Band, who I once met in Memphis. Long story. If nothing else, it’s very relevant to New Year’s. In fact it may be the only time of year when it’s appropriate to listen to it at all! Anxiously awaiting your comments…

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Calendar Girl - Lail Arad - 2009:

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