"Robert Plant and Rockpile Stole This Song from Elvis..."

"Tonight, we're stealing it back!"

We're kicking off tonight's set with "Little Sister," and I thought about using that as an intro.... but I don't think anyone would get it.

I think I will use the idea of theft to tie all the songs together tonight, by letting people see behind the curtain a little bit at what I've cribbed from better writers in cobbling together my little aires d'loon. For example, Raspberry Strawberry is cobbled together from old jump-rope songs, so I really edited the lyric more than wrote it -- an idea somewhat inspired by Tom Waits's recurring use of nursery-rhyme figures in his tunes. I think using these sorts of childhood rhymes is amazingly effective because it taps into a pre-critical area of the brain that's pre-programmed to relate to them.

Also, I stole the idea for the use of the "untrustworthy narrator" from Randy Newman, who uses this literary device a lot-- in fact, now that I think about it, I was more influenced by Randy Newman talking about using this device than his own actual records, which I don't listen to much. I was probably more directly influenced by Jim Thompson, who uses untrustworthy narrators in books like "Pop. 1280" and "A Swell-Looking Babe." I tried to use such a narrator for Someday Baby, to limited success; I found it a struggle to get across in the confines of a 4-minute pop song the idea that you couldn't take the narrator's words at face value because she's not just lying to you-- she's lying to herself about her man coming back to her, and using that as an excuse to have just one more gin... and another, and another.

Lastly, when I introduce Mrs. Jones, I'll take the opportunity to illustrate how it is an homage (which is a fancy-pants French way of saying "theft") to both Dylan's Ballad of a Thin Man (probably rock's most alluded-to song), and the Kinks' Well-Respected Man, which my song quotes musically. My idea was to write a song about what Mrs. Jones gets up to while Mr. Jones is at his 9-to-5. It is partially inspired by true events that I suspect happen in the summer when Jody is not teaching, and takes the opportunity to instruct our cat Lucy in the finer points of mixology.

Igor Stravinsky is quoted as saying "A good composer does not imitate, he steals." He's obviously being a little falsely modest here, as the amount of pure invention in his works is staggering. But as you can see, I've taken to heart the idea that the first step in the creative process is thievery.

Oddly enough, I've seen a similar quote attributed to Pablo Picasso as well, so clearly at least one of them is a dirty thief.