Diwali Came Early

The Last Hymn

The Most Dangerous Man In The Living Room

When in doubt, you start from the start. It’s been years now, but if memory serves me correctly, this one was my first crack. It helped that it was one of just a few of the songs on Juliet for which Nick offered real lyrics. I took his line, “They told me talking to you would be like chewing barbed wire with a mouth ulcer,” and I ran with it. The line itself feels pretty punk rock, but when I tried to write through it, I gravitated to this Dylan “Like A Rolling Stone” phrasing, and then I just followed through. It didn’t take long. I was in the right head, thinking about how Tucker’s first meeting with Julie, hanging around the LA clubs in the late eighties, wanting to take from all of this, even if it was just back to his hotel room. Already feeling like she was trouble. I couldn’t have gotten a better person to sing this song than Scott McCaughey. I chose him because of Nick’s mention of The Minus 5 participating in the Juliet tribute record in the book, but his voice had just the right balance of urgency, angst and slacker. My teenage son Aidan conquered the guitar parts each in single takes. I am so proud.

Perry Serpa

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