Things move a bit slowly here. We were told the fiber optic internet would be installed in June. My contact in the town council rolled his eyes and said it would take a few more months. Sigh. Last July our band performed in the piazza and our sound engineer friends recorded it for us. In October we managed to hear the unmixed tracks and supposedly we’ll hear something more finished “soon.”
I had an idea to use one of the songs as the new theme music for I Always Wanted To. Michael wrote The Things You Want To Do way back when we performed as Lip Service. We used to point out the fact that it was one of the only songs we did that wasn’t sad or twisted. It talks about dreaming about the things you want to do like visit a tropical island or watching sandpipers on a beach. The original lyrics said “Remember, you can always say it’s time my dreams came true. Then maybe you can get away to do the things you want to do (la la la).
Perfect for the podcast.
We recently revived it with a cool reggae drum beat and driving bass line. I nudged Bruno, the sound engineer, to get me a copy of the instrumental version. He came through and I spent the weekend editing it to get a piece just right for the opening of the show. I wanted the cool drum lick and bass slide at the opening and some of the chorus but also a lyric from verse three. It took some fiddling but I like how it turned out. I also grabbed a section from the end for the outro. The engineers had left in the applause. I like having that captured for posterity.
I’ll start using the new music when the next season begins in January. In the meantime you can hear the version from 30 years ago here.
Bonus Episodes
I just released a Best Of episode from my very popular 3-part series Learn To Sing. I’m working on a Best of Travel, and I’m also dropping a preview of my interview with Lori Mortimer who does a podcast called Mementos that I recommend highly. Check it out this coming Monday, December 13th.
Guest News
Congratulations to Annie Handmer of I Always Wanted To Go Into Outer Space and Know What I Want To Be When I Grow Up whose thesis was approved. She is now a PhD.
Heather Herring of I Always Wanted To Live Abroad completed her bike trip across North Carolina with her father to celebrate his 70th birthday. Listeners will recall that in Brazil she was called “mae de Willow” (mother of Willow) because the locals couldn’t pronounce Heather. Now Willow is about to turn 18!
Smiti Nathan of I Always Wanted To Be An Archaeologist said that she always wanted to take an art survey course to see what she might like to do more of. Kudos Smiti for going after what you want. You can see the results on her Twitter profile, @travellingarch